Windows 8 has a nice clean interface that is very touch-friendly, which makes it incredibly easy to use with a wii remote. It also is not locked down at all - it can do virtually ANYTHING your current pc can do (though you might prefer to only use the apps that are ported over to metro)
All you need is the driver, bluetooth, and a couple ir emitters. And maybe a wireless keyboard.
done this many times on many systems. . SSD on many systems. never an issue w7. how to set 2nd hdd boot inactive, given HP BIOS EFI is brick dumb. (intractable)
I am aware that GPT EFI is setup to block booting from "unauthorized media" but secureboot, turns that off.
GPT doomed. But SSD runs perfect by itself. Ok windows, 8 and 8.1 64bit, Brand new laptop, hp 17.3 e-0067cl (for wifey)
I did's:update Windows 8 , 100 updates, took 16hrs. (crashes it,endlessly) good now ( i did 10 upates, 10 times for 100) magic of MS.
update to 8.1 ok.
backup to external hdd , using Paragon Windows 8.1 backup (hp make recovery disk to 32gb sandisk extreme flash, fails, and HP forum all others too.....a bad
rebecca.exe.)
Kick to curb the DVD drive install a new caddy and new SSD. (in same , it works) mirror old hdd to new ssd, using farstone, (the best and free) moved, ssd to hdd, main location. hdd out of system. Boots and runs fast as lighting,now I put in the HDD to the caddy, yes, i know that only one disk can be active. but how do you flip that bit, not plugged in, sure.'?now the dumb, BIOS EFI in the HP can not select boot sequence at all, it has just this boot manager, that is not accessible..at all.it runs a while then wants to boot to hdd, i can't stop it nor fix bios, but (esc+f9) force boots work to SSD. as expected.So i try partition-wizard, it shows HDD as active and can not set to inactive, (it's not fully gpt aware? but works great all other modes)i hide all those partitions and the boot up ignores hidden flag....
i run from elevated CMD.exe, MS- DISKPART and select (old windows (my label) vol 2. i command Inactive to old windows part. vol2 it errors out, saying,can only be used no MBR disk.i read up on that and it meant, GPTs don't have active flags (bits) ok, im game...odd how windows 8 DISKPART is not up to the task for GPT, or I dont know Diskpart anymore....?
I want to keep the HDD in the system. for the D:recovery partition, that HP needs. and will not fit on SSD.
BIOS set to NON secure boot, for all this. testing.did not try SATA legacy mode, (it gives warnings in BIOS not to use that) i moved this hdd to non efi bios system desktop, with win 8.0 and same deal. I wonder what my win7 Desktop would do?, wreck the GPT , structures? i'll not do that.
My guess is there is new procedure to render the GPT EFI , inactive, but is not documented?, (tons of format it from scratch, i tried, my Windows 8 startup repair STICK (PE) same Diskpart error. How to control this GPT disk, (drive 2) is there a DISPART2(gpt)?
I use a Logitech k400 Wireless keyboard with a built in trackpad. It's great in theory, but the implementation has a few flaws:
The keys are small, and the trackpad is worthless, especially with Windows 8.
I've been trying to find an alternative, but the only one I found is using apple inputsw and something called a "Magic wand" which connects the two:
Here's what I'm thinking of doing:
Buy a Logitech Wireless Rechargeable Touchpad T650
Buy a Logitech Wireless Illuminated Keyboard K800
Buy a board slightly bigger than the footprint of both of these devices, and a bunch of velcro.
You can guess the rest.
Why doesn't Microsoft just remake the start menu with 2 sides, one to open the classic windows 7 start menu. And the other one to open the Metro UI. Honestly it seems to be the best way to do it I like using both although can't live with out the old start menu.
View 7 Replies View RelatedI am considering using Windows 8 on a new HTPC build.
View 9 Replies View RelatedI have a Asus N750JV. My problem is that when I want to play a movie on the Smart samsung tv with my HDMI cable the video is perfect but the sound is still playing from my laptop instead of the tv.
View 5 Replies View RelatedI got my desktop to make it %300 bigger and it's a good size. Right now I have my metro UI as "Make everything bigger option" but it's still hard to read it on my 42 inch from 15 feet away. Anyway I can make the metro UI (windows 8 UI w/e) scale like the desktop?
