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

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.

Create folders under wim

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

2_copy_files

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.

3_wim_ready

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.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>cd \wim

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.

C:\wim>dism /mount-wim /wimfile:"install.wim" /index:3 /mountdir:"mount"

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.3.9600.17031

Mounting image
[==========================100.0%==========================]
The operation completed successfully.

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

C:\wim>dism /image:"mount" /add-driver /driver:"usb3" /recurse

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.3.9600.17031

Image Version: 6.1.7600.16385

Searching for driver packages to install...
Found 3 driver package(s) to install.
Installing 1 of 3 - C:\wim\usb3\x64\iusb3hcs.inf: The driver package was successfully installed.
Installing 2 of 3 - C:\wim\usb3\x64\iusb3hub.inf: The driver package was successfully installed.
Installing 3 of 3 - C:\wim\usb3\x64\iusb3xhc.inf: The driver package was successfully installed.
The operation completed successfully.

15. And finally write your changes.

C:\wim>dism /unmount-wim /mountdir:"mount" /commit

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.3.9600.17031

Image File : C:\wim\install.wim
Image Index : 3
Saving image
[==========================100.0%==========================]
Unmounting image
[==========================100.0%==========================]
The operation completed successfully.

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

C:\wim>dism /mount-wim /wimfile:"boot.wim" /index:1 /mountdir:"mount"

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.3.9600.17031

Mounting image
[==========================100.0%==========================]
The operation completed successfully.

17. Add the drivers into the mounted image.

C:\wim>dism /image:"mount" /add-driver /driver:"usb3" /recurse

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.3.9600.17031

Image Version: 6.1.7600.16385

Searching for driver packages to install...
Found 3 driver package(s) to install.
Installing 1 of 3 - C:\wim\usb3\x64\iusb3hcs.inf: The driver package was successfully installed.
Installing 2 of 3 - C:\wim\usb3\x64\iusb3hub.inf: The driver package was successfully installed.
Installing 3 of 3 - C:\wim\usb3\x64\iusb3xhc.inf: The driver package was successfully installed.
The operation completed successfully.

18. Save the changes into the image.

C:\wim>dism /unmount-wim /mountdir:"mount" /commit

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.3.9600.17031

Image File : C:\wim\boot.wim
Image Index : 1
Saving image
[==========================100.0%==========================]
Unmounting image
[==========================100.0%==========================]
The operation completed successfully.

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

C:\wim>dism /mount-wim /wimfile:"boot.wim" /index:2 /mountdir:"mount"

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.3.9600.17031

Mounting image
[==========================100.0%==========================]
The operation completed successfully.

20. Add the drivers.

C:\wim>dism /image:"mount" /add-driver /driver:"usb3" /recurse

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.3.9600.17031

Image Version: 6.1.7600.16385

Searching for driver packages to install...
Found 3 driver package(s) to install.
Installing 1 of 3 - C:\wim\usb3\x64\iusb3hcs.inf: The driver package was successfully installed.
Installing 2 of 3 - C:\wim\usb3\x64\iusb3hub.inf: The driver package was successfully installed.
Installing 3 of 3 - C:\wim\usb3\x64\iusb3xhc.inf: The driver package was successfully installed.
The operation completed successfully.

21. And commit the changes.

C:\wim>dism /unmount-wim /mountdir:"mount" /commit

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.3.9600.17031

Image File : C:\wim\boot.wim
Image Index : 2
Saving image
[==========================100.0%==========================]
Unmounting image
[==========================100.0%==========================]
The operation completed successfully.

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.

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.

181 Responses

  1. Sam says:

    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.

    • Olli says:

      Hi Sam,

      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.

  2. Adam says:

    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?

    • Olli says:

      Hi Adam,

      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…

    • Pramod says:

      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.

    • Phil says:

      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.

      Thanks,

    • Stanislav says:

      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.

  3. Olli says:

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

  4. Steve says:

    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.

    Thanks!

    • Steve says:

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

      • Steve says:

        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.

        • Olli says:

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

        • arik says:

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

          • Olli says:

            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.

        • gringott says:

          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.

          • David says:

            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.

          • gringott says:

            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.

          • blair says:

            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!

          • David,

            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!

          • Boki says:

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

    • Hayden says:

      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.

      • Guy Tsabary says:

        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

  5. JimE says:

    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!!!!

  6. Tricky says:

    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…

  7. Aaron says:

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

    • Olli says:

      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.

  8. Mehtab says:

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

    • Olli says:

      Hello Mehtab,

      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.

  9. Gershon says:

    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 :(

    • Andrew says:

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

  10. John Harrison says:

    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.

    • gringott says:

      It is inside the combined driver bundle from July. Here is the link:
      https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/24907/NUC5CPYH-NUC5PPYH-driver-bundle.

      It worked for me.

      • John Harrison says:

        Thanks gringott, Downloaded ok but still wont install

        • gringott says:

          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.

  11. Christoph says:

    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!

  12. David says:

    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.

  13. Carl says:

    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.

    • gringott says:

      Nice work around. Thinking outside the NUC.

      • Carl says:

        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.

  14. Seba says:

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

  15. Kvapa says:

    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?

  16. Wayne Farnes says:

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

  17. Daniel DeRoo says:

    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?

    Thanks,

    Dan

    • Olli says:

      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.

  18. Larry Renforth says:

    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?

    • Olli says:

      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.

  19. Larry Renforth says:

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

    https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/24503/USB-3-0-Intel-USB-3-0-Driver-for-Intel-NUC

    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.

    • Dran says:

      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.

