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Microsoft Announces Windows 10

kaskade

Member
Hi everyone. Hoping I could get some help on migrating my OS's around.

I just bought a new machine with Windows 8.1 pre-installed. Apparently these don't come with product keys anymore? I bought an SSD, and I want a fresh install on it, removing all the bloatware.

1) How do I install a fresh copy of Windows 8.1 to my SSD, using my "product key"?
2) Will I still be eligible for the free Windows 10 upgrade?

Thanks for your help.

I've looked into product key stuff since I upgraded from 7 to 8.1 on my custom machine and bought an SSD too and couldn't find my key. I'm assuming yours is preinstalled so there could be a sticker on the machine with it. Or it's in the BIOS or something so you might not even need to enter a key.I've heard of that being a thing. You can also find out the key in your registry.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion Click ProductID and modify and it should pop up.
 

komplanen

Member
Hi everyone. Hoping I could get some help on migrating my OS's around.

I just bought a new machine with Windows 8.1 pre-installed. Apparently these don't come with product keys anymore? I bought an SSD, and I want a fresh install on it, removing all the bloatware.

1) How do I install a fresh copy of Windows 8.1 to my SSD, using my "product key"?
2) Will I still be eligible for the free Windows 10 upgrade?

Thanks for your help.

I had the same problem. Turns out you can download a media creation tool from Microsoft that picks the cd key from registry and slipstreams it into the install media (usb or dvd)
 

jelly

Member
If you want to mess around and make your own. Link to wallpapers and individual assets.

Link

P9qjvp3.jpg


TBSMPr5.gif
 

Wag

Member
So I'm going to upgrade my setup to Skylake sometime in the near future. If I upgrade my Sandybridge Win 8.1 setup now to Win 10 will I be able to transfer the Win 10 Key to the Skylake setup or will it be locked to the Sandybridge one?
 
So I'm going to upgrade my setup to Skylake sometime in the near future. If I upgrade my Sandybridge Win 8.1 setup now to Win 10 will I be able to transfer the Win 10 Key to the Skylake setup or will it be locked to the Sandybridge one?
Chances are it will be locked to the Sandy Bridge motherboard. Many people have called Microsoft and got their keys back when in the same situation as you though.
 

CaptainABAB

Member
Running build 10162 (can't upgrade to 10240 as it is running in a Boot-to-VHD)
Big improvement over build 10074.

What I like about Edge:
  • I didn't notice before that PDF files open in Edge. Seems to work well so far - may not ever install Adobe Reader.
  • Performance is better on many sites.
  • Dark theme.
Areas where I still prefer IE11 in Win10:
  • Vertical scrollbar in Edge is too thin. Prefer a larger width for mouse usage.
  • Edge does not show history of prior pages when holding down on the Back Arrow.
  • Edge does not remember when I pin the favorites sidebar. Have to always turn this back on every time I open Edge.
  • Still prefer the vertical favorites bar on the left in IE 11.
 
Ouch that sucks. My friend won't be happy I'm trying to help out. How can I confirm if it is a rt to make sure? I thought the rt version didn't have desktop on it?

Type "System Information" from Start

Can you clarify the device? You mentioned Surface Pro 1 and Windows RT. Surface Pro would have full Windows and you'll be able to update to Windows 10, Surface RT will not.
 
Type "System Information" from Start

Can you clarify the device? You mentioned Surface Pro 1 and Windows RT. Surface Pro would have full Windows and you'll be able to update to Windows 10, Surface RT will not.

I'm going to get them to. They were telling me it was a pro and when I looked at it earlier it had the desktop mode and everything so I assumed it was. Then I remember seeing it saying RT in the system info. I'm clueless on Microsoft tablets.
 

Drifters

Junior Member
I'm going to get them to. They were telling me it was a pro and when I looked at it earlier it had the desktop mode and everything so I assumed it was. Then I remember seeing it saying RT in the system info. I'm clueless on Microsoft tablets.
Easier way to tell, are they using IE or Firefox or Chrome. :)
 
Quick question. Does Edge redirect you to mobile sites or the full desktop version? Can you force mobile versions?

Almost positive there is a way to force the mobile version...but maybe I'm mixing this up with Edge of W10 Mobile.

EDIT: Yeah, guess I'm wrong. Could have sworn I had read something on that, though, because I was excited about using mobile GAF on my SP3 in tablet mode.
 

Trouble

Banned
So somehow my Nvidia drivers just up and uninstalled themselves. WTF

Was using the computer earlier came back and it had hibernated (which it has never done before, it's set to hibernate never). Geforce experience still there and is reinstalling the drivers now.

Edit: 'twas Windows Update being an asshole. Apparently it shit all over itself trying to install a GTX 970 update.
 

