B550_Win7_Guide

Guide for installing Windows 7 on a B550 chipset motherboard.

Hiya! Recently I was able to install Windows 7 on my main computer, and although it took a lot of work to get it set up, I'm very proud of how it turned out! I'll go over what I did exactly, so hopefully this helps someone else out in the future!

NOTICE

• While 32-bit versions might be possible, it's better just to go for the 64-bit version of Windows 7 anyways. Also, you might need to substitute some steps in this guide if your hardware doesn't exactly match mine, so just be careful!
• Also, this guide mainly focuses on UEFI+CSM and BIOS/MBR. Sadly, I am not able to provide support for pure UEFI mode.
• But, most importantly: THIS GUIDE IS VERY UNFINISHED AND I AM UNABLE TO REMEMBER A COUPLE OF DETAILS ON HOW I INSTALLED WINDOWS, SO IF I MAKE ANY MISTAKES PLEASE LET ME KNOW. SOME STEPS MAY BE INCORRECT

Requirements (Hardware)

• At least an 8GB USB Drive
• Windows 7 ISO (or at least just the install.wim part)
• Windows 10/11 ISO / Windows PE USB (for booting into + DISM tools)
• B550/AM4 Chipset Motherboard
• At most a 5000-series Ryzen CPU (I haven't tested others)
• CSM if you're using UEFI (Try this if you're on pure UEFI)
• PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard (if you're unable to slipstream USB3 drivers like me)

Requirements (Software)

• Modded USB 3.2 drivers (by canonking, password is xiaofengmod)
• KB2990941 and KB3087873 (if you're using NVMe)
• KB3033929 and KB4474419
• GPU Drivers (if your GPU has Windows 7 drivers available for it)
• X470 Chipset Drivers (x64 only, WILL work with B550M)
• Visual C++ Redistributable 2015

I personally recommend using UEFI mode with CSM if you're dual booting, it makes it a lot easier to switch between the two OSes. If not though, BIOS/MBR will be more compatible and will require less work.

Here's my PC's specs, if you wish to base anything off of it:

• Ryzen 5600 CPU
• AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (has official Win7 drivers, whole reason why I got it lmao)
• Gigabyte B550M DS3H AC Motherboard (has a PS/2 port)
• 1TB TEAMGROUP NVMe SSD
• 16GB of DDR4 RAM

1. Preparation

Alright, let's begin. First, you should ensure you have enough space for Windows 7 to be installed to.
You can use either Linux, Windows, or the Windows installation USB to create an NTFS partition to install Windows 7 to.
If you're using UEFI, make sure the drive is GPT and you have an EFI System Partition too (you can use an existing one if you already have one!) Otherwise, if you're using Legacy Boot, ensure it's MBR, and be sure to create a spare 100MB NTFS partition. Windows only prefers MBR on Legacy and GPT on UEFI (as far as I know).

Here's how the drive should look for each boot mode:

• UEFI

SIZE   | TYPE    | FS    | NAME                 |
-------+---------+-------+----------------------+
100M   | ESP     | FAT32 | EFI System Partition |
xxGB   | PRIMARY | NTFS  | Windows Partition    |

• BIOS

SIZE   | TYPE    | FS    | NAME                 | ACTIVE |
-------+---------+-------+----------------------+--------|
100M   | PRIMARY | NTFS  | Microsoft Reserved   | *      |
xxGB   | PRIMARY | NTFS  | Windows Partition    |        |

Now, you'll need to flash the Windows 10/11 .iso image to the USB drive. I recommend using Rufus, and you can set the USB to be either BIOS or UEFI (UEFI is required for systems without CSM). If your PC has no operating system, you'll need another PC to flash it to the USB.

After that's done, if you have the space, put the Windows 7 install.wim file on the USB as well, and if not, you can just replace the already existing install.wim with the Windows 7 one, since we're not installing Windows 10.
If not, you can always just use a second USB to pull the install.wim file from in the setup.

You will also need to place the four KBxxxxxxx update files on the USB as well, as we'll need them in the Windows PE environment.

Afterwards, reboot your computer, and boot into the USB. It should load up Windows 10/11's installer. ^(NOTE: We're using Windows 10/11's installer for it's updated DISM tool, and also because it's more likely that it'll have USB drivers for your system to actually interact with the command prompt lol)

2. Installation

Once you're in Windows PE, press Shift+F10 to open the command prompt. Start up diskpart, then use list vol to see all the volumes on your drive. Make sure the NTFS partition is mounted and has a drive letter. If it doesn't, select it using sel vol X (X being the volume number), then assign letter=L (L being the desired drive letter). Once you're done with diskpart, enter the command exit to close out of diskpart.

You'll want to navigate to the Windows 7 install.wim file, or at least know where the path is to it. The installation USB has two drive letters, X: for the Windows PE environment, and somewhere around D: for the actual USB. Check each drive letter starting from C:, then type dir to find out which one has the installation USB's file tree.

Once you find Windows 7's install.wim file, you'll want to know which version of Windows 7 to install (if it has multiple versions on the same ISO). Type in this command:
dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:D:\path\to\install.wim
It will show each version of Windows as a respective index. Keep note of which index you want to use.

And finally, we can flash Windows to the partition. Run this command:
dism /apply-image /imagefile:D:\path\to\install.wim /index:1 /applydir:C:\

Replace C:\ with the desired drive letter to install Windows to, and replace /index:1 with the index you wish to use.

Wait for that to finish up. Once it does, you'll need to perform different steps depending on which boot mode you're using.

2.1. UEFI (GPT) Finalization

For UEFI, the setup is a little more complicated, but this is what I used. First, you'll need to mount the EFI partition. Go into diskpart, do list vol, select the EFI System Partition, do assign letter=U (or whichever letter you prefer), then exit. Now, run these commands:

• bcdboot C:\Windows /s U: /f BIOS
• bcdboot C:\Windows /s U: /f UEFI

I recommend doing BIOS first then UEFI, just in case. It seemed to have fixed my installation for me when I did it. OPTIONAL, MIGHT FIX BROKEN BOOT MANAGER: I heard about this from some forums I was digging through, I can't remember where exactly though. But I heard that replacing the bootmgfw.efi file with Windows 10's can provide better luck in actually booting Windows. This is what I had to do personally, but this step might not be necessary for everyone.

2.2. BIOS (MBR) Finalization

For BIOS, Windows 7 supports it way better than UEFI. But first, you'll need to mount the 100MB "Microsoft Reserved" partition we created. Go into diskpart, do list disk, select your hard disk, run list part, then select whichever one matches your 'Microsoft Reserved Partition'. Make sure it's active before continuing. If it isn't, run active while the partition is selected. After that, exit out of diskpart, then run these commands:

• bootsect /nt60 SYS /mbr
• bcdboot C:\Windows /s S: /f BIOS this is optional but I recommend:
• bootrec /fixmbr
• bootrec /fixboot (might say Access is denied, but it's okay to at least run the command from experience)

2.3. Final Touches

Now that our drives are set up properly