Drivers for Windows 10 on Librem 13 v2

Software
21

Personally I need to run Windows 10 for my professional work, but want to run Linux privately. I believe a lot of people are in the same boat, wanting privacy etc for their personal selves, but out of necessity allowing less of it for their professional selves.

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Why isn’t Purism hardware a good use case for anyone who must run Windows? Intel’s ME is still disabled or reduced in functionality, right? Hardware kill-switches are still functional, right? Seems like a no brainer for someone who must use Windows for work-related reasons.

I wouldn’t expect Purism to support Windows in any form, but it seems obvious to me why some people might want to run Windows on a Purism Librem instead of a Lenovo.

2 Likes
23

SeaBIOS works through Windows 7, according to its wiki page, so as long as you know you’ll never need to update the OS version to one that requires UEFI, you should be fine.

I’ve had mine for almost a month now, and I almost like it more every day. My last computers were all in the MacBook family, and I thought I was going to be downgrading for a good cause. :slight_smile: I would honestly say, if their hinge holds up over time, they’ve made a better computer than Apple. One that I like better, anyway.

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Seems to be iterated here already but less we all forget, freedom means I can do whatever I want with my Librem, including running windows all over its beautiful self. Long live Purism.

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25

Have a look here: Advice on battery use

Additionally just 2 cents: Running 7 Windows Computers + 1 Librem with PureOS i’ve got to admit, if i wouldn’t have been finally fed up with using Windows, the Librem i’m currently typing at would be a perfect hardware platform for continued usage of Windows or whatever system. Why? Beside all the other Pros just because of the hardware killswitches together with the nice slim, sleek finish.

Happy with PureOS now. But if i wouldn’t have been totally fed up, i’d have tried installing Windows. Beside that Purism is a small company and it’s good that they try to keep focused on their path.

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26

Great point. To expound a little on my position let me just add this:
The Librem as a laptop even if you don’t want to use Linux makes a ton of sense. What other laptop these days has all that the Librem has and is user serviceable? What other slim laptop do you know of with a user replaceable battery?

Used to be Thinkpads but they’ve been gouged and are a shell of what they use to be.

Love live Purism!

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27
  1. Slim design, nice optics
  2. well working keyboard - with backlight!
  3. hardware-killswitches
  4. easy user-servicable
  5. big touchpad
  6. especially focused hardware, firmware, …

My hardware-wise weapon of choice right now - no matter which OS it’s housing… :wink:

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28

I was trying to get Windows 10 working on my Librem 15v3. I just managed to get the Elan touchpad to work.

Here is a summary of what I did in case you are interested:

  1. download drivers from Softpedia: https://drivers.softpedia.com/get/Other-DRIVERS-TOOLS/Others/ELAN-Input-Device-for-WDF-Driver-161132-for-Windows-10-64-bit.shtml
  2. extracted and then ran the setup.exe, this didn’t seem to give the right behavior…
  3. went into the device manager, selected the ps2 compatible mouse
  4. right click -> update driver
  5. browse computer > let me pick > ps/2 > have disk > browse > navigate to driver extract directory > ETDSMBus.inf
  6. from here I installed, accepted the warnings, then it prompted for a reboot. Once I rebooted, my touchpad now has two finger right click, and scroll gestures, I’m not sure what else. Also, if I go into the mouse settings, I now see the Elan tab settings.
3 Likes
29

Awesome, thank you!
I hope others will follow and keep posting their advice. It’s nice to see someone actually being constructive and helpful, instead of just typing away their philosophy.

1 Like
30

I have recently tried Windows 10 on my Librem 13. Almost every driver is found automatically, with notes:

  • graphics drivers are provided by Windows, you can install drivers provided by Intel to get more features
  • there are few “unknown” devices in Device Manager, right-click it -> Update Driver -> Search automatically… to install them
  • the only driver that needs to be installed manually is the touchpad driver, @RaYel provided solution
  • after all this there will still be two unknown devices in device manager, they are some Intel drivers I haven’t managed to identify
  • on my L13 monitor brightness change does not work
2 Likes