Installing Windows 7 on the NUC5CPYH or NUC5PPYH (Braswell NUC) – Also valid for Skylake NUC!

by Olli · Published July 27, 2015 · Updated July 7, 2016

The following instruction tells you how to install Windows 7 on a Braswell or Skylake NUC.

Installing Windows 7 on the NUC5CPYH or NUC5PPYH (Braswell NUC) is a bit tricky. The reason is that Windows 7 starts to be rather old already and the basic installation does not support more modern hardware. Specifically it is lacking USB 3.0 support. Unfortunately the NUC does have only USB 3.0 ports, so something must be done (there are internal USB 2.0 ports, but these are rather inconvenient to use) as the only way you could control your NUC is through the USB ports.

EDIT: Intel has now released a Windows 7 USB 3.0 Creator Utility v3 that will modify your Windows 7 installation USB stick automatically. This will help you skip steps 5-22 of the instruction below. Basically it will do the same thing that is described below, so if you want to be in control of what exactly happens you can also follow the below instructions.

Without correct BIOS settings Windows 7 installation will give you blue screen right at the beginning. Without adding the USB 3.0 drivers into the installation image your keyboard and mouse will not work during the Windows 7 installation. Below I’ll explain how to avoid these pitfalls and install Windows 7 on NUC5CPYH / NUC5PPYH.

Intel has already published an instruction on how to do this, but I found it rather confusing. Thus I wrote this article. Credit goes to Travis Payton from Code A Bitwiser blog, where I read about this first. The instruction below has been adapted to work with the NUC5CPYH / NUC5PPYH though.

You will need another computer that is running Windows 7 or 8 in order to prepare the USB stick that you will use for installing Windows 7. The USB stick should have 4 gigabytes or more space and should be formatted and empty when you start. If you don’t have another computer at hand, you could even create this image at work or while visiting a friend.

Preparation

1. Download or have your Windows 7 ISO image at hand. I used the image: en_windows_7_professional_with_sp1_x64_dvd_u_676939

2. Download and install Windows USB/DVD Download Tool.

3. Plug in your USB stick to the other computer – not the NUC. The other computer should be running Windows 7 or 8.

4. Use USB/DVD Download Tool to make a bootable USB using the ISO image you downloaded. The program is really straightforward to use. You should have no trouble with this.

5. Create a new folder for the installation image manipulation. In this instruction we assume it is “wim” in the root of your c: drive (c:\wim).

6. Create two directories inside that directory: mount and usb3.

7. Download USB3 drivers for Intel Braswell NUC.

8. Copy the folders HCSwitch and Win7 that are located inside the zip file you just downloaded (these folders are under folder Drivers) to c:\wim\usb3

9. Now both these folders contain 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the drivers. Because I was installing 64-bit Windows, I deleted the folder x86 under both of these folders (x86 = 32-bit drivers, x64 = 64-bit drivers). Probably not absolutely necessary, but I wanted to only add the drivers I definitely need.

10.Then copy install.wim and boot.wim from the sources folder on your USB stick to the wim folder.

Your wim folder should look like this now. usb3 folder contains your drivers and mount is empty.

Injecting the USB 3.0 Drivers into the Installation Image

11. Open command line as administrator (Click Start menu open on Windows 7 or press Windows key on Windows 8, type in “cmd” and then right click on the cmd application and choose Run as Administrator).

A command line prompt will appear.

12. Change directory to your wim directory. In our case it should be \wim on c: drive.

13. Mount the install.wim image. Note that number after parameter index depends on the Windows 7 version that you are installing! Choose the number according to the list below.

1. Windows 7 Home Basic
2. Windows 7 Home Premium
3. Windows 7 Professional
4. Windows 7 Ultimate

I’m installing Windows 7 Professional, so I’m using index 3. Some Windows 7 versions unfortunately do not follow this numbering! If all else fails, repeat the step below five times using indexes from 1 to 5.

14. Then add the drivers into the mounted image. You should see 3 drivers being added if you completed the above steps correctly.

