How did you setup your Win 8 install?

How did you setup your Win 8 install?


  • Total voters
    565

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8 Pro desk 1 (SB) 7 Home desk 2 (IB) 8 Pro Lap 1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Own build X 2 Desk X 1 Lap X 2
    CPU
    i5 2500 & i5 3570K
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA_H67UD3H-B3 & Asus P8Z77-V
    Memory
    8GB (1333) 8GB 2400 set 1866
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia GTX 650 X 2
    Sound Card
    Xonar DG X 2
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Philips 24" (SB) Benq 24" (IB)
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 X 2 830 X 1
    PSU
    Corsair HX 650 & HX 1050
    Case
    Coolermaster Centurion 2 & HAF XM
    Cooling
    Air (SB) LC (IB)
    Keyboard
    M6980X X 2 (laser)M$ Sidewinder X4 & Sidewinder X6 (IB)
    Mouse
    Gigabyte M6980 X X 2 (laser)
    Internet Speed
    ADSL2
    Browser
    Google
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky ISS
    Other Info
    Two other machines Toshiba L550 Sat i5 CPU running 8GB RAM and Windows 8 Pro 64bit OS.
    Toshiba A200Celeron 4GB Win7 64bit
My route was Win 7 Ultimate, Win 8, Win8.1 Preview, back to Win 8, then 8.1 via the Apps Store.
After MUCH effort and help mainly from this forum, it is at last working correctly.
Intel Dual CPU 2.6, 32 bit, 4GB memory home built with a mouse.
What may be important to some of you is that I have managed to get all of my old applications working correctly eg Nero10 which is meant to be unsupported on 8.1
File History works!, together with an automated system image backup to a 2nd hard drive.
Thus Win 8.1 is now a great operating system on this 3 year old computer!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 with Media Centre
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home built
    CPU
    Intel Dual Core E5300
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte G31 ES2L
    Memory
    4Gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon HD5450
    Sound Card
    Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Benq
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    2 x 500Gb Sata
    PSU
    500W
    Case
    Generic Tower
    Cooling
    Extra fans for the heat - South of France!
    Keyboard
    Logitech UK
    Mouse
    USB
    Internet Speed
    5Mb
    Browser
    Firefox latest
    Antivirus
    BitDefender Antivitus Plus 2015
    Other Info
    Plus TBS6922 Sat TV card.
Just for the heck of it, I installed Win8 on an Atom Dual core 1.6 GHz 2GB, Atom single core 1.2 GHz 1 GB, and Via Epia 1200 1 GB and works on all of them. Surprise, surprise. Of course I'm not keeping it on them, they are destined for something else but it did work.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
I installed Windows 8 and 8.1 on HP elite 8000, 8200, lenovo m91, m92, Dell T3500, Acer Extensia 5620. Worked great on all..

I even installed it into VMs that were single cpu and low memory for tests...

but my final resting place is on my xmas present from my wife..
Windows Surface Pro 2 (128gb)...
nice new i5 quad core with 4 gb ram. So far running everything I use..
photoshop elements 11, photoshop premiere 11, lightroom 5.3, photomatix.

I am even running the surface in power save mode and getting 8hrs battery....
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows7 / 8 / WHS / WHS 2011
I set mine up dual boot. Win 8.1 + Ubuntu 12.04 LTS = The best of both worlds.

If you care to see my setup you can check the thread I posted here. Had some issues after I cloned my HDD to my SSD using various cloning software. It would not boot correctly from USB until I installed the SSD into the laptop. Then it booted right up.

On my first attempt to setup a dual boot I bricked my system and had to reload. Luckily, I created a copy of my system using Asus backtrack as suggested by someone in the thread above. Many thanks on that tip because it was much easier to reload the OS with all the drivers for my laptop off the USB stick than trying to clone my PC with the HDD again.

