Part of my job is to prepare new laptops for end users that comes from OEMs. Since the included windows installation on most laptops is loaded with "bloatwares" we used to deploy a fresh Win7 Image in WDS and activate using OEM slic which made them completely legal. That was in the Windows 7 days.
Now I'm trying to do about the same thing with Windows 8 however since there is no SLIC it gets a little bit trickier.
Here is what we are doing right now:
-pull the hard drive from the laptop
-make a backup of 'Store' folder
-Reinstall hard drive, deploy Image or Clone from same model.
-pull the hard drive again
-overwrite content of Store folder with the old one
-Change folder permissions
-put the hard disk back in the laptop, let it boot.
-Windows complain about an activation error, reboot or CMD>slmgr -dli.
-activated again.
The hardest part in fact is to take note of which Store folder goes with which laptop.
I built a computer recently. Since day one I get BSODs but the drivers, and Bug/Checks listed are never the same.I was thinking it couldn't be a single device or driver so I've:
Replaced the MOBO. Repair Installed the OS. Replaced the RAM.
It BSOD'd multiple times between each change.
The only things I've run are IE/FF and Ableton Live 9. Ableton is usually running during the BSOD but it was not the last time.
I know how to manage the behavior of icons and notifications in Windows 8, but how do I delete programs from the list of icons and notifications (that appear on the taskbar)?
In the previous versions of Windows you could see the list of wireless networks you had previously connected to, change the order in which these Preferred Networks connected when more than one of them were available, as well as add or remove the Preferred Networks from this list. You could do so via Control PanelNetwork and InternetManage Wireless Networks.
But in Windows 8, unfortunately this feature is unavailable
It can be done manually in the cmd by these commands
Show Wireless Networks
netsh wlan show profiles
Show stored key for a Wireless Network
netsh wlan show profiles name=[profile name] key=clear
Delete Stored Wireless network
netsh wlan delete profile name=[profile name]
Or Third party software can be used to do so such as
This new sync tab feature in IE11 is handy. But it's also a bit annoying. I have about 7 or 8 PCs I use frequently and I re-install the OS all the time. So I end up with orphan machines that appear in IE 11 sync tabs and I can't seem to find a way to remove them. I also noticed that these tabs mysteriously disappeared on some of my machines.
First of all i was unable to configure my advanced power options, i.e- create new power plan, choose what power button does or closing lid does? I restored the settings & restarted but couldn't solve it. This is what i get while trying to fix this:-
Somehow, then i thought of creating another admin account and config the settings there, to see if it works out. But, through Control Panel>User accounts i couldn't manage existing account and neither i am able to create new account.
Another thing i noticed is when i go to PC settings through windows 8 new feature - charm menu, i couldn't find the Users menu. Now, these things are not normal at all.
When I disable Flash through "Manage Add-ons" I find that I can still play some YouTube videos (I assume using html5) but when the video ends my screen goes blank for a second and then the computer goes to the login screen. When I log back in all the applications that were open are no longer open. Is there any way to disable Flash in IE10 and not have this behavior?
My system got a virus/browser hijacker called qone8.com. McAfee did not detect it at all, removing it was a pain. One artifact that remains i the manage add-ons window pops up every time ie starts. I cannot find anything to fix this behavior. I have looked in the registry and found nothing. I would also like to find out how to completely remove unwanted entries in the manage add-ons windows. there should be a way to do this. I keep hearing of procedures to do this and all the options mentioned are always greyed out or never work. Hey Microsoft STOP GREYING OUT NEEDED FUNCTIONS!!! Image uploaded show how ie starts every time.
I cannot change the Windows update settings even though I am the administrator. It is grayed out in the snapshot above. I am the only user. I created a local account as well. I need to change the update settings to download updates automatically but I am stuck on "check for updates but let me choose..".
I need to change the setting in order to get internet access at my work using my home computer. The IT person at work recommended that I install Windows 8.1 to see if it would correct the problem, but the new installation did not work. This second screenshot shows that I am an administrator,I think.
