Solved Win8 upgrade experience

[Slartybart]

Sounds as though you're well on your way Mike, good luck.

 

[Slartybart]

Thought I should mention that I don't work from the Start screen, it's just my start menu...

Windows Explorer is pretty much the same as Win7.

 

[ThrashZone]

About 3 million updates,
Almost done with the first round of important ones

 

[SIW2]

If you are upgrading via store to 8.1:

When it gets to 100%, close the window. Do not reboot just yet.

Find the $Windows~bt folder and copy it somewhere safe. That contains the installation media. (It'a big)

Now you can reboot to complete the upgrade.

 

[ThrashZone]

Ouch I'm not sure where and what that is Siw2

 

[Indianatone]

Hi Guys. I have had 8 & 8.1 on my machine as a Virtual OS since it came out and I was bought 8.1 pro for Christmas. I have both ISO's and had been wondering what to do with them. Last week I "upgraded a 7 OS" with a clean install on my dual boot main machine. All my machines have at least 2 OS's for those screw up times. I installed 8.1 64 bit and ran the updates and most of the drivers for the motherboard were on the ISO. I updated Creative Labs & AMD Radeon drivers and installed classic shell. I disabled all the silly charms and deleted from the start screen all of the apps except desktop. The machine is set to boot to desktop. I tweaked the registry using some Windows 7 tweaks to add functions to the OS. I downloaded several themes and use one of the window background grey colours as my main them colour. What I have ended up with is a nice looking OS that is perfectly fine but does not quite look as nice as 7. If this would have the full glass effect I would be using it all the time. Still it is not bad. M$ could have saved themselves a lot of trouble if they had allowed us to choose what we want to install. I have changed my mind, 8 sucks. 8.1 with the updates is fine as long the modern interface is locked away and classic shell is installed and of course you don't have 20 Windows 7 Keys kicking around.

http://www.eightforums.com/attachme...our-desktop-2014-06-11-12_01_33-greenshot.jpg

 

[ThrashZone]

We all love freebies please share your tweaks

 

[Indianatone]

Add regedit to control panel Works on 7 and 8

Code
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{77708248-f839-436b-8919-527c410f48b9}]
@="Registry Editor"
"InfoTip"="Starts the Registry Editor"
"System.ControlPanel.Category"="5"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{77708248-f839-436b-8919-527c410f48b9}\DefaultIcon]
@="%SYSTEMROOT%\\regedit.exe"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{77708248-f839-436b-8919-527c410f48b9}\Shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{77708248-f839-436b-8919-527c410f48b9}\Shell\Open]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{77708248-f839-436b-8919-527c410f48b9}\Shell\Open\Command]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
00,5c,00,72,00,65,00,67,00,65,00,64,00,69,00,74,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,\
00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ControlPanel\NameSpace\{77708248-f839-436b-8919-527c410f48b9}]
@="Add Registry Editor to Control Panel"

 

[Indianatone]

Here is three all my machines have.

How to Add Recycle Bin, Run, Search and Many Other Useful Shortcuts in My Computer? - AskVG

How to Add Windows 7 ?God Mode? Icon in Control Panel and My Computer Window? - AskVG

   Tip

Add ?Take Ownership? Option in Files and Folders Context Menu in Windows - AskVG

   Tip

Change the mode of registry to edit instead of the default MERGE (dangerous in the wrong hands)

Code:
REGEDIT5

;Only use this patch in Windows XP and above

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\regfile\shell\open]
@="Mer&ge"
"EditFlags"=hex:01,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\regfile\shell\open\command]
@="regedit.exe /s \"%1\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\regfile\shell]
@="edit"


Windows will tell you what it is doing when starting and shutting down:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; Windows will tell you exactly what it is doing when it is shutting down or is booting

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system]
"verbosestatus"=dword:00000001

If you want more PM me and I can ZIPor RAR them up and send them to you. I have a ton collected over the tweaking years...

 

[Slartybart]

If you are upgrading via store to 8.1:

When it gets to 100%, close the window. Do not reboot just yet.

Find the $Windows~bt folder and copy it somewhere safe. That contains the installation media. (It'a big)

Now you can reboot to complete the upgrade.

Ouch I'm not sure where and what that is Siw2

Mike, I'm sure you're way past this question, but since I don't see an anwer.