  20. Jeff says:

    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…

    • Olli says:

      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.

    • Dran says:

      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.

  21. Jeff says:

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

  22. 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.

  23. 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 !

  24. Yoni says:

    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?

  25. Collin Chaffin says:

    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. :)

  26. Tommy Tinker says:

    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).

    http://www.fit-pc.com/wiki/index.php/How_to_make_Windows_7_bootable_install_USB_stick

    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.

    http://pcpartsandcables.com//product_info.php?cPath=37&products_id=173&osCsid=e85c67bbc56884dac4085db72d1bb4a3

  27. Tommy Tinker says:

    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.

  28. Frettbe says:

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

  29. David says:

    The unblock option by right clicking on each file inside the driver folder actually helped me get rid of the error 5 as well. Thanks to all.

  30. Zimfg says:

    Worked perfectly for me, thanks!

  31. Nikos says:

    After some unfortunate attempts with a multiple installer cd , a fresh win copy downloaded using windows downoad tool , cmd & intel integration tool using a win 10 laptop , after having all the problems mentioned by all of you,
    I downloaded a new official win 7 pro 64 bit iso , created a usb bootable drive using rufus 2.5 , and integrated the drivers using the intel tool ,all this in a win 7 home 64 bit pc.

    https://rufus.akeo.ie/downloads/rufus-2.5.exe

    https://downloadcenter.intel.com/downloads/eula/25476/Windows-7-USB-3-0-Creator-Utility?httpDown=https%3A%2F%2Fdownloadmirror.intel.com%2F25476%2Feng%2FWin7_USB3.0_Creator_v2.zip

    Good luck…

  32. Dewa Perseus says:

    Thanks,,,,, But Not Work For Me :(

  33. Matt says:

    I can get as far as step 25 choosing win 7 as the OS, there is no option there. NUC5I3RYH

    If I try to install I get as far choosing language and keyboard layout but my mouse keyboard don’t work even though all the dism commands have succeeded.

    Sandisk ssd, USBkey (2), keyboard, mouse, latest BIOS installed did this thinking the OS option may appear. Any ideas?

  34. Matt says:

    So after hooking both USBkey and ssd to laptop realised I never set the ssd partition to prime set it to it. But the OS option was still missing but I went ahead and booted and it let me install win 7 home premium all seems to have okay.

    Great site here keep up the good work!

  35. Colin Fiat says:

    Make sure you are installing to the correct INDEX
    dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:”install.wim”
    This also applies to boot.wim.
    For my install.wim file there were 12 indexes!

  36. jj says:

    Windows 7 Pro existing install

    d/l and pre-installed NUC5i7RYH USB 3.0 drivers

    windows sysprep

    install ssd in NUC5i7RYH

    boot after few minutes usb 3 ports became active

  37. Michael says:

    Finally got this to work on my Intel 6i5 NUC. I opted to do the posted intel link method because I’m not comfortable going through command prompts etc. Initially my keyboard/mouse would not respond once it got to the windows 7 setup screen. After several attempts, I decided to read these comments (lesson learned).

    – After step 4, download the Intel Windows 7 USB 3.0 Creator Utility, as posted in the main post.
    – Extract the zip file
    – Within the folder, navigate to: Win7_USB3.0_Creator_v2\USB_3.0_Win7_64_4.0.0.36\Intel USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver PV 4.0.0.36\Drivers\Win7\x64 (or x86 for 32bit OS)
    – Right-click each file and at the bottom of the General tab is an Unblock button. Click this and save.
    – Run the Intel tool
    – Go to step 23.

  38. Jonas says:

    I have a NUC6i5SYK on which I try to install windows 7 SP1.

    First encoutered the problem that there was no keyboard/mouse at all during Windows setup.
    After that I found the windows 7 usb creator utility by Intel and made those changes to the install en boot.wim. Now I get to install Windows, but then setup needs to reboot my computer to complete the installation and keyboard mouse are gone again by the time I need to enter Computer Name etc.
    I also tried to add the drivers again with the DSIM commands, but to no use so far.

    Anyone encoutered this already?

  39. Olli says:

    I installed Windows 7 Professional 64-bit on the NUC6i3SYK using the Intel USB creator tool. What you describe sounds like you have the drivers ok in the boot.wim, but not in the install.wim. The USB creator should add the drivers into the correct places. Maybe you have the lock/unlock issue on your setup as well (I never had, but many people have had this problem)? See the comment above by Michael and try following those instructions. Good luck!

  40. roop says:

    I gave up with the Intel Tool. Going the cmd way took only 10 Minutes and worked. But was not able to install win7. I can’t get past “Install Windows 7”. It will ask me for some drivers to install (I dont even know which drivers). Mouse and Keyboard work just fine. Any ideas?

    • roop says:

      Ahhhww. It’s a Skylake NUC6i3SYH.

    • Michael says:

      I got that when I was doing a fresh install on my wifes laptop the other day. It was with an older windows 7 ISO that had worked previously. In frustration, I gave up trying to use that installer and I ended up using the ISO (professional) posted in this post, and deleted the ei.cfg so I can choose the edition on installation (home premium).

      If you read my comments a few up from here, you can see how I overcame the intel tool problems. The issue wasn’t using the mouse/keyboard during the installation process, it was not being able to use them when setting up the computer (language, region, comp name, etc.)

      • roop says:

        Thanks, Michael.

        Well, I tested Win 10 instead of 7 and I somehow like it. I also tested a different image and was able to install win 7. Still, I will stay with win 10.

