Solved Will Microsoft bring back the Start Button?

[HippsieGypsie]

Thanks for that. I'm trying to remain optimistic about it all. "Hopefully" all will go well.

 

[adamf]

Indeed. All good fun anyway

 

[HippsieGypsie]

Yes it is. :thumb:

 

[mibaup]

OK so maybe you are right about the difference between smartphone OS update (iOS, Android) and Windows.. but still the prices of it are quite high. And for example if you use upgrade cd, and you want to reinstall it, you must use the old cd first right? for example if you upgraded from 7 to 8, and you want to reinstall 8 again, you need to use the old 7 installation first? or I'm wrong? if I'm wrong then nvm

 

[labeeman]

OK so maybe you are right about the difference between smartphone OS update (iOS, Android) and Windows.. but still the prices of it are quite high. And for example if you use upgrade cd, and you want to reinstall it, you must use the old cd first right? for example if you upgraded from 7 to 8, and you want to reinstall 8 again, you need to use the old 7 installation first? or I'm wrong? if I'm wrong then nvm

If you made a system image after you upgraded to 8 and configured it the way you like it, then the install disk will no longer be needed.

 

[XweAponX]

Not sure about this. I did clean install of 8 (and now 8.1). I've never needed the install disk as DSIM works just fine and I can't imagine a situation when the disk would be required. There might be but I can't think of a situation when it would be required assuming you have some sort of backup strategy. DSIM is one of the best things about Win 8 IMO.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/26512-dism-fixing-component-store-corruption-windows-8-a.html

DISM is great, but an install disk can save you hours of GRIEF. It's an absolute necessity. With it, you can run an In-Place Install, which is my preferred way to repair broken Windows Installations. I keep an install disk on a flash drive as well.

You can also use an install disk to run a command prompt and fix all kinds of errors, which can't be fixed from Windows because it is running and files are LOCKED. From the Install Disk, you can run CHKDSK, BCDedit, Bootrec. You can also use the other Automated Repair Functions.

The Install Disk is something that, if you use a Desktop OS, or even an Apple OS, you gotta have it. I wish there were a Disk Install for iOS.

 

[XweAponX]

If you made a system image after you upgraded to 8 and configured it the way you like it, then the install disk will no longer be needed.

Unless of course he has any of the large number of grievous PROBLEMS we have dealt with in these forums that absolutely require you to put a disk in the drive.

That's why I promote the use of Hiren's, it removes SOME of those requirements, you can check your drives, browse your filesystem for Virii, replace system files that have been corrupted, especially the Windows Defender program, which gets replaced by Sirefef.

A person can be existing fine withut the need for an install disk, but just one Sirefef or Solimba infection will change that in an instant.

 

[SIW2]

The Install Disk is something that, if you use a Desktop OS, or even an Apple OS, you gotta have it.

 

[XweAponX]

Thanks. This belief that you are a computer user and do NOT need an install disk, is a fallacy. I try to combat this everywhere I encounter it. Microsoft perpetrates it, and even Apple with their OTA updates. You MUST have an install disk, if your hard drive goes bad, if you get infected, if your system files get loused up. The user of any computer system must have a way to re-install windows in case of any problem. How are you gonna use a downloaded update file to re-install windows on a totally blank hard drive?

In fact Microsoft sets up Refresh functions that will not work without it, then expect people to live without disks.

 

[adamf]

Well...

if your hard drive goes bad

You could restore from latest system image

if you get infected

Likewise if you had to

if your system files get loused up

You can use DISM

iIn fact Microsoft sets up Refresh functions that will not work without it

You refresh to your CustomRefresh.wim made by recimg. I do this a lot - the added advantage is you keep all of your programs.

If you don't want to boot into Windows or can't there is PE, Recovery Drive, Windows to go, Linux live CD.... I'm not saying it isn't convenient but not really necessary if you have some sort of backup strategy, at least I've not needed it and can't imagine a situation where I would. Having said that I do have 8.1 on the USB that I installed it with

 

[caperjack]

average joe never heard of recimg ,i never[and im just a step above average ,lol] ,and average user doesn't ever backup there own personal data .so is it necessary for them to have a win disk of some sort , to fallback on

 

[adamf]

average joe never heard of recimg ,i never[and im just a step above average ,lol] ,and average user doesn't ever backup there own personal data .so is it necessary for them to have a win disk of some sort , to fallback on

True - but you don't get one when you buy a PC either.

Recimg is here: http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/3610-refresh-windows-8-create-use-custom-recovery-image.html If you make a CustomRefresh using this after installing all your programs you can refresh to it if you can boot into windows and not have to re-install apps/programs. After upgrade would be a good time. You loose your personal data. A useful tool.

If you make system image and recovery drive on CD or USB you can boot the recovery drive and restore the image keeping your personal data as well. http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/8956-system-image-create-windows-8-a.html

Both need doing before your system breaks of course. If you upgraded to 8.1 and made no backups and there is no iso then worst case you might have to get the 8 iso, clean install, upgrade, intall apps and have lost all your data (if you didn't back that up either). Hopefully at this point you would make a backup. It would be nice if there was an 8.1 iso in this situation but if there isn't then there isn't. You can mitigate this by backup strategy.

