Compatibility findings

[Emayeah]

I tested installing Windows 7 with csmwrap 1.3.0 on my Acer Nitro an515-55-55dw, which is about 4 years old

it has an Intel core i5 10300h, so we're very well into uefi class 3-ville

the laptop has an rtx 3060, and has an uhd 630 igpu. i have not tested the rtx, I'll update you whenever I find a way to make it work. one thing to add is that this is an Optimus laptop, the internal screen is wired to the igpu and there is no way to make the uefi output to the rtx gpu, also to use the rtx gpu you have to use an external monitor. this laptop lacks the functionality that lets you choose whether you want to use Optimus or just Nvidia

uefi is fully updated v2.06 (it's a 2021 version), it's class 3 uefi with lack of CSM support

secure boot is disabled (I use my PC with secure boot disabled, enabling it messes up the Linux Nvidia drivers which are duct taped with hopes and dreams to Fedora), rebar is unsupported, csm is also unsupported (there's a grayed out option, maybe using grub I can edit the uefi value and enable csm)

I used a Windows 7 image that is semi-fully updated without esu and without some w7 updates (lacks some updates, maybe actually fully updating with esu updates will help), image built with Arak snajpera's tool

works surprisingly well, with just a some tiny issues. some which are due to windows 7 itself due to lack of ahci drivers and I had to use while I winpe 10 instead but the os is installed correctly, boots as it should and in general it works

USB 3 drives are detected normally in the bios, xhci (there are no ehci settings or stuff, only xhci allowed). I did not have to tweak stuff or invent workarounds or anything to install w7 (except winpe 10), it actually just worked out of the box. heck I deployed it and it worked, and I didn't even read the full wiki

the actual semi important issue is that vga bios only supports very few colors, as shown by the windows Vista boot animation instead of the 7 one (the Vista one is kept for compatibility reasons for when vga bios only supports a few colors)
with the UHD igpu if I'm using winpe 10 the video output is grayscale, with winpe 7 it's 16 colors, without csmwrap winpe 10 is full res 32 bit color, idk about 7's resolution but I feel like 16 bit or 32 bit color. testing rtx with winpe is going to be very troublesome

[Emayeah]

https://youtu.be/dq4Y_S_16AA the proof is on yt since GitHub wouldn't let me upload it here (that windows boot manager in the uefi selection screen is due to a leftover from an old install, it doesn't do anything)

[Emayeah]

rtx updates: it's very annoying not having network support directly in windows 7, and usb 3 drivers do not work. driver signing is very annoying... I do know how to fix the signing issues but I feel like I'll have to get usb 3 drivers working to make it easier for me. instead, I'll use windows 10 with csmwrap to test rtx, because if it works on 10 then it's a 7 problem, which is probably unrelated to csmwrap. installing 10 is probably going to be much easier, you can probably expect a followup in the next few hours or so
the low color display adapter thing is still very well an "issue", it's not a complete roadblock but it's still an issue, just a lower priority one.

update: drivers, including Nvidia work (windows 10), but the boot animation part is still there. overall it works. thanks for this project tho, very cool.