        Btw. I also run VMware ESXi from a different drive (when Windows is not needed). Works great for such a small device. ^^

  41. marfai says:

    I have a NUC5CPYH with BIOS 43. “Windows 7” was selected in the BIOS. I applied Intel’s Windows 7 USB 3.0 Creator Utility to a Windows 7 Home Premium x64 bootable USB stick. I could use the keyboard and mouse during Windows setup. After the first reboot (where Windows wants a computer- and user-name) the keyboard and mouse didn’t work (numlock and capslock didn’t even work.)

    I then copied the USB 3 drivers that I downloaded from Intel’s site to the USB and re-installed Windows, telling Windows to load a driver. I browsed to the location I’d put the drivers in; Windows came back with 4 possible drivers only 1 of which would load. Had the same problem : no keyboard at computer- and user-name entry.

    I then recreated the bootable USB (I didn’t want Intel’s changes AND the dism changes) and did the manual “dism” steps. Worked like a charm!

  42. Brandon says:

    Follow these steps exactly and it will work. DO NOT USE THE Windows 7 USB 3.0 Creator Utility. IT DOES NOT WORK. Tried using that utility multiple times, on multiple operating systems, with multiple USB sticks. Finally went for the manual method and it worked like a champ.

    • Book Adams says:

      While watching the active Creator Utility log during the process it said that it found only one 32-bit image to create and and not the 64-bit image of Win 7 x64. I’m wondering if this Creator is updating only the Win 7 x86 part of the .win files?

  43. robert says:

    It works!!!!!!

    This is not in the monual of the Win7_USB3.0_Creator_v2

    1. Right click on Win7_USB3.0_Creator_v2.zip.
    2. Select Properties and Check Security status.
    If there is the message “This file came from another computer and
    might be blocked to help protect this computer”, click “Unblock”.

    3. Extrackt the zip file
    4. fallow the steps from the installer creator

    and it work. :-)

    Robert

  44. Jacques Pagès says:

    Hi,
    I find this tuto very easy to follow.
    Unfortunately I did not see it first and with the one I followed before I got stuck like a number on people at the entering name stage.
    So I did recreate the key following this tuto and everything got well.
    However I cannot install W7 Professional from the key newly configured as the NUC5PPYH does not let me anymore go in the Bios. Neither F10 nor F2 nor even F7 works.
    The NUC goes directly to the step where Windows requires a computer name to be set. And it goes back over and over again saying that Windows did not start correctly.
    Any idea how to solve this issue ?
    Jacques

  45. Roger says:

    I had the same woes as many here with dism refusing to behave. After “successfully” using the Intel tool, I ended up with the no keyboard/mouse issue at the part where you enter your name. Win7 is starting to behave like Win98…

    I eventually actually succeeded in adding the drivers after using Sysinternals’ streams.exe in powershell streams -d -s [directory] where directory was c:\wim in my case (yes, I even resorted to following the guide to the letter)

    I also added C:\wim to the AV exclusion list; not sure if that did anything or not.

    I had no joy using a USB 1.0 or USB 2.0 hub – hey it was worth a shot.

    Next is to try re-reinstalling and see if I’m still greeted with a driver based ‘fuck you’.

  46. mssong says:

    Thank you so much!! install has success :)

  47. Hardip Gandhi says:

    Have trouble with this…

    Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
    Version: 6.1.7600.16385

    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

  48. Alex says:

    I have a NUC5CPYH and trying to install Win 7 Pro. Same issue than described above, keyboard/mouse not working after the first reboot (when asking for user and computer name). I have tried everything…. manual steps indicated in this article (had to unlock the files), also the tool provided by Intel… always same result. Hope someone finds soon what is needed to make it work without so many problems :(

  49. Don Grose says:

    This method will not work for me. The reason is that my bootable USB does NOT contain the file “install.wim”. Instead, it contains the file “install.esd”. My understanding for this is because it was created using a Microsoft Windows 7 image that was downloaded from Microsoft as an Electronic Software Download. (ESD) I believe that these ESDs are all that are available these days. I do not have access to a Windows 7 DVD. My bootable USB “does” contain the file “boot.win”, but obviously the other file is the main one. I believe that “Install.esd” is a compressed version of “install.wim.

    Even Microsoft’s own method (using the USB3 creator utility) will not work .

    so… is there a modified version of this method that I can use with the install.esd file??? If not, will you be working to find a way that works?

    USB3-only computers are becoming more common these days, and there are still plenty of us that prefer Windows 7 over Windows 8.1 or Windows 10. (I don’t even want to mention Windows 8)

    Cheers, and thanks for the great work.

  50. Slothrop says:

    Don Grose: There is a ESD -> WIM converter tool available (https://www.winreducer.net/winreducer-es-wim-converter.html). My idea is to convert install.esd to wim format, copy it back to the usb, rerun the Intel USB utility, and then convert back to esd (not sure if this is needed, maybe the windows installation will chose install.wim if install.esd does not exist).

    Currently testing it out, will come back and let you know if it works or not.