Some great advice from people on here allowed me to get this setup correctly. :D


Windows 8.1 definitely blows away Ubuntu 12.04 LTS for touch screen support but at least Ubuntu Unity support it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 OEM Touch
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus x202e
    CPU
    Core I3
    Motherboard
    NA
    Memory
    4 GIG
    Graphics Card(s)
    NA
i got my toshiba C855D satellite laptop with widows 7 home premium OEM installed , it has amd 2core , 4 Gb ram 328 Gb hdd.
last year begining i installed gentoo linux and windows 8 trpple booting with windows 8 menu screen. last month i installed windows 8.1 also on the same hdd quadrupple booting from widows 8.1 menu.
i am more happy with windows 8 and ts many features, changed in windows 8.1.but for some games and other programs available only for windows 8.1 i use it too for those added advantages.
also i use ubuntu-13.10 and ubuntu 14.04 from a usb hdd booted from usb device selected from bios.
OEM windows 7 i still keep and hdd recovery partition just incase failure.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8 and 7
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    toshiba satellite c855d s3252
    CPU
    amd64
    Motherboard
    toshiba
    Memory
    4 Gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    built in amd64/ati
    Browser
    ie10,opera
    Antivirus
    microsoft essentials
Set it up under VMware to get a handle on it. Just building my new PC. Just some memory to go.
Once done I will install on a removable SSD drive. Will install Win7 and Server 2012 on two other SSD drives. Thus my PC can be anything it wants to be.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    WIN8.1/Server 2012 R2/Win 7 Ultimate
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-4960X Extreme 3.6 GHz, Socket 2011, Ivy Bridge-E
    Motherboard
    Asus P9X79 Deluxe
    Memory
    32GB Corsair Dominator Platinum CMD16GX3M2A1866C
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte GV-N78TOC-3GD, GeForce GTX 780 Ti
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP LP2475w
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1200
    Hard Drives
    2x240GB Sandisk SSD, 2x3TB Segate 7200RPM
    PSU
    1500w Spider
    Case
    CoolerMaster HAF X
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro Series H105
Mine is installed as a guest VM on my Windows 7 machine. I started off with the Enterprise trial to see how close I could get it to 7, and to be honest it had piqued my interest. I decided to purchase a key and make my VM permanent but a generous member on here and the 7 forums furnished me with a Pro licence, so I downloaded 8 Pro and installed that on the VM. Then I upgraded to 8.1 straight away but am having trouble installing Update 1.

It's ideal for me getting to know the OS and even more ideal for me to manage my Outlook account on a separate OS to my host, I was also lucky enough to land a copy of Office 2013 for £8.95 via the Home Use Program so that's been installed on 8.1 while my 7 install runs Office 2010.
If this works out to be more useful than I thought I may add a second SSD to my system and migrate my install to that and run a dual boot.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win7 Pro x64 | Win8.1 Pro x64 VM | Win 10TP x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    i7-4790k
    Motherboard
    ASUS Sabertooth Z87 (BIOS 2004)
    Memory
    8GB Kingston HyperX Genesis @1600MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 980 Classified
    Sound Card
    Onboard Realtek
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung S24B300
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    Intel 520 Series 240GB SSD /
    Samsung 850 EVO 120GB SSD /
    2TB WD Caviar Black /
    2TB WD Caviar Black /
    2TB WD Caviar Green
    PSU
    Corasiar HX 850-80 Gold Modular
    Case
    Cooler Master Silencio 650
    Cooling
    Corsair H80i + 2x SP120s + 2x Noctua intakes
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Sidewinder X4
    Mouse
    Gigabyte M6900
    Internet Speed
    152Mb/s
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    F-Secure
I've now moved my 8.1 install onto my SSD as a dual boot with 7 and things are running like a dream, shame I can't change my vote. Went the route of installing 8, ran all updates and then updated to 8.1. The 8.1 update has installed no problem this time so all's well, and as much as I was anti-8/8.1 for a long time I have to admit it's a damn snappy OS.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win7 Pro x64 | Win8.1 Pro x64 VM | Win 10TP x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    i7-4790k
    Motherboard
    ASUS Sabertooth Z87 (BIOS 2004)
    Memory
    8GB Kingston HyperX Genesis @1600MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 980 Classified
    Sound Card
    Onboard Realtek
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung S24B300
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    Intel 520 Series 240GB SSD /
    Samsung 850 EVO 120GB SSD /
    2TB WD Caviar Black /
    2TB WD Caviar Black /
    2TB WD Caviar Green
    PSU
    Corasiar HX 850-80 Gold Modular
    Case
    Cooler Master Silencio 650
    Cooling
    Corsair H80i + 2x SP120s + 2x Noctua intakes
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Sidewinder X4
    Mouse
    Gigabyte M6900
    Internet Speed
    152Mb/s
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    F-Secure
I had only one primary desktop computer (Acer) with win 7 preinstalled. Installed win 8 from the internet over it. Went well at first. Got random freezes while wachting video's later on. The connection from the box to the monitor is a HDMI one, without sound, that goes via a seperate connection. Disabeling the AMD HDMI (sound) Output did the trick. Then I got these nvstor64 errors, grinding my system almost to a halt. Replaced the nvidia driver with the MS Standard SATA AHCI Controller, and away went this problem. Installed the Classic Shell. I boot direct into the desktop (no need for metro), and presto I've got a better working system then win 7, i.c. win 8.1 pro with media center for I think it was about 50$ (I live in Europe). I'm very satisfied.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer AX3400
I got tired of using cds that didnt work so i grabbed a 8.1 iso and installed right away.
Otherwise i had to sit and watch the cd hardly work an finally end up with 8.0