First of all i was unable to configure my advanced power options, i.e- create new power plan, choose what power button does or closing lid does? I restored the settings & restarted but couldn't solve it. This is what i get while trying to fix this:-
Somehow, then i thought of creating another admin account and config the settings there, to see if it works out. But, through Control Panel>User accounts i couldn't manage existing account and neither i am able to create new account.
Another thing i noticed is when i go to PC settings through windows 8 new feature - charm menu, i couldn't find the Users menu.
The Manage Addon window in IE10 is not displaying correctly and there seems to be no way to resize the two panes that are not showing correctly. Do you think this would be a registry problem or do you think a reinstall of IE10 would override whatever setting is causing the window to display improperly. Would an uninstall and reinstall of IE10 be necessary or the best course?
I am wondering if there is any good software out there for audio graphic equalization. Or just equalizer you know for changing how audio sounds. I had a pair of headphones with software that made some things sound INCREDIBLE but I am getting rid of them for issues.
I am wondering if there is any decent software to manage equalization of audio other than the built in ones for Windows Media Player?
My Windows cannot be activated. I have tried several different methods of activation but none seem to work. My computer was Windows 8 pre-installed before purchase. Because of this I literally have no product key. I have checked my email and searched for anything that seems Windows related just to make sure of a product key to be found.
Eventually I came across a program that told me my product key. After I found my key, I then tried multiple methods of activation and nothing seemed to have worked. I am running Windows 8 on a 64-bit system. This problem started on the 28th of June and I found out that this could be a hacker attacking my key (using a key-gen and my key being used on another computer) how can I solve this!? any method I will try!
When I first installed Windows 8 I got 2 free WMC keys. I used one on my Windows 8 system and never used the 2nd one. I have installed 8.1 preview using the ISO and Hyper-V. Today I used "Add features to Windows 8" using the unused WMC key to install WMC on my 8.1 virtual system and it worked great.
I have an Windows 8 With Media Center Activated since November 2012 and i have not any problem , now i want to upgrade to win8.1 WMC.
This is what I downloaded : "Windows_8.1_EN-US_x64.ISO"
-How to convert Win8.1 rtm to wmc ? -Upgrade from win8 wmc to win8.1 wmc and preserve the activation ( i have more than 3 PCs i cant include the data files in each .ISO)?
i was reading about how Windows 8 must be activated using a KMS server of some kind, i was wondering is it possible to activate Windows 8 without internet or use infinite trial to avoid connecting to the internet?
Could i create a KMS server hosted on my LAN so i dont have to rely on the internet to activate Windows 8? Is there any method to activate Windows 8 offline?
i have windows 8.1 enterprise 9600 iso and activation by skype (windows is activated) now can we add activation into the iso file ... > not needed activaion after install or restor by m.toolkit
I too got rid of Norton, but I still have another a/v suite on my Toshiba laptop. Should Windows Defender be activated? A tech person at the company told me there would be no conflict, but that it's up to me.
In general, is it a good idea to have both running?
I brought my zoostorm tower with out an OS and purchased copy of windows 8. Everything was going fine then suddenly when my PC booted up it asked me to activate and took me to pc settings and I get an error saying I couldn't activate try again later or contact support. A google on the the web tells me to run SLUI04 - which I do but after selecting my country it just hangs if I try and activate by telephone it just asks me for groups of numbers which of course I don't have?
I called microsoft activation center and the only suggestion they have is clean install of windows 8 and redo the upgrade because the media center activation key was expired (after the promotion period). It wasted me an hour to make the call and talk with the manger (employee id 2814). They sound like it is none of their business.
How to Set Up a "Windows Server 2012 R2" Virtual Machine on VMWare Workstation 10 For Activating Windows 7Ent/8/8.1 and MS Office 2010/2013. Also, I Would Like to Know the Relevant Scripts for Cleaning Up Unnecessary Files from the VM thus Reducing its Footprint Significantly. Lastly, I Would Also Love to Learn as to How to Set Up the VM Online For Activating PCs Around the Globe and also on LAN.