MmmSkyscraper

Unconfirmed Member
The 3 notable issues I had so far with 10240:

1. the Windows Update/Nvidia driver update SNAFU, fun to work out what had happened while I'd been AFK and fix

2. MS Money stopped working on this build as it couldn't find IE 6 components, a registry edit fixed that for now

3. Add/Remove Programs thinks MS Money is using 101GB, not so much a problem just amusing

Other than that, fairly solid so far.
 
Since reading the Android to iOS switchers thread, I never really considered using a Mobile Windows 10 OS on Microsoft's new smartphones. What difference is the environment on Mobile vs Desktop? Can I run .exe on the phones? The rumored Cityman (Lumia 950 XL) specs are really what I'm looking for.
 
Since reading the Android to iOS switchers thread, I never really considered using a Mobile Windows 10 OS on Microsoft's new smartphones. What difference is the environment on Mobile vs Desktop? Can I run .exe on the phones? The rumored Cityman (Lumia 950 XL) specs are really what I'm looking for.

No, you can't run .exe's on phones. You can only run phone and universal apps.

Full desktop only. Mobile version can only be enforced on the phone.

I always get the full desktop version. I don't know if there's a way to force mobile versions of websites. Don't see an option in the settings.

Almost positive there is a way to force the mobile version...but maybe I'm mixing this up with Edge of W10 Mobile.

EDIT: Yeah, guess I'm wrong. Could have sworn I had read something on that, though, because I was excited about using mobile GAF on my SP3 in tablet mode.

Thanks, guys. That's really a bummer. I'm really thinking hard about getting a Surface, but I'd really at least have the option to run mobile versions of websites by default. It also sucks for small tablets.
 

The Cowboy

Member
I really advise against trying this. It made me unable to log into Windows since it made the log-in page blank. That was a pain in the butt to fix without having to reinstall Windows!

I never thought to edit my post, after an MS update after this tool came out they changed the security on the file it changes, with the change the tool can cause that issue.

There is a way around it, something to do with booting up your recovery media and restoring the backup - but I've not had it happen and since the security change I've not uses it again.

I edited out the link etc just now, so if you want to edit your post so my quote doesn't show the link that would be great.
 

terrible

Banned
I never thought to edit my post, after an MS update after this tool came out they changed the security on the file it changes, with the change the tool can cause that issue.

There is a way around it, something to do with booting up your recovery media and restoring the backup - but I've not had it happen and since the security change I've not uses it again.

I edited out the link etc just now, so if you want to edit your post so my quote doesn't show the link that would be great.

Yeah that's how I fixed it. I opened notepad via command prompt and used the file browser in the "open file" menu to replace the corrupted file. Luckily I have Windows 10 on two devices so I was able to get the file I needed to fix the problem.

To be fair you did say use at your own risk lol
 
No, you can't run .exe's on phones. You can only run phone and universal apps.







Thanks, guys. That's really a bummer. I'm really thinking hard about getting a Surface, but I'd really at least have the option to run mobile versions of websites by default. It also sucks for small tablets.
I made a few feedback entries about this on the feedback app, it's not particularly well voted, but since they already have that in place for the mobile version perhaps they can add the option...
 
Got all the latest updates and that even finally allowed me to successfully install the firmware updates package, but I still have the following that is preventing my machine from entering and staying in sleep mode. I even looked up an override prompt and that appeared to work, but then came back. Help?

Code:
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.10240]
(c) 2015 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>powercfg -requests
DISPLAY:
None.

SYSTEM:
[DRIVER] Realtek High Definition Audio (HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0280&SUBSYS_10EC104E&REV_1000\4&2aee3be3&0&0001)
An audio stream is currently in use.

AWAYMODE:
None.

EXECUTION:
None.

PERFBOOST:
None.
 
No, you can't run .exe's on phones. You can only run phone and universal apps.







Thanks, guys. That's really a bummer. I'm really thinking hard about getting a Surface, but I'd really at least have the option to run mobile versions of websites by default. It also sucks for small tablets.


That's unfortunate, can Surface Pros run exe's? If so, do they have 4G connectivity?
 
The Pro series' whole thing is that they can run .exes (I think the plain Surface 3 can do so too, though).

I don't think they get 4G unless you get one of those cellular adapters.

AT&T started selling an LTE Surface 3 today, but yeah the regular Surface devices don't include built-in cellular connectivity hardware.
 

SPDIF

Member
Thanks, guys. That's really a bummer. I'm really thinking hard about getting a Surface, but I'd really at least have the option to run mobile versions of websites by default. It also sucks for small tablets.

Quoting myself, but you could always just do this:

It is quite annoying how there's no simple way to change the UA string, although thankfully that's changed in Windows 10. In the meantime the link you were looking for on Google would be this one. But since this is Windows 8.1 with Bing, it doesn't come with certain features like GPEDIT. Which means the only way to change the UA is to mess around in the registry, which is annoying at the best of times, never mind using your fingers on a touch screen. So to help fix that I put together two very simple REG files:


  • One that enables mobile mode
    Code:
    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
    
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent]
    "Platform"="Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 8_1 like Mac OS X)"
    "Version"="AppleWebKit/600.1.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/8.0 Mobile/12B411 Safari/600.1.4"
  • And one that disables it (if you'll ever want to)
    Code:
    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
    
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent]
    "Platform"=-
    "Version"=-

All you need to do is copy and paste the above code into a text editor and save it with whatever name you want, just make sure you put .reg at the end.