15. And finally write your changes.

16. Next we modify the boot.wim file as well. Mount the image. Do not change the index here!

17. Add the drivers into the mounted image.

18. Save the changes into the image.

19. We modify the second index in the same boot.wim. Do not change the index here!

20. Add the drivers.

21. And commit the changes.

22. Now copy the install.wim and boot.wim from your wim folder back to the folder sources on your USB stick. Overwrite the existing ones.

23. Eject your USB stick safely.

Windows 7 Installation on the NUC

24. Insert the USB stick into the USB port of your NUC.

25. Boot your NUC and enter BIOS. Make sure that Windows 7 is chosen on the Boot configuration page. Otherwise you’ll get a blue screen during the installation.

Make sure Windows 7 is chosen before installing the OS.

26. Save settings and boot from your USB stick (if your NUC does not boot from USB, you can press F10 at the boot to choose the boot device). Start installation of Windows 7 normally. Remember to remove the USB drive when your system boots for the first time, otherwise the installation might start over again.

27. While installation is going on, it’s good idea to download the driver bundle for Windows 7 from Intel’s download center and place it on a USB stick using another computer. Windows 7 installation media does not contain drivers for the WiFi adapter nor the LAN adapter, so you will not have network connectivity after installation unless you update the drivers. It’s important to install at least WiFi/LAN drivers, graphics drivers and the chipset drivers.

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177 Responses

Thanks for windows 7 64bit details for this unit, have you managed to run windows 7 32bit?
i have only just got the mouse/keyboard operational, but can see video card drivers and other things not working like SD host controller. is there a windows 7 32bit driver, as googling this I can’t find one.

I think there is no 32-bit display drivers for Windows 7. At least I did not see them. Unless you have an OEM license the same Windows license key can be used to install both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows. I’d highly recommend installing the 64-bit version… You can download the 64-bit ISO image and try with your key.

Thanks for the help, this fixes my drivers up until it enters the Set Up Windows and asks you to enter a username. At this point the drivers stop working again… The only thing I can think of is that under step 13 you said the index needs to be changed depending on the version of windows – I’m trying to install enterprise and you haven’t listed a number for that (I used 2).
Any idea?

I’m pretty sure that’s the problem. I’ve got no idea on what’s the correct index number in the case of Win 7 Enterprise edition, but have a look at this page (http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/85813-windows-7-universal-installation-disc-create.html):

“Each and every Win7 edition has an index no. in the install.wim (WIM file), you can check using the following command:

Code:
imagex /info G:\Win7_32\Sources\install.wim”

Of course replace the path with one that corresponds to your case…

Adam, I am in the same boat as you with windows 7 enterprise. I tried all 4 index numbers with no luck. If you ever figure this out, please post a reply.

I’m getting the same issue, but I’m trying to install ultimate. I made sure to use 4 in the index. It has gotten me to the point where it installs and gets me to the username/password screen, but then still disables my ability to use a keyboard and mouse with the usb ports. I’ve tried switching ports, rebooting, etc. and nothing seems to get them back up and running. Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Hi Adam and Olli,

I used “Win7_USB3.0_Creator_v2” and I had same problem (first time keyboard work and “username time” it didn´t). Here was problem probably with the index. I did te procudure again – step by step without Intel utility and now it works.

If the dism command for adding the drivers fails for, unmount the image and run the following command:
dism /cleanup-wim

Hey there – many thanks for the easy to follow steps.

I am trying to install ultimate – I don’t have any dramas modifying the boot.wim (and this subsequently works on install) – however, I cannot get the install.wim to work. It mounts just fine, but then when the drivers are added it comes back with errors:

“Error – an error occurred. The driver package could not be installed.
Error 5
The command completed with errors”

Unlike in your example, it attempts to install 6 packets.
Unfortunately I am no programmer so I am entirely unsure what I ought to do.

Sorry I should have said that I also ran the above cleanup but that didn’t make any difference.

Okay – sorry for all that.
I tried using a few of the different versions of the USB3.0 drivers – and eventually the one that is bundled with the broader group of drivers (not the one the website points you to on its own) ended up working.
(Intel USB 3.0 ER 4.0.0.23 Win7)

Sorry for the trolling – but maybe it will help someone else.

Hi Steve, thanks for letting us know and good to hear that you sorted out that. Maybe this will help someone else as well.

I tried using all the drivers and get error 5
any else I can do?