    • Slothrop says:

      I’m happy to report that it seems to have worked: I could type in all prompts, and have finalized the Win 7 Ultimate install (and I didn’t need to convert the file back to .esd). So, if you have a newer Windows ISO with a install.esd file (if you run the Intel USB tool and do not see any changes to the install.wim file, that is an indication), follow these steps:

      1) create the USB using Windows 7 USB Download tool
      2) copy install.esd from the /sources/ dir on the USB to a temporary location on your harddrive.
      3) download and install Win Reducer from https://www.winreducer.net/winreducer-es-wim-converter.html.
      4) Run Win Reducer, follow the instructions and let the tool install what is necessary (f. ex. 7zip).
      5) In Win Reducer, browse to install.esd on your harddrive, and select convert to .wim. Do not change any other options.
      6) ..Wait. It takes quite a while.
      7) When finished, you will have a install.wim file in the same dir as install.esd. It is probably a bit larger than install.esd.
      8) Remove install.esd from the USB stick ([usb drive]:\sources\install.esd) and copy install.wim to the same location.
      9) Now run Intel USB 3.0 tool and select your USB stick. Let it do it’s magic (this takes a while as well).
      10) When finished, everything should be set. Your USB stick win 7 install should not allow you to use a keyboard all the way through. Yay!

      • Slothrop says:

        10) is supposed to say “Your USB stick win 7 install should NOW allow you to use a ..”. D’oh!

  51. Derek says:

    fantastic post! this got my system up and running when the USB 3 creator utility didnt work

  52. Dennis Bruce Erlichman says:

    Same problem as many here: Created boot USB stick using Win 7 USB 3.0 Creator Utility. NUC will boot using keyboard/mouse but both disappear when boot from “disk” occurs during installation.

    Read-me file with the Creator says to verify installation look for “USB 3.0 eXftensible Host Controller” and “USB 3.0 Hub” devices in Device Manager but these are not there?

    Nevertheless, the NUC does, indeed, boot from the USB stick but not when booting from “disk”.

    From reading all the comments in this blog, I’m guessing that the drivers were successfully inserted in the boot.wim file but not in the install.wim file. BTW, both these files do exist.

    Question 1: Are instructions to look for the “USB 3.0 eXftensible Host Controller” and “USB 3.0 Hub” devices in Device Manager correct?

    Question 2: Have any of you solved this problem?

    Bruce

  53. SKFOO says:

    Hi ,

    Anyone got the solution for this as of today.
    I am follow both Utility option and also the manual injecting option.
    Both of them do not work.

    USB capability is disable after windows first boot up.

    Any help would be great,

  54. Martin says:

    Not working. Does not specify the name of the PC. USB does not work again. Again, not the driver. I went as instructed.

  55. Juan Ordoñez T. says:

    I made the USB bootable step by step, do not use “Windows 7 USB 3.0 Creator Utility”
    and the changes made was to the driver usb3 files:
    right-click on every file, go to properties, down in the properties window it says that the file is not safe, press “Unblock”, do this in all files before do step 13

  56. Slothrop …… Thanks… U R GR8….. YOU ROCK… The utility WinReducer really worked… and then the Intel USB 3.0 utility solved the issue of KB/Mouse not detecting during installation. I had the same problem Don Grose had. .esd file instead of .wim file. Guys my NUC CPYB is up now. Thanks Thanks and many Thanks to Slothrop. :)

  57. BJC says:

    After trying many different things over the past few days, I found that Robert had a good answer. It sort of made sense as Windows sometimes locks you out of your own files to prevent “errors”

    robert February 25, 2016 at 15:58

    It works!!!!!!

    This is not in the monual of the Win7_USB3.0_Creator_v2

    1. Right click on Win7_USB3.0_Creator_v2.zip.
    2. Select Properties and Check Security status.
    If there is the message “This file came from another computer and
    might be blocked to help protect this computer”, click “Unblock”.

    3. Extrackt the zip file
    4. fallow the steps from the installer creator

    and it work. :-)

    Robert

    I also used Rufus for the bootable USB drive as I have had more success with them than Microsoft.

    https://rufus.akeo.ie/
    The US 3.0 creator utility came from Intel.

    https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25476/Windows-7-USB-3-0-Creator-Utility?product=85254

    After three days I finally have a working NUC5CPYH!

    Brian

  58. Dave says:

    Very nice post. Thank you for your details and instructions. You put a lot of work in this.

  59. ksuwatchai says:

    I create the batch script file that make these things easier that you can deploy Windows installer image file to make bootable USB flash drive or save to new iso file to use later and let you choose the drivers, iso file and version of Windows that you need to add usb3 drivers.

    I implemented dism, diskpart, powershell and oscdimg (embedded in my bat file) to perform all tasks.

    You can try my batch script by download from http://bit.ly/1Tc2qoe

  60. Thiyagu Mani says:

    I’m also faced the same issue, but i fixed. I installed windows 7 pro 64bit.

    While mounting usb3 drivers to install.wim output should be successfull.

    In USB3 folder download and extract this drivers too.

    link is https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/19880

    I made the USB bootable step by step, do not use “Windows 7 USB 3.0 Creator Utility”
    and the changes made was to the driver usb3 files:
    right-click on every file, go to properties, down in the properties window it says that the file is not safe, press “Unblock”, do this in all files before do step 13

  61. soundofthunder says:

    Just a quick message to thank you so much for this procedure: I was locked with no keyboard/mouse during the second phase of Windows Intallation: The Intel Tool loading USB3 drivers was giving access to mouse/keyboard during the first launching phase of w7 installation but after the reboot I was loosing keyb/mouse to type in computer name/user name and password.
    By following up your procedure step by step, the problem is definitely solved for me: SO A BIG THANK YOU

  62. Will Never says:

    I can confirm all the above… you can either unblock every single driver file OR… unblock the .ZIP file you downloaded from the Intel site. Unblocking the ZIP file allows for all the extracted files to be automatically unblocked as well. NOTE: if you don’t “unblock” them, neither the Intel tool nor the manual DISM.EXE procedure will work – this is if you are using a Windows 7 machine as well as a “URL checker tool”, i.e. antivirus products or obscure windows settings. Looks like “unblock” is not necessary on Windows 10, as somebody managed to use DISM.EXE skipping this part, as I read somewhere else.

