Thinkpads Forum

Hi folks, I just got this T420 and it has Windows 7 Pro on it. I have been using Windows 8.1 and am very happy with that OS. I am wondering if there are any folks out there who have installed Win8.1 on a T420 and, if so, how did everything go? Do all of your devices still work? Were you able to use Win7 or Win8 drivers?

I have looked at Lenovo's support site and found that there are just a few drivers for 8.1 and that concerns me. I'd like to have full functionality out of my box rather than it just being a brick. Anyone there with ideas?

win8.1 will work fine for the most part, the exceptions:

1. the power manager software, although IMO it is not that important, and the main useful part of that application does work fine, which is the part to control the battery charging threshold.

2. the hotkey support, some of the fn+key combination do not work, but some still work fine,
there may have been an old thread about this requireing a specific driver version, but i still haven't got the time to test it out, because the important keys to control brightness/music playback/sleep/thinklight still work without any additional driver.

If you install Lenovo Settings from the Windows Store you can get the custom charge functionality, somewhat. You can set a 5% incremental percentage at which the charging stops at, but not where it starts at. You should install this new version of the Settings Dependency package to get the included latest Settings Battery Gauge which is functionally superior to previous versions and doesn't look ugly. https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/mobiles/n1lsd29w.exe

----Actually don't get that one, it's for 10, I'll try to find an 8.1 version.

Alright here's how it should work. If you get Settings from the Windows Store, it will probably nag you to download a Dependency Package with a button or link to a webpage, and that should just get the latest version.

Thanks so much hhhd1 and TPFanatic. I did install 8.1 and it works good enough for me. I will look into the Windows Store for the Settings thing and see if it something I need.