Suggested Steps To Take Installing And Setting Up Windows 8

[HippsieGypsie]

Hello there, partogi. Nice rig!

I agree with Wynona. Generally if it's marked "Active" don't mess with it.

Assuming it's a newer mobo, you must have Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) instead of the traditional BIOS. You may want to refer to these:

Microsoft Reserved Partition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Windows and GPT FAQ

http://www.eightforums.com/general-support/21717-question-windows-8-reserved-partition.html

Hope those help.

Edit:

I want to add that I have no such partition since my Acer is older with traditional BIOS. As you can see below, my MBR is on C:

 

[Coke Robot]

Please have a look on my root drive partition:

Is there anything wrong with that? What about this "System Reserved" partition. Should I merge it with C: on fresh install so that I would get better performance, maybe?

Nope, leave it alone. This a partition Windows makes for MBR BIOS based PCs so things operate correctly. Besides, 350 megabytes won't add much to the C:\ drive nor performance.

 

[HippsieGypsie]

How to Add Menu Items Under the (Windows 8.1) Right-Click or Context Menu.

I made numerous attempts on updating 64-bit Windows 8 Pro
client systems to 64-bit Windows 8.1 Pro and/or doing a fresh
install of 64-bit Windows 8.1 Pro from an ISO DVD. In any of these
cases I found the Windows 8.1 Shell Context Menus to be incomplete.
Especially, they were missing the default/top Open entry for
any Program Icon on the user's desktop.

What I found is that ZipGenius 6.3.2.3110 is actually inserting
itself into the list of items available in the Windows registry under
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
placing an ZipGenius 6 entry there. Obviously, this entry
is able to terminate the ContextMenuHandlers' parsing of the
verb list, essentially leaving incomplete context menus to
the user.

A quick way to cancel these artifacts is to remove such
entries from the ContextMenuHandlers' verb list.

1. Open Regedit (Go to Startmenu\Run; type regedit)
2. Expand until you are in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex
3. Select ContextMenuHandlers
Entries present, e.g.:
{90AA3A4E-1CBA-4233-B8B8-535773D48449}
BriefCaseMenu
Open With
Open With EncryptionMenu
Sharing
Workfolders
. . . . . .
ZipGenius 6
. . . . . .
Action:
Delete any potential entries by ZipGenius 6 under 3.

Maybe it's worth to check if there are additional user applications out there
that may impair the shell's context menus in similar ways.

Geez! This is from just before Thanksgiving. I have to apologize for neglecting this one, especially from a first-time poster/member.

Well, if you peer in > Welcome to Windows EightForums, pwhaas.

Thanks for the suggestion. We'll look into this now that the "other guy" is back.

 

[HippsieGypsie]

Ages ago, I posted on here to say that I didn't know how to restore Windows XP Backup files into Windows 8.

Well it looks like people have figured out how to workaround this - here's a link to an article on Tech Republic describing how to do it.

Restore a Windows XP backup in Windows 8 - TechRepublic

There are a couple of caveats in there, but hopefully it might be useful to some former XP users.

Thanks so much for coming back to post this, David. Good stuff! :thumb: We'll look into it.

 

[JimJoe]

Well, I broke down and got a Win 8.1 laptop so I can work better with wearables like Gemma and Flora. I'll look over these tutorials and see if they help me. I did finally find the laptop's desktop. Asus Wni 8.1 64-bit.

If I feel pain, I'll stop by and scream out my agony.

Thanks for being here !

 

[HippsieGypsie]

Welcome back, JimJoe.

LOL! 8/8.1 are rather colorful. Kind of fits right in with your avatar.

It's not as difficult to learn as the press and users make it out to be. A week to learn the basics and at least a couple to start flying around.

If you're all set up, I suggest reading the latter section "Setup/Personalization". Don't forget Brink's tutorials linked in my sig as well. BTW, the OP needs to be edited, for some is outdated. We're hopefully getting to it soon.

Good luck.

 

[JimJoe]

Well, I haven't taken a hammer to my laptop just yet. I definately don't have any use for what 'A-list' preople are doing.

I have to deal with Win 7 at work... crikey. Anyway, I like the 'Classic XP' look. Or something resembling the Amiga computer desktop.

 

[azasadny]

I use "Classic Shell" to make Win8 look like Win7 and it's served me well for over a year...

 

[CYPER]

Anyone have any idea what is that 2nd drive?
Initially I thought it's a SSD cache, but it is not listed in the specifications: HP Pavilion Ultrabook 14-b006sa Product Specifications | HP® Support

 

[DMHolt57]

According to the specs,... it's space for a recovery partition... up to 24Gb... could be a hybrid drive...

 

[CYPER]

According to the specs,... it's a recovery partition...

It is not. The recovery partition was on disk 0 and I deleted it.
After some brief research I think it's a ssd cache that works with Intel® Rapid Start Technology.

 

[JimJoe]

I use "Classic Shell" to make Win8 look like Win7 and it's served me well for over a year...

How do I do that ? I have been trying to make changes to my WIn 8.1 laptop, but it seems some settings are lacking I find in the tutorials.

 

[CYPER]

I use "Classic Shell" to make Win8 look like Win7 and it's served me well for over a year...

How do I do that ? I have been trying to make changes to my WIn 8.1 laptop, but it seems some settings are lacking I find in the tutorials.

Download "Classic Shell"

 

[JimJoe]

I found Classic Shell and I now go directly to Desktop, which I prefer.

