2017-08-05 22:16:27

I wanted to install a copy of Win 7 pro 64bit. I burned a DVD of the mega.iso in Brian Smart's Talking PE, and managed to boot from it by guessing that the CD drive would be second in the boot list. It said in the readme that it can install any copy of Windows by clicking install windows 7 from the desktop. After booting from the DVD, this I did, but nothing happened. I think a dialog temporarily opened but closed again. I tried putting my win 7 DVD in the drive and clicked install windows 7.bat again, but still nothing.
Has anyone been through this process, or know of any other way I can install win 7 64bit without sighted assistance?

2017-08-06 00:43:52

try this, boot in to the PE,  go into the PE cd drive folder. in my computer, go into installers  windows7 and run setup. It should work.

2017-08-06 02:55:51

Thanks. It worked as far as getting the windows install to run, but unfortunately after it restarted, I just have silence. I was hoping for windows startup music at some point to let me know I was on the desktop and could run my screen reader from an external HD, but no sound at all. Last time I installed win 7 with sighted assistance, it installed most of the drivers automatically, so I had audio without having to do anything. That doesn't appear to be the case here. I have no idea if the install has failed in some way, or if just the drivers haven't installed. And like an idiot, I did this at 1 in the morning, so I'll have to wait til tomorrow to get someone to see what's happening on screen.
So sadly, it's been a failed exercise.

2017-08-06 03:51:07

If you have a USB audio device, now is the time to deploy it. Connect it and try to launch Narrator.

Just myself, as usual.

2017-08-06 07:13:37

I've installed Windows 7 without sighted assistance, but that was a reinstallation rather than a completely new fresh installation by wiping the entire harddrive.
Anyway, whether you manage to install it or not, installing Windows 7 is an excellent idea!

2017-08-06 15:56:54

what happened was after it installed and restarted it went to the standard out of the box set up screen where it asks for username, time, etc. But the screen reader was no longer functioning at that point, so how do you get past those screens?

2017-08-06 16:35:56

Press windows+u and you should get narrator. If you don't, then deploy your plug-n-play usb soundcard if you have one.

2017-08-06 17:28:25

Oh, I din't know narrator would work on those screens. Think I tried it one time. It didnt work, though it may well have been because the on-board sound wasn't working. I'll try installing windows on my old laptop, and see if my little p and p usb device does the trick. Thanks for the help guys. I've learned a lot of useful things on this forum.

2017-08-07 00:33:37

I wish I could install windows 7 on my vaio 13. I loved that OS!

2017-08-08 00:30:43

I successfully installed windows on my laptop without sighted assistance, hooray. Great to know narrator can be used during set up, even if it's almost unbearable to use smile.
The only downside has been that my laptop is considerably slower to boot now it has 64bit. It used to take about 30 secs, now it's over a minute. And it seems really slow when installing programs. Think I'll be restoring it to the old system from a backup, but the main objective was to see if I could do a clean install. My desktop was a little slower to boot after installing 64bit too, but it still is under 25 secs so that's okay. Don't know why 64 is slowing things down. I'd hate to see what this laptop would boot like with a good anti-virus running. It'd probably take about 2 minutes to start.

2017-08-08 09:52:40

Oddly enough, Windows 7 starts up slowly on new computers. I have an HP notebook 15, with very good specs, and it sometimes takes 1 minute and 20 seconds to start. On the other hand, I have another old laptop which has less than 1 the third of my current laptop's specifications, and it starts in 40 seconds.

2017-08-08 14:03:22 (edited by flackers 2017-08-08 19:38:55)

Discovered a few things I didn't know about speeding up boot time. Seems the desktop theme and background have quite an effect. I read a forum post that mentioned how a bug caused windows 7 to stay on the welcome screen for 30 secs if the background was set to solid colours. One of the workarounds was to add a registry entry called DelayedDesktopSwitchTimeout and set it to 5. This helped a little, but the most dramatic change happened when I set my theme to windows 7 basic. It shaved around 15 to 20 seconds off the boot time, and jaws starts quicker too. I'll be keeping 64bit a little longer to see how it goes. The laptop still seems a little sluggish, but that's something that's not as easy to pin down as boot time.

2017-08-11 17:49:45

Flackers, thank you so much for your tips, I have improved the startup speed of my computer by nearly 30 seconds.

2017-08-11 18:48:23 (edited by flackers 2017-08-11 18:49:36)

No problem. It's very surprising what a difference themes make to start up on some computers.

2017-08-11 19:14:37

Yes, and more surprising is the fact that despite being computers with very good specs, yet they fail to start as fast as those which cannot be compared to them in terms of specifications, speed and reliability. Believe me, I have a five year old laptop which is not used daily as I have a new computer now; it has only 2 GB of RAM, 1.4 AMD processor an 320 GB of harddrive, and it turns up in 45 seconds, while my new computer with 8 GB RAM, 2.2 GHZ intel Core I5 processor, and 1 TB harddisk turns up in 1 minute and 5 seconds. I guess it is due to the incompatibility of this new computer with Windows 7.

2017-08-11 19:34:51

It's strange. It's obviously not a spec thing. I thought I'd impress my dad by getting his laptop to boot loads quicker, but changing the theme made no difference on his computer heheh.

2017-08-11 20:08:58

Yeah, this is where I'd normally suggest you seriously consider Windows 8.1. In spite of many other changes, smaller run-time size and much faster startup/shutdown are genuine merits. You can tweak it to hell after.

Just myself, as usual.

2017-08-11 20:28:13 (edited by flackers 2017-08-11 20:29:46)

I'd also say that an SSD is a must for dramatically improving speed if you don't already have one. My desktop running win 7 boots in 15 to 20 seconds with an SSD in it. They're so affordable now, and it's so easy to clone your drive and swap them over that there's no reason I can see to have an HDD. Maybe HDD's are more durable, but I haven't had any problems since making the switch a couple of years ago.

2017-08-11 22:08:25

@Sebbie, I may consider Windows 8.1 next year as my computer is now all set and I'm lazy to start again from scratch. Nevertheless, it's important not to consider Windows 10. smile

2017-08-12 02:27:46

I downgraded to 8.1 it is way better then 10! no annoying  notifications  telling me to install something or telling me to rate the OS. it is way faster. And it does not come with as much  bloat.  It even activated  it self.

2017-08-12 08:28:44

Click setup.exe. It will open installation window.

2017-08-14 05:14:43

Hello! Running wind and success on the road!

2017-08-14 05:15:48

Hello! Running wind and success on the road!