I actually experienced this same when I tried to go through these steps on my work laptop (Windows 7 Enterprise). When I used my home desktop (Win 8.1 Pro) to create the image, everything works perfectly. Using the exact same files. I was not able to resolve the situation on my laptop, unfortunately.

Steve, thanks, that worked for me. I tried everything else possible and no go, until I got the driver you used.

I would like to add I even tried using the internal USB 2 ports, with the keyboard./mouse, with the install USB key and keyboard / mouse, same as USB 3 ports, work fine until Windows boots. So if anyone is thinking they can bypass the problem using the internal ports, think again.

I explained this below. It has to do with the files being “blocked” by your OS. You have to unblock every driver file so they can be injected. You do this by right clicking each file, selecting properties, and hitting the “Unblock” button. This will fix error 5.

David,
No offense but I didn’t have “error 5”, I didn’t use x86 drivers, and I have Windows 7 x64 installed, I didn’t have to change any file permission, so I don’t know what you are writing about.

I think you are confused.

Actually, David is right on the money. The issue is with Win 7 x64 Enterprise. It has additional safeguards. I was having the same issue and fixed it with this step.

I owe you a drink, my friend!

Thank you for your input. The “unblock” method you described worked perfect for windows 7 professional. This really saved me from pulling my hair out. Thanks a million!

David you are the KING. That solved problem with error 5

Check the properties of the driver in question. My installation failed with error 5 until I went through and changed the driver files from read only and then unblocked all of them. After that it successfully installed them.

Hayden thanks, you solved me the drivers “error occured” problem of step 14. In my case, I had to unblock the files (open their security protection): when standing on the files and right click the mouse I saw the files were well attributed (not read only nor hidden) but needed changing their security by pushing the unblock button.
Thanks everybody for your efforts.
Guy

Excellent write-up and you are correct the instructions from Intel are confusing.

I got my NUC5PPYH yesterday and could not get the USB3 drivers to integrate properly for Win7 installation.

Followed your step by step instructions and the Keyboard and Mouse then worked immediately once the Win7 install started.

Thanks and Great Job.

I have a W7 32 bit OEM disk so downloaded the 64 bit iso from http://getintopc.com/softwares/operating-systems/ and also bootsect.exe from the same site, which needs to be in same folder as the iso. Was able to then create the bootable USB and continue as above…

Is the bootable usb suppose to boot right into installation? Can I not use it to install Windows 7 into a partition?

Yes, the computer will boot from that USB stick to the installer. Inside the installer you can choose if you want to modify the partition table or which partition you want to install Windows to.

In the last stage of installation when it asks to enter the username, the keyboard and mouse stops working, Any Help?

This means that the drivers were successfully added to the boot.wim, but not to the install.wim. Either they’re not in install.wim at all, or the index was not wrong when adding the drivers to the install.wim. In step 13 of the instruction on this page you need to choose the correct index that corresponds to your Windows 7 version. People have reported problems adding the drivers to Windows 7 Enterprise edition and I don’t know how to do it for that version either.

Hello! I did exectly all your instructions(including the same ver.of win7(64bit pro).but in the last stage of installation (username and pass) the keyboard/mouse does not appear 🙁

Hi, has the same problem with you.. Stuck in the last stage of installation when typing in username and computer name.. Any ideas?

Firstly thank you Olli for your post. I have followed all your instructions verbatim but I still cannot get the Intel USB3 drivers to install (error: 5). I tried installing an earlier USB3 driver file and it installed fine (which indicates that the install procedure is correct) but of course the current NUC board does not work with that earlier driver. Does anyone have a link to a driver that does actually install and work. I cannot locate (Intel USB 3.0 ER 4.0.0.23 Win7) that Steve referred to.

It worked for me.

Thanks gringott, Downloaded ok but still wont install

I used the following procedure with the drivers in the bundle:
After unzipping, I went into the Drivers\WIN7 folder, and copied the x64 folder and pasted into the WIM folder inside a folder I labeled USB3.
Then I went to the Drivers\HCSwitch\x64 directory and copied all the files from there, then pasted them into the WIM\USB3\x64 folder with the other files, not a separate folder. This worked for me after many failures. I never had a failure with the WIM process, I actually followed the Intel instructions because they tell you how to do it with a DISM GUI, so there is no possibility of mistyping a command. The GUI only issues the command line, the command line output is shown in the GUI. Worked great. I don’t want to knock the instructions above, but just saying that the Intel instructions were quite clear to me and had screenshots of every step.