The $Windows~bt folder will be on your system root drive (most likely c - I think it's a hidden file.
You'll have two folders the ~bt and yet another windows.old (mothing to do with the ~bt folder, just thought I'd mention it)

Hope that helps if you're still looking for an answer.

 

[ThrashZone]

Thanks Bill,
Too late for that one,
I'm not worried about it though,
I hate when people drop vague suggestions and disappear
Cheers.

At this particular moment 8.1 is driving me a little batty

How the heck do you turn off tool tip ?
The giant freaking corner arrow ?

 

[Slartybart]

I think you just click on it. I'm not sure but I got a tip, then another then no more.

I understand, I was there not too long ago

I'm only ahead of you by 24-36 hours, but know ye this.... it gets better once you start clicking things and moving the apps out of your way. Right click everything.

Tune off live tiles - they waste bandwidth

uninstall the crap apps - they keep coming back on my sys - I have to figure that out soon or ..... or .... why I oughta....

 

[Slartybart]

Tip: When you're in the tiled Start or Apps, use the mouse wheel to scroll left or right.

Use the WinKey button to switch between Tiled GUI and Desktop


Hmmmm, just tried to uninstall an app - it took me to Pgms & Feats, but there is no entry. Looked again and realized it's a portable app - there is no install. It's just a shortcut to the pgm.

 

[Britton30]

Bill what's a VUP version and what is ESD ISO?
Do you have the link to the Win 8 forums tutorial?

 

[Slartybart]

Thanks David, I was going to try and find the post you made - saved me from looking for it.

The tuts on Win8 were written by some guy named Brink and they are very good as usual. I took the long road just for experience.

Clean Install - Windows 8

Clean Install with Windows 8 Upgrade

Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 ISO - Download or Create
Read Option Three a few times.
.....

Bill what's a VUP version and what is ESD ISO?
Do you have the link to the Win 8 forums tutorial?

Gary, I don't have a clue what those things mean. They were on the packaging and in the tutorial so I was hoping someone who knew might clue me in.

In the last tut I linked SIW wrote a tool to manipultate the ESD-ISO in order to create a "normal" install media. I read OPTION THREE a few times, but decided "what the heck".

The three links above are fairly standard - Mike and David link some others up near the top of the thread.
I think the key is to interrupt the install either at the very beginning or before 100%. Why? Again, I don't know.

Once I'm more comfortable with Win8, I might do this again - the right way.

 

[ThrashZone]

Did 8.1 installed them all back

I made a big mistake and used a outlook.com email address not knowing that was going to be my login
Already switched to a local account that took away 6-7 annoying app right there,
Account settings open my email account settings very weird adventure so far,

Starting to settle down a bit no error switching to a local account is the only good thing so far,
win-8.1 start thing is a two function waist desktop or metro gezz that's the next annoying thing to go,

Gav !

 

[Slartybart]

You're making me laugh - yes it is / was a weird trip down some rabbit hole.

To be honest, I don't think the learning curve will be as bad as going from Vista to Win7 - that too was a long strange trip. Having a tablet to play with makes it easier to understand a little, not that I like the way tablets work either. I keep trying to open the other "tab". Oh well, back to the future!

 

[ThrashZone]

I had vista for less than 30 days/ win-7 was a joy that needed Zero tweaking,
8 is already more complicated,
But yes life goes on I'm on 8 now but that was just to kill the outlook.com connection,
Who knew what a local account was

The real bummer is Onedrive is stuck in win-8.1 forever,
It took 10 minutes to find the freaking snipping tool

 

[derekimo]

This may help...

The VUP Windows License ( Version Upgrade License )

VUP Windows licenses ( Version Upgrade license ) are best for users who already own a valid license of an older Windows version and want to upgrade to the new version without paying too much money.

Microsoft allows you to upgrade by providing a VUP package that quickly updates your OS to the newest version.

For example, if you have a Windows 7 Home Premium license, the VUP package allows you to upgrade to Windows 8. If you have a Windows 7 Professional license you can easily upgrade to Windows 8 Pro.

Windows Licenses Explained: OEM, VUP and Retail; What Are They And What To Buy ?

 

[Slartybart]

Thanks Derek, I was lazy.

My turn!
ESD: Microsoft Online Electronic Software Download (ESD) Support