 

[tereongully]

you can do "many" things that you think.. and do NOT need classic shell..

for example. this is just right clicking on your taskbar and select properties. look what comes up.. this is built-in to windows 8.1

 

[ppm]

Hi all,
I still run Win8.1 on many machines and do regular clean installs, so I thought I would share my experiences.
After installing "8.1 Update 1" from proper media, you will not be able to do Windows updates. You need to install Update 2, Update 3 and maybe the update client. I will go through each of these :

1 - August 2014 Update - aka Update 2 - this is essentially "Service Pack 2" for Windows 8.1
You can download the installation pack of 6 files here :
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...-for-windows-rt-8-1-windows-8-1-and-windows-s
They MUST be installed in this order (this is the 64bit version)
Windows8.1-KB2993651-x64.msu
Windows8.1-KB2975719-x64.msu
Windows8.1-KB2993100-x64.msu
Windows8.1-KB2979582-x64.msu
Windows8.1-KB2990532-x64.msu
Windows8.1-KB2995004-x64.msu

Following Update 2, you need to install Update 3 :

2 - November 2014 Update - aka Update 3 - this is essentially "Service Pack 3" for Widows 8.1
You can download the installation pack of 3 files here :
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...up-for-windows-rt-8-1-windows-8-1-and-windows
They MUST be installed in this order (this is the 64bit version)
Windows8.1-KB3000850-x64.msu
Windows8.1-KB3003057-x64.msu
Windows8.1-KB3014442-x64.msu

At this point, you have a proper clean install of Windows 8.1 with all 3 service/update packs installed. At this point, I usually take a disk image using Acronis.

BUT - Windows updater may still not work (it seems to vary from machine to machine). At this point, you can try Windows updates, and if it doesn't find updates within 30-40 minutes, then you probably have a stuck updater. There are several ways of fixing this. You can either install the latest Windows update client which came out in March 2016 - KB3138615. But I find the most reliable way to fix it is to install KB3102812 :
"Installing and searching for updates is slow and high CPU usage occurs in Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2"
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...for-updates-is-slow-and-high-cpu-usage-occurs
Windows8.1-KB3102812-x64.msu

Lately, I don't even bother trying Windows updates first. I always install KB3102812 and then updates always work without a problem.

If you follow these steps, you will have no problems.

Keep in mind, that MS still tries to install Win10 nag update KB2976978. I usually do manual updates because of that, but there is probably no harm in letting KB2976978 install.

 

[Stealth]

Why is there no Prerequisites for Updates, that would be the most important info imo?

 

[TechnoMage]

Of all the versions of Windows that I've installed over almost 30 years, Windows 8.1 has to be the easiest.

I boot up with my Windows 8.1 install Flash Drive, and let Windows do the rest. Oh, I do have to answer a few prompts. No big deal, as they are pretty self explanatory. Once finished with the basic install, I spend many hours, installing First the Classic Shell, and then all of my favorite programs and utilities, plus a number of performance tweaks. Once I'm finished with the complete install I make a Backup Image of the C: partition with "Ghost 11.5" and then if time permits, I also make a CLONE of the Main Drive, (my Sandisk SSD).
(I will do that eventually)

The neatest thing about Windows 8.1 is that I never have to put in any hardware driver install disks, or search the Internet for drivers.*
* I DO use the install disks that came with my 2 Epson printers.
Windows 8.1 has all the drivers I ever need, unlike any previous OS that I've ever installed. It's like Magic!

Even neater is that if I make a CLONED HD off of my main PC, I can then put that cloned HD in any of my other PC's (desktop or laptops) and boot it up, and after a few minutes to install drivers, the transplanted 8.1 will run just like it was originally installed there. I can hear the screams now, , , "Foul!" "Illegal!" etc.
I do this for no-one but me, and it's my Hobby. And, I'm the only one who ever uses, or will ever, use any of my PC's.

Cheers Mates
TM

 

[KBL]

I am waiting for the validation to download windows 8 for ages. I need to get a copy to reinstall 8 on a new hard drive.
How long does it usually take?

Over an hour now.
2 hours
Given up. If anyone can point me to a 8.1 download that doesn't take so long I would be grateful

K


Another update:
Finally created a Boot able USB with Windows 8.1 on. Downloaded in half an hour at work.
My Internet has been pants. Now semi decent.
After spending two days trying to get into bios on this friends Toshiba Satellite L50 I finally changed Boot order with USB first.
First installation was going great until 'Install failed at 36% ish.
Happened again just now.
See attached. I can only hope that the download needs redoing although until new router arrives not sure would be successful.

Attached to big. Onedrive link here.. dav

Final update for today...

Working copy of Windows 8 now running. Installed via rufus and the 8.1 download there..
Tomorrow....10.

 

[HK54]

Hi does anyone here on the Forum know how to format any version of Windows 11, 10 or 8.1 x86 or x64 using Notepad.exe well I'll try to explain how I do it it seems complicated but it's a simple and quick process at first for those who are new to this type of operation maybe be embarrassed at first because the process is practically instantaneous so here we go: after booting from the pendrive it's the usual process: choose the country, region etc here the "serious joke" starts 1st) click shift+ F10 at this point instead of go directly to the command prompt to open Diskpart I do it this way as I have all the Diskpart script in my head I call Notepad.exe and when it opens I type all the information I got from MSFT itself and after finishing the operation I select all the script using control c and now I call Diskpart so I just type control v it's instant in the sequence it remains to follow the usual operations if anyone has anything to add or criticize I'm all ears Note: if everyone already knows this type of installation I apologize to everyone but since the days of Windows 1.0 I swear I've never seen it until today...