Installing Windows 7 on UEFI based computer

re: Installing Windows 7 on UEFI based computer

DJ — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:32:56 GMT

There IS a BIOS. You don't have a computer without some sort of BIOS. The initial screenshots are of a Dell system's BIOS setup.

re: Installing Windows 7 on UEFI based computer

Joe Blow — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 01:30:25 GMT

Wow, talk about confusing...

The initial screen shots are of *what* exactly?

"Configure the computer for UEFI. Most UEFI based computers will also support legacy BIOS boot. This is configured in the BIOS."

So if there is no BIOS how would I configure that in the BIOS exactly as per the statement above?????

re: Installing Windows 7 on UEFI based computer

Răzvan Corneliu C.R. VILT — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 17:07:16 GMT

I've managed to install Windows 7 in UEFI on a MacBookPro6,2 and have reached the following conclusions:

1) Windows behaves badly when the GraphicsOutputProtocol doesn't support 1024x768 or 800x600. On the Mac it only supports the native resolution of the LCD panel. I would have expected it to show the waving logo in the middle of the screen, without scaling instead of a white screen with junk.

2) Windows does not recognize a VGA card in the installer without a shadowed VGA BIOS and setting the registers listed at (3).

3) Windows does not use a Video card at all without the VGAE register on the PCI bridge leading to the VGA card and Bus Mastering on the VGA card itself. It's ridiculous because you have the NVidia driver loaded, and it doesn't detect any monitors. You can connect with Remote Desktop.

If you somehow do all these things, it will work. My personal opinion is that requiring a VGA Option ROM on a UEFI boot is ridiculous. Requiring the firmware to set the VGA card in Bus Mastering and setting the VGAE and I/O Access registers on the parent bridge is also ridiculous. Windows 7 could detect the active VGA card from the ACPI device tree. See to which Video Card you have the Primary Graphics Output Protocol and use that one while setting the correct registers. It's not Apple's firmware that isn't compliant because it is, it's Windows 7 that still has hooks to old style Video BIOSes, int10h and PCI registers that it can set by itself. The version string of the Apple firmware has nothing to do with booting and Windows (rightfully) doesn't even check it.

If you want to try it by yourself, the EFI shell commands are "mm 0001003e 8 -PCI" and "mm 01000004 7 -PCI" on the MBP6,2 once you load the VGA BIOS ROM. Note: the commands apply only on the MBP6,2, use other easy to determine addresses on other hardware.

Any way in which we can talk with the Microsoft Windows team regarding the Bootloader? I think that there are two ways to fix this: 1) Microsoft does these small fixes to Windows. 2) Someone else (me?) creates an EFI boot loader that does the job and chain loads bootmgfw.efi afterwards.

re: Installing Windows 7 on UEFI based computer

Calvin — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 09:26:23 GMT

Are there any support methods to backup an existing non-UEFI Windows installation and restore as UEFI installation

re: Installing Windows 7 on UEFI based computer

Scott McArthur[MSFT] — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:47:58 GMT

Anon,

What make/model machine are you installing to? Are you using the hologrammed Windows 7 DVD or a burned DVD?

re: Installing Windows 7 on UEFI based computer

anon — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 21:59:11 GMT

this blog basically says "select uefi from the bios, then pop your cd in and hit next until victory" .... but what if that doesn't work? No offense, but most of us tried that the first time and are looking around on blogs to figure out why it didn't work.

Any tips on how to troubleshoot if the disk isn't detected beyond "make sure you are using 64bit edition"?

re: Installing Windows 7 on UEFI based computer

anon — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:11:38 GMT

I followed these instructions to a T but ran into an error of no boot devices found right after I select UEFI DVD as my boot volume ...

I see two possibilities:

1. I'm running Ultimate and not enterprise (probably not)

2. The disk in the system right now is technically TPM protected, I just wanted to see things come up so maybe it's keeping that drive from being written?

re: Installing Windows 7 on UEFI based computer

gary — Tue, 31 May 2011 23:52:44 GMT

don't have any partitions on my drive, other than the c and d drives. i format my drives so i don't have to use them. as far as i know, my asus mb does not offer legacy bios, either, just uefi. bcdedit has no references to any efi path.