Any Early Windows 8 HTPC Adopters? - Page 13 - Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums

Wayne · 2013-01-25, 03:15 PM

Thanks - you would think Netflix would be an obvious one that would support a remote.

XM4243 · 2013-01-25, 04:42 PM

I have three Windows 7 computers so I decided to try out W8 on one before the Jan 31st deadline for the $40 upgrade.

I bought a new SSD and did a clean install on it. This allowed me to dual boot to my legacy Windows 7 drive and to the new Windows 8. I recommend this for anyone who wants a clean install but is concerned about access to their "old" system.

After a few weeks, I still find W8 cumbersome to navigate, a pain in the arse to shutdown, and too much advertising drivel that had to be removed.

I decided I'm going to save $80 and not upgrade the other systems. I'm using the money towards putting new SSD's in the other machines.

Michael DeAbreu · 2013-01-25, 06:58 PM

How did you do a clean install to the SSD? Doesn't it have to have Win7 on it before you can download the upgrade? I was going to clone my C:drive to the SSD. Boot from the SSD. Do a clean install.

The reason I wanted to do this was because it took almost a week to get the free authorization code for Media Center. I didn't want my main HTPC to be out of commission for that long.

For me, this is the fastest way to shutdown my Win 8 computer.
http://lifehacker.com/5953453/add-a-...8-start-screen

I pinned media center to the start screen so that it is just one Green Button away. I'm still juggling which apps to pin and how to arrange the tiles.

Oddly, after disabling the lock screen like many people, I turned it back on again. I found it looked better than my cluttered desktop and wasn't really that much of a bother to log in.

j0dest3r · 2013-01-26, 09:47 PM

I have been able to do two upgrade purchases as a clean install with no previous OS by installing the system using my previous purchased key, then using slmgr from the command prompt to do a rearm the rebooted then used /ipk to insert the new key and then slmgr /ato to activate. No nonsense having to worry about the previous OS doing it that way.

Dr.Dave · 2013-01-27, 11:40 AM

I agree the shutdown process is too cumbersome, but the shutdown syntax on lifehacker is incorrect. It should be:

shutdown.exe -s -t 00

For restart I also use:

shutdown.exe -r -t 00

You can also pin the command to the Taskbar, which comes in handy if you spend most of your time in the desktop environment.

Quote:

How did you do a clean install to the SSD? Doesn't it have to have Win7 on it before you can download the upgrade?

I recently installed Win 8 from DVD on a PC that had a Win 7 System partition and unallocated space that I had created by shrinking the Win 7 partition, so the Win 8 installer may just look for the existence of Win 7 on the PC.

j0dest3r · 2013-01-29, 12:26 PM

ALT-F4 still works, as well if you get START8 start menu, shutdown is back where it used to be.

XM4243 · 2013-01-31, 04:09 PM

Quote:

How did you do a clean install to the SSD? Doesn't it have to have Win7 on it before you can download the upgrade?

I read that you could do it in Maximum PC. Note that I had W7 on the system on the boot drive. So it was a clean install on the SSD but I think that it still checks to see if you have W7 on another drive on your system.

j0dest3r · 2013-02-04, 11:34 AM

For me, for sure, it was a clean install, the drive was freshly partitioned and formatted. I wouldn't expect a regular person to drop to the command line and start messing with slmgr etc. but the double install trick that worked with Windows 7 should still work for Windows 8 although at that point you might want to re-install 7 and then upgrade anyway. They only reasons why you potentially may not want to is the recovery partition on on Windows 8 is larger 350mb v.s. 100mb for Windows 7 and you may have upgrade media for your Windows 7 installation as well.

2013-01-25, 06:58 PM	#183
Michael DeAbreu Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 806	How did you do a clean install to the SSD? Doesn't it have to have Win7 on it before you can download the upgrade? I was going to clone my C:drive to the SSD. Boot from the SSD. Do a clean install. The reason I wanted to do this was because it took almost a week to get the free authorization code for Media Center. I didn't want my main HTPC to be out of commission for that long. For me, this is the fastest way to shutdown my Win 8 computer. http://lifehacker.com/5953453/add-a-...8-start-screen I pinned media center to the start screen so that it is just one Green Button away. I'm still juggling which apps to pin and how to arrange the tiles. Oddly, after disabling the lock screen like many people, I turned it back on again. I found it looked better than my cluttered desktop and wasn't really that much of a bother to log in. __________________ Samsung LN40A550, Asus A8N SLI, Athlon 64 X2 3800, ATI HD Wonder, 2 Hauppauge HVR-2250, LG BH10LS30 Blu-ray, Windows 7

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2013-01-25, 03:15 PM	#181
Wayne Veteran Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Scarboro Posts: 5,568	Thanks - you would think Netflix would be an obvious one that would support a remote.

2013-01-25, 04:42 PM	#182
XM4243 Premium Supporter Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 880	I have three Windows 7 computers so I decided to try out W8 on one before the Jan 31st deadline for the $40 upgrade. I bought a new SSD and did a clean install on it. This allowed me to dual boot to my legacy Windows 7 drive and to the new Windows 8. I recommend this for anyone who wants a clean install but is concerned about access to their "old" system. After a few weeks, I still find W8 cumbersome to navigate, a pain in the arse to shutdown, and too much advertising drivel that had to be removed. I decided I'm going to save $80 and not upgrade the other systems. I'm using the money towards putting new SSD's in the other machines.

2013-01-26, 09:47 PM	#184
j0dest3r Veteran Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 1,617	I have been able to do two upgrade purchases as a clean install with no previous OS by installing the system using my previous purchased key, then using slmgr from the command prompt to do a rearm the rebooted then used /ipk to insert the new key and then slmgr /ato to activate. No nonsense having to worry about the previous OS doing it that way.

2013-01-29, 12:26 PM	#186
j0dest3r Veteran Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 1,617	ALT-F4 still works, as well if you get START8 start menu, shutdown is back where it used to be.

2013-02-04, 11:34 AM	#188
j0dest3r Veteran Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 1,617	For me, for sure, it was a clean install, the drive was freshly partitioned and formatted. I wouldn't expect a regular person to drop to the command line and start messing with slmgr etc. but the double install trick that worked with Windows 7 should still work for Windows 8 although at that point you might want to re-install 7 and then upgrade anyway. They only reasons why you potentially may not want to is the recovery partition on on Windows 8 is larger 350mb v.s. 100mb for Windows 7 and you may have upgrade media for your Windows 7 installation as well.