On a related note, File History doesn't backup SkyDrive folders. If you want to do that you'll need to think of another way - see here http://www.eightforums.com/performance-maintenance/31744-making-backups-files-system-2.html

 

[mibaup]

Oh and another question about upgrading to Windows 8. At Microsoft website the upgrade cost 290$, and on eBay it cost about 80$, is there a catch here?

 

[caperjack]

average joe never heard of recimg ,i never[and im just a step above average ,lol] ,and average user doesn't ever backup there own personal data .so is it necessary for them to have a win disk of some sort , to fallback on

True - but you don't get one when you buy a PC either.

Recimg is here: http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/3610-refresh-windows-8-create-use-custom-recovery-image.html If you make a CustomRefresh using this after installing all your programs you can refresh to it if you can boot into windows and not have to re-install apps/programs. After upgrade would be a good time. You loose your personal data. A useful tool.

If you make system image and recovery drive on CD or USB you can boot the recovery drive and restore the image keeping your personal data as well. http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/8956-system-image-create-windows-8-a.html

Both need doing before your system breaks of course. If you upgraded to 8.1 and made no backups and there is no iso then worst case you might have to get the 8 iso, clean install, upgrade, intall apps and have lost all your data (if you didn't back that up either). Hopefully at this point you would make a backup. It would be nice if there was an 8.1 iso in this situation but if there isn't then there isn't. You can mitigate this by backup strategy.

On a related note, File History doesn't backup SkyDrive folders. If you want to do that you'll need to think of another way - see here http://www.eightforums.com/performance-maintenance/31744-making-backups-files-system-2.html

thanks for the info, i ran Recimg ,it said i needed 54gig of space for my backup ,will check it out later and maybe run it to make the backup to a external drive

 

[adamf]

thanks for the info, i ran Recimg ,it said i needed 54gig of space for my backup ,will check it out later and maybe run it to make the backup to a external drive

If you want to make backup smaller you can disable hibernation and page file as these are backed up to the image, run recimg and then turn them back on. You would have to remember to turn them on again after refresh though.

My CustomRefresh is 7.8GB but 8.1 is smaller that 8.

Hibernate - Enable or Disable - Windows 7 Help Forums

Page file is:

>System
>Advanced system Settings
>Advanced
>Performance Settings
>Advanced
>Change Virtual Memory
>Set page file to "No paging file" and reboot. After creating CustomRefresh you can set it back to "System Managed" and let Windows take care of it.

 

[Mystere]

Oh and another question about upgrading to Windows 8. At Microsoft website the upgrade cost 290$, and on eBay it cost about 80$, is there a catch here?

I'm not sure if you mean $290 US dollars or not, if you do that's not right. The upgrade is $199.

 

[DavidY]

Oh and another question about upgrading to Windows 8. At Microsoft website the upgrade cost 290$, and on eBay it cost about 80$, is there a catch here?

I would be careful about buying from ebay, but here in the UK I could buy the Upgrade from Windows 7/Vista/XP to Windows 8 Pro for £60, direct from Amazon, or £70 from a big chain of bricks-and-mortar electrical stores, (so I think they're genuine) but the same thing from Microsoft costs £190.

So Microsoft do charge a lot more than some other reputable sources, in the UK.

 

[XweAponX]

Well...

if your hard drive goes bad

You could restore from latest system image

if you get infected

Likewise if you had to

if your system files get loused up

You can use DISM

iIn fact Microsoft sets up Refresh functions that will not work without it

You refresh to your CustomRefresh.wim made by recimg. I do this a lot - the added advantage is you keep all of your programs.

If you don't want to boot into Windows or can't there is PE, Recovery Drive, Windows to go, Linux live CD.... I'm not saying it isn't convenient but not really necessary if you have some sort of backup strategy, at least I've not needed it and can't imagine a situation where I would. Having said that I do have 8.1 on the USB that I installed it with

I agree, all of these are valid re-install functions, but nothing beats an In Place Install, if you intend to keep your system in the exact state it was before problems arose. Sometimes DISM fails to fix things, sometimes SFC refuses to run.

IN fact, my Windows 7 installation could not be repaired by either SFC, or In Place Install, although I never tried DISM on Windows 7. which was why I upgraded to Windows 8 from 7 in the first place. But in doing so, it transferred my corrupt Dot Net files into Windows 8 and I still can't repair them. But everything else works great. I don't run my Media Apps on this system anyway, which is what I need Dot Net for.

I installed 8 first on a fresh blank drive, after I was sure I liked it, I instantly upgraded to 8 on this machine. I'm totally happy with 9 and less than happy about 8.1.

 

[XweAponX]

Oh and another question about upgrading to Windows 8. At Microsoft website the upgrade cost 290$, and on eBay it cost about 80$, is there a catch here?

You MAY be getting a bad Key with eBay.

 

[mibaup]

Oh and another question about upgrading to Windows 8. At Microsoft website the upgrade cost 290$, and on eBay it cost about 80$, is there a catch here?

You MAY be getting a bad Key with eBay.

Well but these are top rated sellers that are on the eBay's daily deal so I guess they're safe