A guide to using Windows 7 on UEFI with Radeon graphics (and possibly other graphics too)

[Lost-Entrepreneur439]

The first half of this guide should also work with Intel and NVIDIA graphics, but your GPU driver may not work correctly. This also likely won't work on Radeon cards released after 2017, but you can test.

Computers are weird, what worked for me may not worked for you, I'm on an MSI B360M Bazooka with a Sapphire branded RX 570.

Getting Windows 7 to work on UEFI used to be annoying on modern systems, but recently, someone posted an alternative to UEFISeven on the UEFISeven GitHub, which should allow you to install 7 as UEFI on most systems, however if you attempt to install the latest AMD driver, it'll fail to initialize properly, and your system still won't have a working GPU driver. You can work around this by installing an older version of the driver then upgrading.

I'd recommend using an ISO that uses a Windows 8 or 10 installer as the base, this will allow you to install Windows without modifying your USB. I recommend using K4sum1's updated v4 iso. Do note that this ISO does not have Starter, Home Basic, or Enterprise.

Follow the standard process to install Windows 7, make a GPT formatted installer using Rufus or copy the ISO to a Ventoy USB. I recommend using Ventoy and also copying a Linux Mint ISO to it, as you will also need access to Linux. boot your Windows USB, and follow the standard Windows installation process. After the first reboot, boot into Linux, download this: https://github.com/manatails/uefiseven/issues/37. Mount your EFI partition (you can google this -- it'll be different depending on what distro you're using). Extract the zip file, rename the bootmgfw.flashboot.efi file to just bootmgfw.efi, go into your EFI partition, delete the original bootmgfw and copy your new one there. Reboot back into Windows, and continue installing it as normal. If you're using K4sum1's ISO, it may sit on the "finalizing your settings" screen for a while, this is because it's on that screen Windows is installing .NET Framework updates.

Grab version 18.1.1 of AMD's drivers. Install them as normal, reboot your computer, you should now have your graphics working. You can now grab the latest or preferred version of AMD's graphics drivers for Windows 7, and they should work fine. If your GPU code 43's after installing the latest drivers, go back to 18.1.1, then install 20.3.1 instead.

You should now have a Windows 7 UEFI installation with working graphics.

[Lost-Entrepreneur439]

Additional notes:
Some motherboard manufacturers have ACPI which isn't compatible with Windows 7, causing Windows to BSOD on boot with the error code 0x000000A5. This only applies to modern boards (2018 and later). You can ignore this if you have an older motherboard.

Motherboard brands that DO work with Windows 7: Asus, MSI, Dell
Motherboard brands that DO NOT work with Windows 7: ASRock, Gigabyte.
If you have a motherboard brand that is not on this list (this includes OEM brands like HP or Lenovo), test and let me know the results.

[luk3Z]

Thin Client HP t430 doesn;t work for sure due to eMMC SanDisk DF4032 "drive". GFX: Intel UHD Graphics 600. W7 is loading in safe mode but is hanging on hdd drivers. I did try UEFISeven, ISO by K4sum1 and few other "tricks". Culprit is missing eMMC driver (generic one and other just didn;t work).

Code: Select all

Mobo: HP 83C3
Version: A01
Chipset Intel ID31F0 Rev. 03
Southbridge: ID31E8 Rev. 03
BIOS: AMI N41 v01.06 (3/14/2019)