This laptop came with 8.0 and also bought a license for my old win7 laptop
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Professional x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Mobility Radeon HD 7650
    Screen Resolution
    1600*1900
    Hard Drives
    640gb
    Internet Speed
    100/10
    Browser
    Chrome Beta (Daily)
    Antivirus
    WD & Malwarebytes
Wish I could of used vm but dual boot is I suppose more straight forward for me anyway,
Keep all of this win-8.1 fun separate from primary win-7 ;)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win-7-8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer fresh install
    Memory
    4 gig's
    Graphics Card(s)
    GT640
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer / Dell
    Screen Resolution
    1600-900/ 1600-1200
    Antivirus
    MSE/ MBAM Pro/ SAS Pro
I just updated all my drivers & got all new Windows updates & clicked on it in the store.
It installed good.
No problems. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
    Threads 2
    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security
I use a precompiled ISO image that has all recent updates, my hardware specific drivers, my program installers and my basic user settings already embedded. I install from a 16GB class10 SD card. Saves me about 4 hours, and all i need to do after installing is to register/activate software.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i3-6100
    Motherboard
    ASUS Z170I PRO GAMING
    Memory
    Kingston 1x8GB 2400MHz@CL15
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire HD7850 2GB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG 34UM68-P
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1080
    Hard Drives
    SAMSUNG 840 Pro 128GB SSD
    PSU
    Corsair TX650W (Seasonic OEM)
    Case
    Zalman M1
    Cooling
    Cooler Master Hyper 212X
    Keyboard
    Ozone Strike Battle MX Brown
    Mouse
    Roccat Nyth
    Internet Speed
    34 Mbit
    Browser
    Chrome, Cyberfox, Vivaldi
    Antivirus
    common sense upper-intermediate v3.0
    Other Info
    Some of the hardware might seem odd (PSU, SSD), but I'm not wasting money on replacing perfectly functional hardware only because a newer version is out. Nor am I willing to pay extortion money for replacements or intended upgrades (GPU, RAM), especially if that "upgrade" has a hardware design flaw (CPU).
Since I voted I should clarify that I meant to perform a dual boot on my HP xw8200 (alongside Vista), but it went bust!

I enabled DEP protection in the bios (I have two Xeon 3.68 GHz Netburst/P4 style processors with hyperthreading). They are fast, but not good enough for Windows 8.1....sniff.