  63. Wcp says:

    No keyboard and mouse at username / pc name screen.
    Tried every single index number with the described method (Windows ultimate 64bit)
    Nothing works. Very frustrating. No idea what to do.

  64. rocky_144 says:

    I used the DISM-GUI (graphical user interface) which makes live somewhat easier. Just copy the intall.wim and boot.wim from your bootable usb disk to your harddrive; start DISm-GUI, select the installation you want and insert the usb 3.0 driver in both files. After that copy the install.wim and boot.wim back to your usb drive. To make an installable usb drive I used rufus.
    Worked for me.

  65. Mike says:

    I used the DISM-GUI as well and glad I did because it has the “Display WIM info” button underneath the WIM File so you can find out what Index to use for install.wim – On the build I used W7Pro 32bit which lists: Index 1 as Windows 7 Starter, Index 2 as Windows 7 HOMEBASIC, Index 3 as Windows 7 HOMEPREMIUM, Index 4 as Windows 7 Professional and Index 5 as Windows 7 Ultimate. VERY important to add the drivers to the correct Index!!! I also found that if I specified the root directory for the usb3 drivers it added both the x86 and 64bit drivers which made the installation that much easier, 6 drivers in all. Hope this helps someone, took me ages to figure out I wasn’t using the right Index

  66. Tony says:

    Hey just wanted to give a heads up, if you run into errors saying that setup was unable to set up the filesystem or locate a suitable partition, then if you have a external drive, USB or SD card plugged in, you have to remove it and try the setup again (after a reboot). :)

  67. Christian says:

    I was not sucessful with the intel tool, but this easy Dell instruction was working: http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/SLN300564

  68. Ronski says:

    I wanted to share a little trick my brother and I came up with. I am upgrading my daughters computer to a NUC6i5SYH, and since I have a retail version of Windows 7 I wanted to transfer the SSD to the NUC. The OS ran fine, except I had no USB3, so no keyboard or mouse, no Ethernet either so couldn’t RDP in. I ordered some cables, but then we hit on another idea, which worked a treat – shame I wasted some money on the cables.

    On the old PC I copied the USB3 driver files onto the drive, I disabled UAC, I setup my admin account to automatically login, I created a batch file with one line in it “Setup.exe – s” without the quotation marks placing it in the same folder as the setup program, and finally created a short cut to this batch file in the startup folder.

    Then I shut down the old PC and transferred the SSD to the NUC, switched it on, and less than a minute later the USB3 drivers where installed and the mouse and keyboard worked.

    Don’t forget to reset UAC back to where you normally have it.

  69. I happily tried the new Win7-USB3.0-Creator-V3 from Intel and like many of you, it booted but would not recognize my mouse and keyboard at the very first Install Windows prompt.

    I have, instead, followed the manual steps and I’m happy to say that it worked. What follows is a quick summary of what I did in the hope that it might also help you install Windows 7 64-bit on these amazing little computers.

    The Intel NUC Win7-USB3.0-Creator-V3.zip doesn’t really work.
    The mouse and keyboard do not work upon installation.

    We instead need to follow the manual instructions to add/slipstream the USB 3.0 drivers at:
    https://nucblog.net/2015/07/installing-windows-7-on-the-nuc5cpyh-or-nuc5ppyh/

    USB_3.0_Win7_64_4.0.0.36.zip is where the drivers are.

    Create C:\WIM directory.

    Create two directories inside that directory: mount and usb3.

    Download USB3 drivers for Intel Braswell NUC from here:
    https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/24896/USB-3-0-Intel-USB-3-0-Driver-for-Intel-NUC
    (the link is entitled “USB_3.0_Win7_64_4.0.0.36.zip” and as of this writing resolves here:
    https://downloadcenter.intel.com/downloads/eula/24896/Intel-USB-3-0-Device-Driver-for-Intel-NUC-Kit-NUC5-x-PY?httpDown=https%3A%2F%2Fdownloadmirror.intel.com%2F24896%2Feng%2FUSB_3.0_Win7_64_4.0.0.36.zip)

    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

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

    usb3 folder contains your drivers and mount is empty.

    After copying everything to C:\WIM, start a command prompt as Administrator.

    C:
    CD C:\WIM

    dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:”install.wim”

    ‘ We use Index 4 for Windows 7 Ultimate.

    dism /mount-wim /wimfile:”install.wim” /index:4 /mountdir:”mount”

    dism /image:”mount” /add-driver /driver:”usb3″ /recurse

    dism /unmount-wim /mountdir:”mount” /commit

    ‘ Now we update the boot.wim but here we do not change the index.

    dism /mount-wim /wimfile:”boot.wim” /index:1 /mountdir:”mount”

    ‘ Add drivers to boot.wim.

    dism /image:”mount” /add-driver /driver:”usb3″ /recurse

    ‘ Save changes to boot.wim.

    dism /unmount-wim /mountdir:”mount” /commit

    ‘ Modify the index to “2” in the same boot.wim

    dism /mount-wim /wimfile:”boot.wim” /index:2 /mountdir:”mount”

    ‘ Add the drivers.

    dism /image:”mount” /add-driver /driver:”usb3″ /recurse

    ‘ Commit the changes.

    dism /unmount-wim /mountdir:”mount” /commit

    ‘ 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.