But if you don't want to do that then I've got the two files ready to go:
Enable: https://mega.co.nz/#!kR4CiYCB!ybW8m8Y9CBOF2Ydc2xRVQX6vQq-oMziaekk3r4SRQuY
Disable: https://mega.co.nz/#!RUxCiIwb!RFVJgsxvmp7gzNCegJPPqF0KllLpLAgf_mbgJtQSOP0

Just save them where you like and then whenever you want to enter mobile mode just double tap the "enableMobile" file. I've tested it both on my laptop and on my own Stream 7 and it's working fine. If it's not working for you then try clearing any temp files from IE and then try again.

Hope this helps somebody.

As you'll note by the strikethrough above, it was rather easy to change the UA string in previous technical previews. It was an option if you typed "about:flags" into the address bar. Seems to have been removed now though.

So yeah, maybe not the most elegant of solutions, but it'll work.
 

Knight77

Member
Guys this is driving me crazy: The taskbar doesnt autohide, after some time it works but get stuck without hiding , I have to restart windows explorer process to make it work again....for a short time.

Any solution?
 

Heretic

Member
Guys this is driving me crazy: The taskbar doesnt autohide, after some time it works but get stuck without hiding , I have to restart windows explorer process to make it work again....for a short time.

Any solution?

Click on Cortana then click out. That would happen to me A LOT on an older build.
 

Knight77

Member
Click on Cortana then click out. That would happen to me A LOT on an older build.

Cortana you mean search? Because Cortana in Italy is not yet available. Clicking in the search box then on the desktop, as someone suggested for previous builds, doesn't solve the problem :-(
 

Jzero

Member
They already updated to 353.62 so it doesn't even matter now.

I'm pretty sure this isn't going to be the only time we get a forced shitty driver. The tool is just there for the future.

Edit: Just look at the posts below and the other threads
 

Cystm

Member
Such a joy waking up to my graphics card being broken and my second monitor being rendered useless. No workarounds are working.
 

Willectro

Banned
I want to do a fresh install of Windows 10 when it releases. I'm running 8.1 now and have an extra SSD. Will I be able to install 10 on the extra SSD without wiping my 8.1? Thanks.
 

Raide

Member
Blargh. Every so often Windows seems to crawl to a halt and then I find out the display driver has defaulted to the basic windows one lol. Damn Nvidia.
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
After upgrading to Windows 10, if we need to format our computers, will we get permanent access to install W10 again or will we need to buy a fresh W10 key?

Cause a colleague called MS support and asked them this same question, and they told him it would be necessary to buy a new key in that case. However, I still find it hard to believe.
 
After upgrading to Windows 10, if we need to format our computers, will we get permanent access to install W10 again or will we need to buy a fresh W10 key?

Cause a colleague called MS support and asked them this same question, and they told him it would be necessary to buy a new key in that case. However, I still find it hard to believe.

I think your Windows 10 install will be tied to your Microsoft account and you will be able to access the install information from their store. Not sure how that will work for a clean install.

Seems to be a lot like the way OS X works now.
 

Knight77

Member
Guys I have upgraded from an activated W8.1 but I have W10 with an offline account, do I need to create a MS account one or can I keep it offline? I have two PC in the same condition....
 
Guys I have upgraded from an activated W8.1 but I have W10 with an offline account, do I need to create a MS account one or can I keep it offline? I have two PC in the same condition....
You might have to make a Microsoft account for the Windows 10 upgrade. I'm not sure at all though.
 
I have already upgraded and I'm activated but I just am wondering if the MS account will ever be necessary since now I'm using an offline account...
Oh looks I should stop glossing over sentences before replying.

The MS account will only be necessary if you want to use the apps from the Store. Otherwise you should be fine.
 

Sourcerer

Member
Can someone give me the lowdown for my situation? Hard to find these answers by searching.

As someone who doesn't own any version of windows I'd like to get a copy of Windows 10 on Wednesday. But I don't see any way to buy it directly, should I buy 8 and upgrade it? Will I then have 10 forever and be able to do fresh installs?
 
As someone who doesn't own any version of windows I'd like to get a copy of Windows 10 on Wednesday. But I don't see any way to buy it directly, should I buy 8 and upgrade it? Will I then have 10 forever and be able to do fresh installs?
The free upgrade offer lasts until July 2016. If you buy a copy of Windows 8.1 now you should be fine once the 29th rolls around. Just know that it looks like the Windows 10 upgrade will be a staggered rollout to users, so you might not even get it day one.

Once upgraded you have it forever. You don't have to purchase anything extra after a year is up. You will be able to perform fresh installs.
 
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