View 2 Replies View RelatedI'm troubleshooting a Windows 8.1 HTPC (ASrock Vision 3D 252B) that sometimes starts up on his own.
Unexpected power on seem to be periodical, but checking scheduler, registry and BIOS, there's no scheduled power on.
It's connected to a SmartTV via HDMI, but unexpected power on happen also when SmartTV is off, so I think this is not a cause.
This computer is often powered on via WoL but, if there's no stange packets coming, i think this is not a cause, too.
I've just been disabling RTC Wake Up in BIOS, I have no idea what this feature is.
So I've taken the plunge and installed Windows 8 on my HTPC that is connected to my main TV. The start screen really works when sitting at a distance from the PC with the big icons for plex and netflix etc, the weather and other metro apps also fill out the screen with nice info and images, the browser is better suited.. it's perfect... ....almost.
VNC is a bit of a nightmare, I had VNC server installed so i could use HippoRemote and connect to the box via a VNC client.
My MAIN problem is that the mouse does not move with my gestures or movement of remote mouse.. the pointer doesn't move.. The mouse is there, but since i can't see it I am forced to guess where it's at.. it's not so bad on the start screen because tiles are highlighted as you move over them, but if I am in an app or on the desktop it's almost impossible to use because i have no visual mouse pointer.
I downloaded an iOS app called windows 8 gesture pro or something but it's rubbish and not being updated since it hasnt been updated on iphone 5 and it crashes when i try to access the virtual keyboard.
I just recently bought a new HTPC server and installed Windows 8.1 on it. Everything seems to work great except my USB mouse and keyboard. The range of these wireless devices dropped to just about one meter. They work further away if I lift them high in the air but from waist level they only work from very close ranges. Before they used to work perfectly from distances up to 5 meters.
What's odd is that the USB recievers are in the exact same spots as they were in my old computer. I have an extender cable and a hub so there are no obstacles between the recievers and the devices. I'm not sure whether this is because of Windows 8 or because of the new hardware. My previous computer was a laptop running Win7 but the new one is a desktop. The devices seemed to work bad even in BIOS so I suspect it's the hardware.
I have installed latest drivers, replaced batteries and tried different positions for the recievers but nothing seems to fix this issue. I have not added any new wireless devices in the household.
Keyboard: Microsoft Wireless Keyboard 3000 v2
Mouse: Logitech M505 Wireless Mouse
System:
Intel i3 4150
4GB DDR3
Asus H97I PLUS M-ITX
500W
Windows 8.1 x64
Previous system:
Intel i3 350M
3GB DDR3
Dell Vostro 3300 laptop motherboard
Windows 7 x64
On my HTPC, I used to be able to boot Win 8 Pro in about 12-15 seconds off of my M4 SSD. Recently it's taking almost a minute. what could have caused the slowdown and where I should look?
View 1 Replies View RelatedWindows 8 keeps downgrading my screen setting to 30hertz on my HTPC. It happens every couple of days... It's very annoying and each time i have to go in my screen settings and put it back to 60hz... Is there a way to force 60hz forever?
View 7 Replies View RelatedOn my home network, I have my desktop, my HTPC (wired) and my wife's laptop (Wifi). The desktop and HTPC are bth running Win 8 pro. The laptop is running Win 7. All are 64 it.
Invariably I try to log onto my HTPC from my desktop and it says that I am unable to access the files. I then open up network and sharing center to check on the network password only to find that is has changed itself somehow. Even after I reset the password on both the HTPC and the desktop. I still cannot access my shared files on the HTPC from the desktop. The only way to share files is to get them from the HTPC which for some reason lets me access my desktop files.
The laptop is not really an issue. ONce I enter the new password I can access files on the desktop and print no problem. I guess the 2 issues are...
1) the random changing of the network password
2) the inability to access networked files FROM the desktop. The reverse seems to work flawlessly.....
I am trying to upgrade from windows 8 pro to windows 8.1 on a samsung laptop. The download completes and installation starts.