  70. Seb Schmitt says:

    I installed Win 7 x86 and x64, updated to the latest drivers, updated to the latest service packs. Problem is, the SD-Card Reader wont work. If you switch the bios section from installed os win 8.1/10 to win 7, the SD-Card-Reader is disabled in bios. If you installed all patches, you could easily reboot and turn the switch to 8.1/10 and activate the SD-Reader. But now you got 7 uninstalled devices in your hardware manager and no driver for that. Theres only a driver for windows 10 ( the Serial IO driver ) and at the Intel Forum, they excused, that theres no windows 7 driver for the card reader. I hope that they develop a driver for windows 7 . I installed the windows 10 driver on windows 7 => blue screen, so for know, my SD Reader is not working….

  71. naseeb says:

    hi,
    After doing all this it didn’t work for me. i had the kb and mouse for the install but not after.
    i tried all methode listed…

    here is the solution i found :

    1) i install a fresh windows 7 on Vmware workstation, with :
    – nuc network LAN driver
    – tightvnc
    – set user autologin

    I made a BACKUP of my disk with CLONEZILLA on a USB drive

    2) I boot my NUC on CLONEZILLA and did a retoredisk
    when NUC finish booting :

    connect remoty with tightvnc on your NUC and just install the USB 3.0 driver.

    your done :)

  72. lee says:

    Thanks alot! I’ve faced the same problem when I was installing Win 7 to Alienware X51 R3. Your solutions worked perfectly!

  73. Matt says:

    NUC5PPYH with Win7pro64: was getting stuck with no kb or mouse. After many tries, I found out the USB3 drivers I was using were the problem. Check your version – it seems late 2015 work (DriverVer=12/18/2015,4.0.4.51) but earlier do not (got mine from Win7-USB3.0-Creator-V3 the zip has a USB_Drivers folder that has them). Tried several options, seems all of them now work – the simplest seems to be:

    1. create USB bootable Win7 (any way would work, I tried 3 iso versions, all are fine)
    2. modify wim files (GUI or console both work) – there are only 2 drivers needed (iusb3hub, iusb3xhc)
    3. copy back and install

    no need to do any fancy settings or update bios or use USB2 ports inside (unfortunately, before finding the problem I tried that too…). or use any sw – in the end, I did it all on my old Win7

    this is good enough (if the drivers are the right ones): http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/installingwin7fromusbflashdrivesontousb30computers.pdf

  74. Robin St.Clair says:

    I have used Rufus to load Win 10 64-bit Professional on a USB stick. I intend using this on a new NUC6i7KYK. I intend using a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. What are my installation options?

    I’d rather not buy a wired keyboard just to install the OS, and discard it afterwards.

    Is installation over Ethernet a viable option?

    Or am I overthinking this?

  75. ivanbarram says:

    Many thanks dude, work for my.

    nuc5cpyh

  76. Marco says:

    Probably it’s simpler to use NTlite to add some drivers into a windows iso file. -> https://www.ntlite.com/download/ The last step is using Rufus to create an usb boot pen drive.
    Best Regards

    • Robin St.Clair says:

      Marco
      Thank you for suggesting NTLite – I wasn’t sure if this was the preferred way to go. I’ll practice adding in all the 64-bit NUC6i7KYK drivers/firmware upgrades to the iso image prior to using Rufus to create a bootable USB stick.

  77. Pedro says:

    Thank You man for this write up !

    Finally I have completed my Windows 7 Installation on Cheap Ass ASUS X 453SA laptop with
    all essential hardware pieces ( USB2/3 , Graphics, Wifi/Lan etc )

    the laptop is intended for windows 10 64 bit which I hate the most !

  78. tariq says:

    i install windows 7 for nuc5pgyh then display this message ” no drives were found”
    can you help me….

  79. Martin Nielsen says:

    Awsome :-D thumbs up for this. !!

  80. Glenn says:

    For bonus points, why not put the graphics and LAN drivers in there as well? I did, worked great!

    – Instead of calling the drivers folder “usb3”, call it “drivers”. More generic.
    – Download the LAN and VGA drivers from Intel, same place you got the USB drivers from.
    – Unpack them into that temp “c:\wim\drivers” folder. Who cares if it’s the entire installer this folder it temporary anyway – and only the drivers themselves will be detected and inserted into the image.

  81. S Hegde says:

    I am trying to install windows 7 pro (64 Bit) on SD Card of 64GB, but which is not detecting while selecting the installation path. Any help?

  82. amir1 says:

    thanks a lot, only this “long” way make my mouse work on the installation screen.
    If you want tip , I did the fierst steps wite WINISO
    I import the ISO to the program and extract the tow .wim’s files frome the ISO to the WIM folder
    and after all the steps I put it back to the ISO and saved it to a new ISO

  83. None says:

    Great, used this today.

  84. Hey all,
    Just followed this process. But, if you disable xHCI mode in the BIOS, all USB ports will change to USB 2.0. After the OS boots, you should be able to install the USB 3 drivers, then re-enable xHCI.

    • Olli says:

      Hi Jason, that’s how I used to do it as well, but last time I checked the newer NUCs do not have the option to do that in the BIOS. Which NUC did you install the Windows on? Thanks!

  85. Charles says:

    Thank you! When I worked out that I should copy the folders to a local hard drive everything worked fine. Poop on Intel for making this all so difficult.