I inserted the DVD, past the logo screen, saw three flashes of text (about six lines worth which I now understand has to do with processor/bios shortcomings) and it restarts. "No 8.1 for you!" :(
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 x64 Professional
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP xw8600 Workstation
    CPU
    Two Intel Xeon Core2 Quad 3.2 GHz Processors
    Motherboard
    Proprietary
    Memory
    16 GB DDR2 800 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    nVidia Quadro FX 3800 PCI-E
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung SyncMaster 213T 21" 4x3 Flat Screen
    Screen Resolution
    1600x1200
    Hard Drives
    Two Seagate Cheetah 300 GB SAS Disks
    PSU
    Proprietary
    Case
    HP xw8600 Workstation Case
    Cooling
    Two CPU Fans and a Larger Case Fan
    Keyboard
    PS/2 Keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech USB Optical Mouse
    Internet Speed
    7 mbps
    Browser
    Firefox ESR 102
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    Two LSI 3000 SAS Adapters
Mine originally came with Windows 7 and then I upgraded to Windows 8.1 on my primary partition and then I made another partition and installed Windows 7
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satelitte C655-S5547
    CPU
    Intel Core i3-2350M@2.30GHZ
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Graphics
    Sound Card
    Microsoft High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Generic PnP Monitor
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    OS(C): 450GB
    Keyboard
    Standard Ps2 Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Wireless Mouse 1000
    Internet Speed
    As of 4/25/2015 26.98 mb/s on the download and 2.90 mb/s on the upload
    Browser
    IE11 and Mozilla Firefox 38, Google Chrome if I must
    Antivirus
    WebRoot SecureAnywhere- Internet Security Plus
    Other Info
    This laptop was originally bought in like new condition off Amazon in September of 2014 with Windows 7 Home Premium installed and about 6 months later I got a e-mail from my school telling me I could get all kinds of software free for my computer and then decided to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional, about a week later I wanted to give Windows 8.1 a try, well after failing on using it the first ti
Virtual Box.

Hey there,
I am new to the forums and so far this site has been a true life saver. Thanks to all of you that have been so great in helping and understanding all of my crazy laptop issues.
My question is,
What is a virtual box? And what is Dual Boot? I have seen these a few times but don't really know exactly what they mean. ....Maybe someone can briefly explain them and what they are used for? I'm trying to learn all I can...:) Thanks!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 15 3521
    CPU
    Intel Core i3-3227U CPU 1.90GHz
    Motherboard
    EUFI
    Memory
    4.00 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Sound Card
    Name High Definition Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000
    Screen Resolution
    Resolution 1366 x 768 x 60 hertz
    Hard Drives
    Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
    Model ST500LT012-9WS142
    Media Type Fixed hard disk
    Description Disk drive
    Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
    Model SanDisk Cruzer Glide USB Device
    Keyboard
    Description Standard PS/2 Keyboard
    Mouse
    Hardware Type Dell Touchpad
    Browser
    IE11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Norton 360
    Other Info
    1394ohci 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller c:\windows\system32\drivers\1394ohci.sys Kernel Driver No Manual Stopped OK Normal No No
    3ware 3ware c:\windows\system32\drivers\3ware.sys Kernel Driver No Manual Stopped OK Normal No No
    acpi Microsoft ACPI Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\acpi.sys Kernel Driver Yes Boot Running OK Critical No Yes
    acpiex Microsoft ACPIEx Driver c:\windows\system32\dri
Virtual Box https://www.virtualbox.org/ is one of the programs that make VM (Virtual Machine) that is essentially an emulator that can run other OS within host OS in this case Windows. Another one is VMware VMware Virtualization for Desktop & Server, Application, Public & Hybrid Clouds | United States . Basically it shares part of disk, few cores of the processor and part of RAM with host system and is pretty well isolated from host OS. You can install guest OS or even run live like Linux. Drawback is that it has access to HW just as much as host OS would let it.
Dual BOOT is when you install another OS next to first one on another partition on disk or even better on another disk. In either case on first boot disk/partition both (or more) OSs can make a menu which upon booting to it you can choose which OS you will use. You can also allow or restrict access to other disk partition.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
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