Downgrade a new HP laptop from windows 10 to Windows 8 - Possible?

I have just found the realtek driver for the rtl8188ee for the windows 8 group as well!

So, I now have bookmarked the links on our other HP laptop for the intel Pentium and the realtek drivers.
I have the windows 8 OS disc and key.

There is something called DTS sound on the laptop which I am guessing is like the BING audio controls on our HP envy.
Is this software that is needed?

On our Envy, we hardly ever open the Bing control and use it to adjust the sound.. maybe a handful of times in the 2 years that we've had it.

If it isn't an essential thing to have, would I need to worry about it?

There is software for the cyberlink dvd, webcam and such but I believe I would be able to redownload that either from the laptop's HP page or from cyberlink site? The license codes are printed on the Belarc report.

If memory serves right, we had an issue with the Envy one time after windows updates and I redownloaded that set from cyberlink site, not HP and we haven't had any issues since. It has also updated from the HP site since then, so I would guess that it wasn't an issue or we would have known about. That was about a year ago.

Am I missing anything else in consideration of drivers?

I am going down through the Belarc now:

Adobe shockwave, if needed, will probably prompt us to download whatever version, correct?

Following that, amazon, kindle and apple apps are listed. Again, this, if needed or wanted can be obtained later?
Following the list down: I have a list of apps from the windows store for my Microsoft account - no big deal here.

Dropbox is next.

Since we back up to externals, probably not an issue?

A bunch of HP stuff is listed next...support assistant, recovery, network check.

Now, if I do the downgrade to Windows 8.1, I could probably load HP assistant but I am wondering since the laptop is set up with Windows 10, will the HP assistant even be able to give us updates?

I would think that a manual check for drivers for the hardware and software would be the way to go?

There are a bunch of Microsoft things listed next but with the install of 8, all of that would load and then update as needed with windows updates?

There are some Intel items listed next, these would come from the intel driver/site correct?

Then there are more Microsoft items listed...some are windows store apps and then there is the get office, groove music and cortana and edge.

These either aren't needed for Win 8 or will install as required for 8, I think.

Skype is on there but if it isn't with the Windows 8 and if I want to install on new laptop, I can download myself. Not even sure if I want or will use it on the new laptop. Rarely use, except at Christmas time, lol.

The rest of the stuff listed downward on Belarc are more windows store apps, a bunch of windows 10 things like phone companion and onedrive and my security software, twitter and wild tangent games.

Sorry to make such a long post here but I know if I am going to do the Windows 8 downgrade, it would be best not to overlook anything, right?

Again, thanks to all of you who have responded. You all are awesome!

Yes, I have already created the Win 8 usb when I purchased the OS.

cereberus said:

If you want to install windows 8 - just create a usb installation stick using this official ms link.

Windows 8

You will not need to worry about drivers unless really unlucky,

Thanks everyone!

The last remaining question that I Have is, if we decide to do the 8 downgrade, once the screen comes up to install and there are the 2 options,

should I choose the custom/advance one?

If I do understand correctly, this option wipes our all of the windows 10 and recovery portions?

Since there are several partitions listed and I think 2 of them were reserved, what exactly do I need to do here?

Do I delete partitions so that there is only 1 left and then install windows 8?

I am not certain but do you not want only 1 partition to begin with and then, once it installs, will it create a recovery partition for Windows 8 and then leave a 2nd partition for the remainder of the hard drive to be used by everything else?

This is the only part of the process that is unclear to me.

I understand getting the correct drivers and having a nice, unbloated crap ware 8 install.
Anything else?

Oh and to answer sn00ker,

I guess the reasons why we want to dump Windows 10:
hate Cortana
hate edge

took awhile to discover ie 11 was actually in there but had several instances where we would clink on a link for things and edge automatically opened instead of 11. Never could understand fully how to tell it we didn't want to use Edge, ever.

hate the fact that there is no control over windows updates or very little as far as putting it off until later.

in fact, we had severe storms with lightning moving into our area one night and I found out that instead of being able to just shut down the computer, it only had a restart and install option available. Apparently it had windows updates ready to install.
Suppose I could have tried pulling the battery, telling it to restart and than in the few quick moments of powered off, pulling out the AC cord might have worked.

The anniversary update totally screwed things up.

Our printer would not work (Brand new printer, only have had since May), updates for it wouldn't complete after that anniversary update, we kept losing wireless internet capability and had to go completely cable for that and our security software suddenly became unworkable. Tried to turn defender on at that point and it wouldn't stay turned on either.

kept getting these little fly in message screens from the lower right hand side of the screen but they flew in and out so fast, couldn't even begin to fathom what they were for. Assume they might have been related to action center??

Customizing the darn thing! Appearance, text size, icon size.

Had loaded a few software discs and then, a day later, the icons on the desktop had changed to this little whitelike papersheet instead of the picture that was there when I initially loaded.

Could never figure out how to get the pic back for those 3 program icons.


Chose a purple background for the desktop screen on the new laptop and next thing I knew, our other HP envy suddenly had a purple background screen. Then I discovered 10 has this feature about installing updates for PCs connected to your network and we were like, what?

Just because they are on the network doesn't mean I want them both to look alike and I certainly do not want 10 mucking up our Envy laptop.

We have it set up exactly the way we want it to stay.

Then found out that the next 3 days, that option had changed from off, nope to a yes, on state. I hadn't changed the setting either. Don't know why but it kept turning itself on.

In fact, the settings for several things that I had turned off, kept turning on when I had them to off.

Edge and explorer, neither one would let us sign on to our bank.

facebook took forever to load on both edge and explorer.

keyboard went wonky after the anniversary update as well.

And hubby had his own list of dislikes.

Me, I prefer Windows 7 and then 8.1. Hubby prefers 8.1 and then 7, if given preference.
While I enjoy using some of the apps from the Windows store, some picture editing things and the Microsoft solitaire suite, I really prefer the setup of Windows 7 when I am using computer.
Hubby prefers 8.1 over 7.
We both hate the new outlook update that recently hit for our email but oh well, that is what it is.

So, overall, I want to actually use the computer as a tool. I don't want to have to spend every minute that I actually have it on looking over settings and trying to figure out how to use it and checking to see what went wonky. I would like to know my wireless is going to work, a laptop is supposed to be portable and not deskbound/cable bound.

Neither of us wants to say, hey, I want the Envy, you use this Windows 10 crap system. Or get up and go use the old Windows 7 desktop.

So, that last part was my windows 10 rant, please forgive me for not liking it.

Thanks everyone, you all have been a tremendous help this morning. I am so honored to learn from each of you.

BuffyKItty said:

Do I delete partitions so that there is only 1 left and then install windows 8?

On the Where do you want to install Windows? screen, you can delete all the partitions until you only see Drive 0 Unallocated Space (see screenshot below). Then click on the "Next" button. The installation of Windows will begin. All the required partitions are created automatically during the install.