I Now Have Windows 8 On My Desktop Computer

[AlanHo]

Having tried Windows 8 on my Samsung Notebook unsuccessfully - a saga I documented in an earlier thread - I decided to have a go with installing Windows 8 Pro on my Desktop computer. I felt more confident this time having swatted up on the compendium of Windows 8 information posted by Maneman in another thread. There are many pearls of wisdom buried therein.

I have “acquired” a Windows 8 upgrade DVD which avoids the need to install via the Windows Upgrade Assistant web link. I already have the product key so I was equipped to have a go.

But first I ran the upgrade assistant to check on the compatibility of my computer and software which reported that the computer was not suitable because it could not use Windows 8 secure boot and there were 4 items of existing software with incompatibility issues.

My computer is home built with an Intel core 2 Quad Q9650 3.0 GHz CPU with 8 GB of RAM which way exceeds the minimum spec suggested by Microsoft. So I did some Googling to discover that the secure boot issue only applies to to PC's with newer UEFI type BIOS and prevents malware in the boot sector area of hard disks. Mine has the older type BIOS so it should install without a problem. It would have been easy to take the message as gospel and thus conclude that the computer was unsuitable and then not upgrade to Windows 8.

So I decided to have a go and used the DVD to install Windows 8 on top of Windows 7 – keeping all my settings and apps (which used to be called programs). It took about 90 minutes but installed without any problems. I don’t like the start menu in Windows 8 so I installed Stardock Start8 menu software to replicate the Windows 7 desktop as before.

I was surprised to find that everything was working fine – my printers and scanners were still working, the network had not been disturbed, all my desktop icons were as before and the only software that would not work in Windows 8 was Diskeeper 2010 which I had to uninstall.

The only issue was a message that Windows could not be activated because it was already in use on another machine (the previous notebook installation). The message was accompanied by a window showing 8 blocks of numbers – each of 6 digits. I had to phone Microsoft to get activation authorised which proved to be a bit of a palaver. A robot woman asks you to type into the phone the 8 blocks of numbers and to type the number of computers that Windows is installed on. She then goes off for a think and comes back to state that you must now overwrite these 8 blocks of numbers with new ones which she proceeds to read out to you at a speed slightly faster than my brain will work. Hence I had to punch the star key on the phone to get the message repeated a couple of times. I s’pose it took about 10 minutes overall but it was successful.

So I am now running Windows 8 on my desktop computer without any problems and can vouch for the fact that it boots much faster and feels generally more responsive. For sure Internet Explorer now operates at warp speed compared with before. I am not yet using the tiled metro desktop – but the conventional Windows 7 variety which I feel comfortable with.

I freely admit there is little to be gained by upgrading if you are using Windows 7 already – other than some ‘nice to have’ minor features, better inbuilt anti malware and a longer period of Microsoft support. I did it now to take advantage of the special offer price of £24.99 which expires in a few days time – after which the upgrade cost is 400% greater. I have therefore purchased 3 licences to cover our two desktop computers and my notebook.

So my next project will be to have another go at upgrading my notebook in the hope that installing via the DVD will obviate the problems I met last time.

Watch this space.

[MANEMAN]

Well done that man ! :)

I wrote in another thread of the difficulty of diagnosis of W8 boot problems on forums, because we are going to have a bunch of people relying on UEFI to boot their computers, and yet another bunch booting up with the old BIOS.

As a large number of posters would be mentally challenged to point out "The Sea" on a map of the world, I begin to wonder how anyone is going to extract the question of " UEFI or BIOS ? " information from them.

( This is one of the reasons I posted the W8 guide links on the forum. - A, - 'Go read and learn' - strategy, bound to fail because it does not include spoon feeding.)

Anyone slightly interested in UEFI click here: Goodbye BIOS: A simple guide to UEFI

Anyone interested in the sea, - it is usually depicted as blue in colour on a map of the world.

There is an excellent website covering lots, and lots of topics for W8 people here: Computer Performance Windows 8

Well done Alan let's hope the notebook installation goes as smoothly.

Since I spoke to you last I tracked down the 2 remaining " Nexus 7 " Google Tablets in Cornwall, Drove to Penzance, and bought one. :)

I am now hands on with the Android Jelly Bean 4.2 operating system. Install and uninstall is fast like a MAC. A multi-core processor makes the whole experience very fast. Picture quality when watching T.V or movies is phenomenal for the size. This thing is no toy. I've fitted it out with Dropbox, Skype, Avast AV and theft protection, Team Viewer, BBC iPlayer, TV Catchup, Book reader for all my .mobi files, it comes with Google Chrome browser, GPS direction location, and a bunch of other stuff. I can see this as being really useful.

I have decided I am not going to Root it until the warranty is out. Bricking this thing after only a week would be heartbreaking. I will just have to lay off of my habit of pulling things to pieces to see how they work for a while.

Looking forward to hearing how the notebook install of W8 goes here on the forum.

John.