Windows 8.1 on Surface Pro 4?

[Afy]

Thank you very much - very useful summary. An extra 1.5 hours battery life, wow. And I'm being asked why I don't want Windows 10 - it's terrible

Food for thought until i7 SP4 eventually is available in EMEA.

Only 10 more days to go. Personally I prefer 8.1 over 10 as well.
I find it surprising that the battery life is longer on 8.1, I would have thought power management would be much better on 10. Ah well the mysteries of Microsoft..

 

[guoyifu2007]

I am using my sP4 in a dualboot with Win8.1/Win10.

I backed up my Surface Pro drive using Storagecraft Shadowprotect then restored it to my Surface Pro 4. Win8.1 is working and I get ane xtra 1-1.5hr battery life.

It booted up with a standard VGA driver, and 5-6 drivers with an exclamation mark. I fixed those by downloading the full SP4 Win10 driver ZIP file from Microsoft's support site, clicking on each with a (!) and manually selecting the path I unzipped the ZIP file to.

Could you please tell me which driver pack did you use on Win8.1? I installed Win8.1 on my pro4, but buttons and digitizer dosen't work, even though I installed the drivers for Win10. Thanks!

 

[KaramjaRum]

Yeah, I'd love to know this too. I have dualbooted with Windows 8.1 on my Surface, and can get the WiFi working and the pen to pair, however the touchscreen still won't work, nor will the pen actually draw. Thanks

 

[ptrkhh]

Could you please tell me which driver pack did you use on Win8.1? I installed Win8.1 on my pro4, but buttons and digitizer dosen't work, even though I installed the drivers for Win10. Thanks!

Yeah, I'd love to know this too. I have dualbooted with Windows 8.1 on my Surface, and can get the WiFi working and the pen to pair, however the touchscreen still won't work, nor will the pen actually draw. Thanks

First you need to have Windows 8.1 fully updated or some installation will fail. Go to Windows Update and go download all the available updates now.

Now here's the tricky part. We need to install Windows 10 Surface Pro 4 drivers from here Download Surface Pro 4 Drivers and Firmware from Official Microsoft Download Center.

The problem is Windows 10 drivers have newer signatures that Windows 8.1 cannot recognize, and unfortunately Windows needs signed drivers to be installed. So we first need to turn off Windows' requirement for signed drivers.

Follow this guide Advanced "Startup Settings" - Boot to in Windows 8 to "Disable driver signature enforcement". F7 is your magic key. You need an external keyboard or the Type Cover to do that.

Now you can install all SP4 drivers under Windows 8.1.

 

[guoyifu2007]

First you need to have Windows 8.1 fully updated or some installation will fail. Go to Windows Update and go download all the available updates now.

Now here's the tricky part. We need to install Windows 10 Surface Pro 4 drivers from here Download Surface Pro 4 Drivers and Firmware from Official Microsoft Download Center.

The problem is Windows 10 drivers have newer signatures that Windows 8.1 cannot recognize, and unfortunately Windows needs signed drivers to be installed. So we first need to turn off Windows' requirement for signed drivers.

Follow this guide Advanced "Startup Settings" - Boot to in Windows 8 to "Disable driver signature enforcement". F7 is your magic key. You need an external keyboard or the Type Cover to do that.

Now you can install all SP4 drivers under Windows 8.1.

I have done all you said already. But the driver 'Surface Button' cannot work on win8.1, neither drivers of surface3,pro3 and surface book. How did you solve this?

 

[ptrkhh]

I have done all you said already. But the driver 'Surface Button' cannot work on win8.1, neither drivers of surface3,pro3 and surface book. How did you solve this?

I haven't solved it. But I found a workaround:

1. Download the TouchMe Gesture Studio app, and set 4/5-finger rotation for volume control.
2. To wake the device, double-click the pen.
3. To put the device to sleep, set the lid-close action to sleep, so you'd put the device to sleep when you close the Type Cover
4. Long-pressing the power button still puts the device to sleep, or wake it up when it is in standby.

 

[ptrkhh]

I have done all you said already. But the driver 'Surface Button' cannot work on win8.1, neither drivers of surface3,pro3 and surface book. How did you solve this?

Okay, I got it working. Partially.

I installed Intel Virtual Buttons driver (Download Acer Aspire R7-371T Intel Virtual Button Driver 1.0.0.17 for Windows 8.1 64 bit), and surprise, the buttons work

However, it works the wrong way:
The Power button becomes Volume Down
The Volume Up button becomes Sleep
The Volume Down button becomes Start