i f*^K!@g hate windows 8

Just received 2 Windows 8 laptops for a school. 168 Updates required - nearly 3gb! Had to bring home and work on my 80Mbps Fibre connection - the 4Mbps connection in school will take days to download this lot!!
 
I am using WSUSOffline which helps a bit. Normally I would wipe and do a fresh install from a fully patched DVD, but the supplier has installed and activated Office 2013 Pro Plus and I don't have the key...
 
Just thinking about Windows 8 gets me upset lol. Thankfully I have only done new PC setups and Virus removals on them so far.
 
bitznpcz said:
Just received 2 Windows 8 laptops for a school. 168 Updates required - nearly 3gb! Had to bring home and work on my 80Mbps Fibre connection - the 4Mbps connection in school will take days to download this lot!!
Click to expand...


Same here. I cover a lot of villages who maybe only have a 2MB or less line. I often go computers that haven't had updates for ages. Because their line is slow when they go online they don't want to be bogged down with downloads.
 
The worst thing Microsoft did with Windows 8 is not allow a clean install of 8.1 on a pc that Windows 8 came preinstalled on. It's just asinine, you have to install 8 then do ALL Windows updates then install 8.1, it takes forever. MS has totally screwed the pooch with 8 on all levels.
 
If a pc came with Windows 8 preinstalled (not 8.1) on it and say for instance the hard drive fails and you have to replace it, you cannot install 8.1 clean, you have to first install 8 then do the updates then 8.1 If you try and install 8.1 in this scenario it asks for a key which you cannot obtain because it is tied into the UEFI Firmware in the BIOS of the pc.
 
No there is a way around that:

This works for me (consolidated from other TN posts)

  1. If the PC will boot, run RWEverything (http://rweverything.com/) to display the BIOS key. (Click "ACPI" tab, then "MSDM" tab)
    If the PC won't boot, delay this step until later.
  2. Install Win 8 using the appropriate generic key:
    a) 334NH-RXG76-64THK-C7CKG-D3VPT for Core/Home (8.x)
    b) XHQ8N-C3MCJ-RQXB6-WCHYG-C9WKB for Professional (8.x Pro)
  3. If you weren't able to display the BIOS key in step 1, do it now using RWEverything
  4. Change the product key to the one extracted in step 1
  5. The OS will show as activated

Did this for the first time about two weeks ago for a Win 8 PC with a new HD (the previous HD had died). Installed 8.1 instead of 8.0 so I didn't have to go through the upgrade process. Worked great.
 
You can install it with a generic key and change the key after install if it asks for one.

To bypass this screen you may use a generic key which allows for installation only:

334NH-RXG76-64THK-C7CKG-D3VPT for Core/Home
XHQ8N-C3MCJ-RQXB6-WCHYG-C9WKB for Professional
 
To make matters worse on my installs, I spent ages installing all the updates required for 8.1, then discovered the vendor had installed a volume version so 8.1 does not appear in the store!! :mad: I used to dread working on Vista machines for OS issues, but I would probably say Windows 8 is worse!!!
 
nlinecomputers said:
Change the product key to the one extracted in step 1
Click to expand...

Thanks for pulling this into one place. After several failed attempts, it took me a night's sleep to realise that the machine has to be online for the quoted step.:oops: (I work offline until I've got the WSUS Offline updates done.)

You also have to select 'Service Packs' in WSUS Offline to get the Nov 2014 roll-ups for Win8.1. Just a few more update hours to go! I must make a slipstreamed image.
 
I must make a slipstreamed image.
Click to expand...

If you do, watch out for 2 updates that may install: kb2966826 & kb2966828. If you don't add dotnet 3.5 in your image these 2 updates stop you installing it later. I've been using NTLite for my images...
 
That's great info about ProduKey now getting the product keys from the BIOS.

Here is some more info regarding installing 8.1 straight to a computer when there is a HD failure and a Win8 key.

https://www.technibble.com/forums/threads/install-8-1-with-8-product-key.53584/#post-412065

We modified the ei.cfg file on the installation USB so it doesn't ask for a product key when you install 8.1. It installs 8.1 which bypasses the lengthy 8 to 8.1 update process. Once 8.1 is installed, then you can run ProduKey or RWeverything to get the product key and enter it in and activate.

Ideally though, just make a Windows 8.1 image in VirtualBox. Run sysprep on it. Inside the VirtualBox environment boot to a Macrium Reflect CD and create an image of Windows 8.1 in Macrium Reflect. Now anytime you need to install 8.1 to a HD, just boot to the Macrium Reflect CD on the computer with the new HD and restore the 8.1 image. We use DriverPacks afterwards to install all the drivers. DriverPacks is a 4+ GB download of many common drivers. It will normally find everything and has a nice installer that is automated so there isn't too much interaction with it.

The great thing about using Virtualbox is that you can just keep that image there without bothering it. When Windows Updates get 30-40 new ones you can update the Virtual Box instance and then make a new image in Macrium Reflect.

It takes us less than 6 minutes to restore an 8.1 image to a new computer. With drivers add another 6-7 minutes. Then we will go through and install some essential software. 7zip, CCleaner, etc. In total it is less than 30 minutes to install Windows 8.1 with all updates, drivers and essential software.

Using the 2 methods above will take the headache out of any Windows 8 installation.
 
wardoursecure said:
That's what I ended up doing, rolled back and started again.
Click to expand...

Client brought us a laptop that had the motherboard replaced by the factory and they installed Windows 7 instead of Windows 8 that it came with and it was showing 'not genuine'. Came to us since she has viruses and HP sent her the Windows 8 install disks. Client would love to stay with Windows 7 but the laptop didn't come with Windows 8 Pro so she doesn't have downgrade rights and the only version of 7 available nowdays is the OEM version which isn't legal for me to install either.
Moving forward, I cloned the drive and tested the drive throughly to make sure the drive was good. Did a fresh install of the O/S using the new disks... took forever. Installed all the updates, installed the Win 8.1 upgrade/update, everything going fine but it took far too long. Installed more Windows updates and then on reboot the system said it needs to be repaired.... nothing would fix it, not even going back to the only restore point it found. The system finally decides to delete all of the updates, including Windows 8.1 and all Windows 8 updates.
Back to working again... reinstalled all the Win8 updates and now the system notifies me that it wants me to update to Win 8.1..... I have copied the clients files over to the drive but I don't feel like allowing the laptop to install 8.1 again.
Tried to run Acronis to backup the drive but the program is not seeing the hard drive so I could backup or clone it to save myself some grief.
Just wish I had an HP OEM Windows 8.1 disk as I would have used that, but all I have is the Dell version.
 
Even with the HP 8.1 OEM disk, you are still looking at a good 30-45 minutes doing updates. Follow my directions above and you can be up and running in 30 minutes.
 
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