Integrating the Drivers into “install.wim” on Windows 7 SP1 did not work for me either. It worked only on Windows 8.
Thanks for providing this guide!

Firstly, before doing anything in this article, make sure that the files can be injected at all. I ran into an “Error 5” issue with the dism command because the drivers weren’t able to be used as they were downloaded from another computer. Windows, in it’s insanity to protect me from myself, had those files blocked from any usage. You have to give each file permission to be used by clicking the properties of each driver file and clicking the “Unblock” button at the bottom of the window.

Next, for those who are still struggling, as was I, to get this to work, I discovered that my particular Windows 7 ISO had the x86 installer code in boot.wim, for both the 1 and 2 indexes. It looked like this:

(verify which version of the installer you have with this command)

C:\>dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:c:\wim\boot.wim

Details for image : c:\wim\boot.wim

Index : 1
Name : Microsoft Windows PE (x86)
Description : Microsoft Windows PE (x86)
Size : 806,725,098 bytes

Index : 2
Name : Microsoft Windows Setup (x86)
Description : Microsoft Windows Setup (x86)
Size : 881,717,214 bytes

Therefore, installing the 64-bit versions of the USB drivers into boot.wim will not work. Basically, follow all of the instructions above, however, create a separate folder for the x86 USB drivers and call it “usbx86″. Copy all of the files from /drivers/Win7/x86 into it, then modify steps 17 and 20 to use this command instead.

C:\wim>dism /image:”mount” /add-driver /driver:”usb3x86″ /recurse

That will inject the 32-bit USB 3.0 drivers into the boot.wim which will then allow you to use the mouse and keyboard.

Great! I spent two days without any result before have read your suggests. When I fix bug # 5 I immediately had install Win7 on NUC6i3SYH. Million thanks, David.

I went different route and put hard drive in a laptop and installed windows 7 rebooted and named pc & gave it a username and password.. The installed nic drivers as it will not let me install the usb3 drivers on the laptop. Turned on remote desktop on nuc then connected with my pc and installed usb 3 drivers and then keyboard and mouse worked so installed other drivers.

Nice work around. Thinking outside the NUC.

I might add that you must build in a laptop or pc that has ACHI enabled for SATA mode or when you move it to the NUC it will blue screen and it will be in a different boot loader mode. If you forget to do this of don’t have a pc with ACHI support you can edit registry so it will boot off ACHI without blue screen.

Always backup registry and only edit if you know what you are doing but since this is on a fresh new pc not much to worry about.

change the Start value to 0 for both of the following entries in your registry. You can use regedit.exe utility.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi
Or you can also simply run the below command lines in an elevated window.
REG ADD HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci /v Start /d 0 /f /t REG_DWORD
REG ADD HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi /v Start /d 0 /f /t REG_DWORD

I kept getting drivers install failed with my windows 7 pro image so gave up and did this route and build 3 nucs so far with no issues.

This is just great. Thanks a lot for your help.

Hello!
I have a USB Win 7 (x64) image + with driver in instal.wim. I have asrock BeeBox n3150 but upon booting it just goes to the language screen (mouse and keyboard do not use).
In bios are mouse and keyboard ok function.
Any ideas?

Have you inserted the driver in both boot.wim and install.wim?

Thanks soo Much! This guide is awesome! I just bought a NUC5PPYH to replace my Sony NZ1. So cool!

Thanks for the information. I was able to use these instructions to load windows 7 on my NUC5ppyh. I then upgraded to windows 10 without any difficulty. I can only use legacy boot mode at this point, as the ssd is not recognized under UEFI. Is there any advantage to using UEFI over legacy boot mode (Faster booting?) Is there any way to get the drive recognized as a UEFI bootable device?