  86. Chris says:

    I have NUC6i5SYK, and I have went all the steps and all other suggestions by other users and still have the same problem which is when the windows 7 installed and boot for the first time, and the logo of windows shows with starting windows, it reboot again, and again and again,
    I have no problem with the keyboard and mouse, and even I can’t upload the boot.wim to my WDS and start booting from Network, or I can boot it from Win10 and chose windows 7 pro but still when it get to the starting windows with black screen it just reboot and keep rebooting with asking me if I want to start windows normally, any help will be very much appreciated,
    thank you

    • Marco says:

      Hi, it’s better if you try to use ntlite to create an iso file with your drivers… https://www.ntlite.com/download
      A good tool to create a boot able pen drive is Rufus.. That all.

      • Chris says:

        I have no problem with the tools, I use all the tools including WDS, SCCM, and I’m able to boot the NUC from WDS after installing the NIC drivers to win10 boot.wim,
        it’s the install.boot where I don’t understand whey can’t start for the first time,

        • Chris says:

          I meant, it’s the install.wim, but the installation get completed and the windows reboot for the first time then when i shows starting windows with the Microsoft logo and black screen then it just stop and reboot itself, and keep rebooting over and over

  87. Chris says:

    I have also downloaded older version of windows 7 en_windows_7_professional_with_sp1_x64_dvd_u_676939, mounted, inject drivers, unmount, used the USB boot and WDS boot, both are ending with the same problem, first startup “starting windows” with black screen get stack and keep rebooting,
    my nuc is NUC6i5SYK
    Intel sent me this link and I also followed all the steps,
    http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/intel-nuc-kits/000017241.html

    BTW, I’ve worked with the deployment, WDS, AIK, DISM for more than 10 years, so I’m not sure that I’m not missing with the process, I also tried to install all the NUC drivers to install.wim

    again: I ended up using windows 10 boot.wim with WDS but also needed the NIC driver which I got it from intel

    https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/82186/Intel-Ethernet-Connection-I219-V

    anyone any help will be very much appreciated, I have a service ticket open with INTEL but they keep asking me s…t question if I enable Legacy PXE boot, or if I’m using windows 8 to install the drivers, so I’m not expecting solution from INTEL

  88. Chris says:

    btw, when I use the USB boot, I was not able to see the driver (where you can select or format the driver during the installation), that’s why I ended up using WDS with windows 10 boot.wim after adding the NUC drivers for NIC for windows 10 but installing windows 7 but again keep rebooting after the installation completed and starting for the first time,

    I know that I’ve replied and posted several commands, and I’m sorry for that, but I really need a help, I spent 2 days trying with this NUC NUC6i5SYK, just bought it this Monday

  89. UNBLOCK! says:

    Just followed this with a NUC6i5SYH. Used the Windows 7 Ultimate + USB3.0 creator tool. The most important part of this for me was as some other commenters made, UNBLOCK the drivers individually by right click properties… otherwise I’d boot to win7 installer and be stuck with no drivers still.

  90. OMG! OMG! Thank you! I missed the indexes in DISM and had a lot of spent time until read your instructions!

  91. jeff says:

    This is making me nuts. Can somebody who successfully created an iso for windows 7 ultimate possibly share it with me via google drive or something? I’d be mightily thankful!! Email me at [email protected]. ;)

  92. Morgan says:

    NUC6i5SYK running win7. Awesome stuff.

    Mounted my own USB image of win7 sp1 x64 from original DVD using this web page : http://www.fit-pc.com/wiki/index.php/How_to_make_Windows_7_bootable_install_USB_stick

    similar to your advices but somehow it was clearer for me. Haven’t used the USB/DVD tool at all…

    Successfully Installed win7 sp1 x64 on NUC6i5SYK following your instructions. simply picked the appropriate driver package USB_3.0_xhci_driver_Win7_4.0.6.60 (1).zip out of intel website.

    STEP 13 b/ Also had to unblock the drivers as cleverly stated in the comments section.

    NUC is up and running.

  93. Leo says:

    Im using i5-6400, and motherboard ASRock H170m pro , and it works for me so smoothly,,,, thanks so so so much you save me
    Regards from Croatia

  94. Hello bigmaster olli !
    i spent a hole afternoon, trying to install win7 on a NUC.
    The intel tool is hanging around… sometimes the mounting not works, sometimes the patch, and allways the unmounting.
    so i found your solution and it works perfect on win7 prof.
    Thanks a lot and if you ever make hollidays in switzerland, let me know !
    i’ll pay you a lot of alcohol !!!

  95. Samuel Varghese says:

    Thanks a lot, Olli ! Sucess from Windows 7 – Professional x64

  96. amoto says:

    Many thanks Olli!

    Thanks to your instructions I finally managed to get Win7 up and running on an MSI CUBI N that has only USB3 ports.
    I googled for a few hours and found similar solutions, but I couldn’t get the installer working. First I disabled the UEFI/Win8.1/10 USB options in the Bios, then I injected the USB3 drivers in the Win7 image. I got the installer running, but it hanged in the post install phase when I had to enter a username and the computer name.
    then thanks to your article I realized I had to modify both the boot.wim and install.wim and add the USB3 drivers in both – in boot.wim for the boot phase and in install.wim for the installation phase. (previously I only modified the boot.wim file…)

    this command was particularly helpful to see the indexes of the installations I had to update
    dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:F:\sources\boot.wim – with this one I saw the 2 indexes for boot, I updated both
    dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:F:\sources\install.wim – with this one I saw the 4 indexes for the install part, and I updated the Win7 pro index that I needed for my installation
    these indexes depend on the Win7 image file at hand,

    again, thanks, your article was an eye opener
    cheers

  97. Aiza says:

    I have a Windows 7 32 / 64 bit ISO free download file from http://onesoftwares.com/windows-7-professional-32-64-bit-iso-free-download/ and also Yummi Bootable from the same site, which will help you to install windows using USB flash.