After a while the following message appears "you cant install windows on a usb flash drive with setup"
I am not actually trying to install to a flash drive. I contacted Microsoft and after 5 hours they said that I should connect to the internet with a cable and not by wireless in order to solve the problem (this didn't work of course and I had told them that it was an install problem and not a download problem).
Until very recently i was running Windows 8 with a 240 GB Sandisk SSD as a primary and a 2 TB Western Digital Green HDD as a storage. I decided to set up a RAID 1 setup so i purchased a second 2 TB HDD and installed it.
My intent was to run windows 8 off the 240 SSD as a primary and have a RAID 1 setup for my 2TB HDDs.
I learnt that my data configuration was set to AHCI. I decided to do a complete clean install and change the sata configuration in BIOS to RAID.
After successfully creating a RAID volume using my 2TB HDDs i proceeded to install Windows off my primary. I am however having difficulties in that it will not allow me to install windows on either drive.
Im trying to install Windows 8 (Not 8.1) but it gets stuck at the booting screen (Where setup shuold load files)
My system specs are on my profile.
I am trying to setup a new Windows 8 computer that is going to be a gift. I need to go through the setup procedure so I can install some software which is also part of the gift. How can I do this without having to use a Microsoft account, or at least with leaving the least amount of account remnants for the new user?
View 2 Replies View RelatedI have Windows 8 consumer preview installed on my laptop. A couple days ago its licence expired, so I got Windows 8 professional to upgrade.
I made an install USB with the win7 USB utility and proceeded to boot from the stick. The setup then told me I should restart my pc and restart the installation from windows.
I did that, but Windows 8 setup won't start. It just starts reading from the usb for a second, then stops. The setup from the .iso I downloaded does the same thing.
To make things more interesting, the first time I restarted my PC after trying to upgrade windows from USB at start-up, I ran Windows 8 setup and it did start and started doing some things, on that small blue screen that pops up. I didn't pay attention to it until the blue setup screen disappeared and nothing else happened...
One more thing, I tried to install Microsoft windows server 2012 on my laptop a month ago and the same thing happened with the setup.
Did a few hours of research on the internet, tried to run it in compatibility mode.Can't really afford to do a "clean" install now, and on top of that, my PC reboots every 2 hours because my licence is expired...
I have an HP Envy with Windows 8 pre-installed. I am trying to do a dual boot setup with windows 7, as some of the software I use daily, is not compatible with Windows 8. The new software has yet to be released, and will not run in any compatibility modes.
Knowing this is beating a dead horse, I have searched for hours, and have gotten some of the pre-req stuff done ie: created virtual drive 20gb, initialized it, turned UEFI Mode/Secure Boot OFF, etc.
I can see the vhd, but when I try to load win7, the vhd is not visible. When I exit win7 install, and Windows 8 reboots, I can no longer see the vhd.
I'm currently using windows 7 and want to install 8.1
I just launched the setup, and on the window where it asks what to keep, the only option is 'Nothing'.
Does windows 8.1 setup delete everything I've got on my current partition, or will it transfer my current system into a windows.old folder like Windows 7 Setup does?
Because I really need to keep my files.
I previously setup a DVP 11 pro tablet by logging in with my outlook.com email account.
Now I am about to setup an AIO desktop . So I am sure the same questions will be asked about logging in with email account and password when first powering up the computer.
My questions are:
a) Should I use the same outlook.com email and password for the second computer as the first ? Will Win 8 even accept this because one tablet is already setup using this same email address and pw . Even if it accepts what are the implications?
b) I would prefer not to sync the Tablet and the AIO computer . In this case should I setup another outlook.com account with separate email address and PW? I guess I can do this by clicking on setup a new account .
c) Actually I would prefer to setup the 2nd computer with local account . But from my experience with the DVP 11 Pro , this option is not available in the setup screens. ie I can't get pass the the first screen that asks for email and password. Since this is a purchased machine and not a clean install , I believe the only way to do this is to first setup with an email account then subsequently disconnect and setup local name and password.