I think the only way is to make a Win10 USB installation stick and wipe the existing installation. Then UEFI boot from the USB stick and reinstall Windows 10 from scratch on to the empty disk. During your upgrade install from Windows 7 your computer has been registered at Microsoft so you don’t need a license key (just press skip when it asks for the license key). Your Windows 10 will activate itself automatically after the installation. Is it worth it? I don’t know. I did it this way just because I wanted a “clean” Windows installation without any leftovers from the previous version.

I followed all the steps here to get things working, but now when I’m at step 25, where it states “Make sure that Windows 7 is chosen on the Boot configuration page”… I can’t see an option to choose Windows 7.

The NUC does boot up into the Windows 7 installation screen, but at that point, I can’t use my USB keyboard, even though the NUC does recognize it at startup, as I’m able to press “F2” to enter the BIOS. How come?

Which NUC do you have? Can you take a screenshot of the BIOS and post somewhere – maybe it’s different in a later BIOS version or something…

If the USB keyboard doesn’t work in the Windows installation, then you haven’t inserted the drivers into the boot.wim file or they’re not the right drivers. Note that when you modify the boot.wim you must not change the index from the instruction. Do that only for the install.wim.

I tried uploading some screenshots… don’t see them posted though.

I have the Intel NUC5i7RYH, and I downloaded the USB 3.0 drivers from here:

instead of the link you provided. The rest of the steps I followed exactly, so I shouldn’t have changed the index for boot.wim, only for install.wim.

I can’t post a screenshot right now, but I can later if you still require one.

I believe the ‘USB_3.0_Win7_3.0.5.69’ driver may be out of date and may be creating all the problems associated with broadwell nucs. I tried the above method with that driver without any success. Maybe you should try with the above mentioned driver (USB_3.0_Win7_64_4.0.0.36) or download the ‘Windows 7* USB 3.0 Creator Utility’ which worked perfectly with my NUC5i3RYH.

Also, I noticed that the page for downloading that utility mentions only NUC5CPYH and NUC5PPYH being compatible but it worked fine with my NUC5i3RYH. Hope this helps.

Ok, I tried the ‘Windows 7* USB 3.0 Creator Utility’, and it worked for me. Thanks!

Intel recently posted a tool that injects the USB 3.0 drivers into a Win7 image. https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25476/Windows-7-USB-3-0-Creator-Utility

Also a poster on the Intel support forum said when he disabled the xhci host controller in bios the keyboard worked in Win7. He then let windows update get the 3.0 drivers. Might be worth a try…

Ah yes, you’re right. Disable XHCI mode in BIOS and it should be just fine for the Windows 7 installation. This applies only to Broadwell NUC (i3, i5 and i7) models, not Braswell.

Thank you for the link to the Windows-7-USB-3-0-Creator-Utility. It worked perfectly with my NUC5i3RYH. I believe the ‘USB_3.0_Win7_3.0.5.69’ driver may be out of date and may be creating all the problems associated with broadwell nucs.

OK. I had not made the Braswell – Broadwell distinction.
I used your setup guide here to install Win7 on my 5ppyh. Thanks!

Thank you so much, I have succeeded install win 7 with this step at my intel nuc5CPYH, this unit doesnt have any usb2.0, all usb port is usb 3.0. Just follow the step like it has written, dont change anything.

Extract win7pro iso into your usb drive,it is explained step 1 to 4.

But for step 5 to 21, do it on your own computer (not intel nuc) just as described on folder c:/wim, you can copy boot.wim and install.wim from your usb drive that already have all source of win 7 installation. This step sequence from step 5 to 21 will blend usb 3 driver into boot.wim and install.wim so you can use it later on usb drive.

After Step 21 is done, the result will be new update of boot.wim and install.win which already has usb 3 driver, copy these files from c:/win to your usb drive and its ready to be used for installation at intel nuc.

Thanks a lot, Olli ! Sucess from a W7 DVD (Home Premium) on NUC5CPYH.

Prefixed with #, you will find the bad things (mainly Intel tools) I had to bypass – in my case.
I used keyboard and mouse with cords (I presume it is necessary)

I used “ImgBurn” to create an ISO from the DVD.
# Then the “Windows usb/dvd download tool” said this was not a valid ISO, until I used “ImgBurn” build function to flag it as ISO9660+Joliet+UDF
# Anyway “Windows usb/dvd download tool” ended with “we were not able to copy your file”.