  98. joshualo44 says:

    i bought NUC5CPYH 2 weeks ago and spent about 6 hours total of 2 weeks. i have tried all suggested methods and none of it works. using Windows 7 USB 3.0 Creator Utility v3, i got at a command prompt C: by inserting the USB into one of the usb port. however, i notice that there’s another usb port that is yellow. i inserted to it and it boot to the install screen. however, my keyboard and mouse does not work.
    i decided to use an external cd/dvd with a burn dvd windows 10. if this didn’t work, i was going to returned NUC5CPYH. i am happy to say that it did work for me and happy to let you all know that only windows 10 will work only if you use dvd external drive.

  99. Timothy Lowe says:

    I don’t suppose this is possible if your only other computer is a mac is it?

  100. Di Em says:

    A big thank you for saving me a lot of time.
    Thanks for the warning about the confusing nature of the instructions on the Intel Site.
    Process worked for me first time around. :-)

  101. Roger B says:

    After unblocking drivers, got it going, many thanks.
    RB

  102. Greg Pifer says:

    I Just got a Windows 7 product key from ODosta Store at: http://products.odosta.com
    Which worked perfectly So I’m so excited to share my experience here.their customer service is 1st class and I will definitely be recommending the site and I will be using the site again.
    Thanks for your great information here.

  103. Sam says:

    why don’t you guys just try activator for windows 7
    no need to reinstall windows or anything.
    just run the activator and it will activate your windows.
    you can download it easy from here without any ads https://www.softfiler.com/windows-7-activated-iso-download/

  104. Bedfford says:

    For my NUC5i3RYH, the only method that worked is: Intel USB3.0 drivers v1.0.10.255 + DISM command Line + RUFUS. Thanks!

  105. Wow Very Nice Information Thanks For Sharing

  106. Fetch Wetch says:

    A big thank you for saving me a lot of time from me.

  107. getinto pc says:

    download windows 7 at getintopc for free

  108. software says:

    I read your blog very helpful for us. Thanks for sharing it.

  109. Jeremy says:

    Sometimes Windows or anti-virus software will block the USB 3 drivers from either the manual method (via DSIM) or the Intel or Gigabyte USB driver addition tool. You have to go to each file and unblock the file or it will fail when you try to install the drivers into install.wim

    This wasted hours of my time, so I wanted to post.

  110. Pete says:

    Hi, I’ve tried this recipe on my NUC6CAYH with just about every version of USB3 drivers I can find. None of them enables USB3 ports so none of them get me any further than a USB stick that boots to a Win7 language selection page.
    I have the process working fine, what I can’t get is a set of USB3 drivers that works with my NUC
    Any *working* links to drivers for a NUC6CAYH would be great!

  111. nuccer says:

    My NUC5PPYH Windows 7Pro install worked finally with keyboard / mouse usable after ‘unblocking’ the zipped Gigabyte file properties (folder properties-general-tab at bottom).
    The inject tool then worked as expected and my USB was ready for booting and installation.
    This all worked fine and the upgrade to Windows 10 was painless.

    No need for fiddling with the internal connector for usb2 ports to use (you will need a special cable for it).

    You need:
    1. usb memory stick min. 8Gb.
    2. windows 7 PRO/Ultimate install ISO image and valid key.
    3. rufus USB bootable from ISO creation tool.
    4. Tool: https://download.gigabyte.com/FileList/Utility/mb_utility_windowsimagetool.zip (to be ‘unblocked’).

  112. markus says:

    hi gents, what is the newest intel NUC on which I can still install Windows 7? My parents need a new PC and they can only deal with Windows 7 as they know it. Thanks in advance, Markus

  113. Brilliant and comprehensive piece of work, must have taken hours to write and I thank you.

    Pity Intel have f*&%$d it all up by removing the USB 3 drivers (https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/24896/USB-3-0-Intel-USB-3-0-Driver-for-Intel-NUC which now comes up on a “page not found” error message) from their download centre. Renders your entire post useless.

  114. mikheev says:

    I’ve spent a lot of time for installing Windows 7 on NUC6CAYH (Apollo Lake platform). There is no Windows 7 drivers on official website. And recipes above didn’t work for me.
    Finally I’ve started search drivers for other Apollo Lake devices and finally found this article https://www.abmx.com/blog/win-7-j3455m with a link for drivers and image patcher for ASRock J3455: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17bczSMh-wI2MEcSJMTXnWGmZM3VenRSN
    The drivers are also applicable for NUC6CAYH.

  115. filehippo says:

    Good artice, very informative.

  116. Ahmed says:

    the mouse and keyboard didn’t work at the first screen when i choose setup language ?

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  119. Kelvin Klien says:

    I’m a student and gamer so recently I installed Windows 11 but found some runtime issues so while contacting to Microsoft they told me to activate my operating system but their prices were high so I searched and Google recommended me Takenbest Store at: https://takenbest.com
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  1. August 22, 2015

    […] Installing Windows 7 on the NUC5CPYH or NUC5PPYH (Braswell NUC)(The NUC Blog) […]

  2. October 27, 2015

    […] Installing Windows 7 on the NUC5CPYH or NUC5PPYH (Braswell NUC)(The NUC Blog) […]

  3. June 20, 2016

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  4. July 21, 2016

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  5. October 4, 2016

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  6. April 9, 2021

    […] Installing Windows 7 on the NUC5CPYH or NUC5PPYH (Braswell NUC)(The NUC Blog) […]

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