I was installing Windows 8 at my desktop pc.Suddenly power cut occured and it caused the compute to shut down.Then when I restarted my pc again a messege appeared saying that the installation has been corrupted and it can't be continued and it doesn't log on.After that when I tried to re-install Windows 8 the setup got stuck at the "setup is starting" window.I waited overnight for it to go and the installation to start.But it doesn't happen.I have tried to re-install several times but the same problen happens again and again.So neither I can log into my computer now nor I can re-install windows.I don't know what to do.
View 9 Replies View RelatedHere: [URL] .....
Somewhere in that link it says:
During POST enter "BIOS Boot Selector Menu" by pressing F7.
Intel says: <F7> No uefi setup option in boot selection
Others say: <F8> No uefi setup option in boot selection
I say: <F12> No uefi setup option in boot selection
Lenovo Z580, my brand new laptop that is, its UEFI based and vymrdal's ISO from MSDN is also created to be installed as an UEFI Install.
Here's my issue; I am a math and science teacher in a public middle school and am outfitting my class with thirty brand-new Lenovo touch computers. I consider myself above-average savvy with computers, having worked with every version of Windows extensively since the late 80s and DOS. The only OS that I haven't spent much time on is Windows 8.
These computers are all brand-new and of course have legal copies of Windows 8 -- irritatingly, though not yet updated to 8.1. Soo...It took me a larger part of one day just to get ONE of these computers ready for class use. It involved several stages of the Windows update/reboot dance, followed by removing myriad unneeded bloatware applications, setting up multiple child accounts on the machine, and finally installing some freeware educational materials needed for instruction. It was all unbelievably tedious!
I turned around and look at all the remaining twenty-nine computers with dread. Obviously I'm trying to work out some kind of shortcut to avoid having to spend my whole summer updating each of the new machines individually. In an ideal world, I would make some sort of image of the machine that I just spent several hours updating/configuring, and then replicate that across the other twenty-nine. In terms of hardware, this shouldn't be a problem since all of the machines are exactly the same make and model. But I anticipate other problems such as, for example, the serial number of the Windows version and the computer name will then be the same on all the machines and have to be adjusted. There very well could be other issues with replicated serial numbers, etc.
I'm thinking maybe I just have to bite the bullet and work at each individual computer one of the time. And then image them individually so that when the kids mess around with them, I can do an easy restore. How I could make this work?
When I run setup I get this message:
"Something happened, We can't tell if your PC is ready to continue installing windows 8. Try restarting setup"
What can I do?
Because it does not contain enough free space. Clearly I have enough free space... [URL] ....
What should I do? I want to do a dual boot, so I can keep Windows 7 in case I don't like 8.1...
I formatted and deleted that partition and I tried again with 201gb, and no luck. [URL] ....
In Windows 7 I could adjust the thickness/width of the windows borders.
In Windows 8 I could not find this option in
Personalization-->Window color and appearance-->Advanced appearance any more.
I created a setup USB with the ISO of Win 8.1 and its now out of date after the Spring Update 1. With XP you could slip stream service packs and updates. How I can incorporate Update 1 into Win 8.1 Setup USB stick?
View 6 Replies View RelatedI tried to run "Reset and reinstall windows" when I found out that "keep nothing" is not a clean install.
However, the reinstallation part (Windows setup, with the serial number part) starts over and over again.
I have purchased 2 identical Acer V5-serie (OEM Windows 8.1) . I have setup the first computer (removed McAfee, done setup changes in Windows 8.1, installed freeware programs, etc). Windows 8.1 (OEM) was activated automatically when connecting to internet.
1) Can I "clone" the first computer, create a "Rescue Media" , create a recovery backup, .... or something similar in order to transfer the setup and programs from computer A to computer B ?
On the second PC I'm going to replace the HDD with a SSD
2) Do I need to avtivate Windows 8.1 om computer B first ?
3) I have installed Office 2010 professional plus , it's not activated yet (do I need to ? )
What happens if I choose not to activate it ?
I was casually wondering how to remove the failed Windows Setup that shows up on the Boot screen along with the still functional Windows 7 Ultimate. Funny that the Setup didn't move past the first Reset screen, yet shows up above Windows 7 and, if ya don't arrow down within ONE second, it'll take ya to the infamous Black screen that won't even respond to Alt/Ctrl/Del. Don't wanna reinstall W7 from scratch. How to do this ??
View 2 Replies View Related