So I used “Rufus” to make a bootable key from my ISO (UEFI GPT FAT32 4096 quick format label+icon). This works well and you control the parameters !
# I noticed a -may be new – Intel tool : “Windows 7* USB 3.0 Creator Utility” which I thought would do all the job you do with manual dos commands. And in fact when running it you can see information messages like “mount … commit… etc” that your topo shows. But when I boot on the key, there are no USB3 drivers on it : the W7 install stays pending because keyboard is not available.

So I used Rufus again to recreate the key, then your topo, starting with 5), and copy/paste the dos commands.
# During the topo, I encountered “0xc1420117” error at commit. I committed again, then discarded. This worked and I could upgrade my key. My DISM version was 6.1.7600.16385
# But, as my SSD drive was still half-installed with W7, it was impossible to boot from the key, even by specifying the right port. So I boot first on an Ubuntu live key – that I was lucky to have -, and deleted the main Windows directories on the SSD, to destroy the pending install. After that I could boot from the key, and the install went on : Windows offered me to first delete the 3 old partitions on my SSD.

So, for me, it was a big mess during 2 days. I could not have suceeded without your help. People need a lot of patience if you dont do well the first time.

# Another strange thing : I took off the NUC back, and after putting it on again, the NUC would not start. I got nervous ! But I noticed I mounted the back wrongly : the arrow drawn on it was not pointing to the front, as it shoud be. I corrected this, and the NUC started !

working fine untill i get to step 13, i already created the wim folder and everything i need is inside and in place, once i try to give the “C:\wim>dism /mount-wim /wimfile:”install.wim” /index:3 /mountdir:”mount”
command, it gives me an ERROR which goes like this:
__________
error: 0xc1510113

The specified image does not exist in the WIM.
check the WIM first for existing images.

the DISM log file can be found at C:/Windows/Logs/DISM/dism.log
_________

the install.wim file is in the wim folder… what should i do?

Or, just go to intel site download their tool “Win7_USB3.0_Creator_v2” right in the NUC drivers (where you download your updated bios), run it and point to your USB WIN7 install drive and click one button wait a min and be done. 🙂

I received a new Win7 Pro disk (64 bit version 6/11 X17-03424-02) to put on one of these brand new NUC5CPYH’s with the latest BIOS installed. In variation of the above as I don’t have an .iso file I made a USB stick the following way which works. (I tried to make an ISO file from the disk but the MS utility refused to work with it).

I have then tried both the guide above and the newer Intel utility but in each instance the 3 USB drivers fail to get added into the WIM.

Why Intel didn’t break out one of the USB2 ports or allow for XHCI to be disabled on this version is beyond me. In case I can’t get a software method to work I have ordered one of these cables to get access to the tiny USB2.0 connector on the motherboard.

Alright, after my last post I had some lunch and coffee and had a good read of the blog and comments. With my above process I was getting ‘error 5’ when I tried to install the drivers to the .wim image. So to fix this I set the c:\wim\usb3 directory and sub directories to have the read-only attribute cleared.

Then for every single file in c:\wim\usb3\HCSwitch\x64 and c:\wim\usb3\Win7\x64 do a right-click and you’ll see at the bottom of the General tab a Security entry with an Unblock button. Unblock all the files and then you will see the driver install process onto the .wim image will work (finally). This Unblock might be a mystery to you as well as me as until today I had never seen (or noticed) it before.

I am happily installing all the NUC Windows 7 drivers and doing a Windows update using my USB1.1 keyboard and mouse in a USB2.0 hub. The Intel utility failed presumably because of some similar ‘Block’ reason. I did all this using Win7HEx64.

So if the Intel USB Utility method doesn’t work for you:

* Get your Windows 7 DVD and use the Fit-PC link in my post above to manually create a USB stick.
* Follow the main instructions in this blog and be sure to Unblock all the extracted drivers.
* Update your NUC to the latest BIOS.
* Reset the BIOS settings to default.
* For Windows 7 I had no issues disabling UEFI in the BIOS, booting off the USB and installing Windows to an SSD using the old MBR partition table.

Thank you very much for the article. It was very helpfull.