Thanks. I bought the Dell from Sam's Club so I'm not sure if Dell will help?Contact Dell and they should provide a disk free of charge. I assume they will also furnish you with the key but if not there are means to find out..
Thanks. I definitely want to install Windows 8 to a freshly formatted drive. IMHO, that's the only way to insure an absolutely bloatware free install. I know this can be done with Windows 7 so I was hoping there was some way to do it for Windows 8. I also don't want to buy another Windows 8 since the Dell already includes a legally licensed copy.The problem might be that the DVD provided by Dell will contain all the bloatware as well. It's also most likely that your PC came with the Win 8 Standard edition.
Why not just uninstall all the junk included by Dell. I use an app called PC Decrapifier (that's really the name) to assist with this chore.
You cannot download the Win 8 ISO file unless you purchase a copy for $40 from MS. If you do this during the install, you will be given a choice to Install from created media. This will allow you to burn the ISO file to either DVD or Flash Drive. This will however give you a copy of Win 8 that is totally free of Dell junk. It will also give you a DVD that includes the Repair Console.
If you wish to keep your present Win 8 junk filled installation you can make an Image of it using a 3rd party Imaging app. This way you do not have to create a dual boot (which you will have to get rid of later, fairly easy to do if you know what you are doing, but will require 3rd party Partitioning app). Simply replace the present junk filled Win 8 installation with the MS plain installation.
Another advantage is that the new PC probably includes Win 8 standard edition. The $40 upgrade edition you will purchase and burn the ISO file to DVD will be the Win 8 Pro version which also qualifies for the free Media Center addition. The Standard version does not allow Media Center upgrade unless you upgrade to Win 8 Pro using the Pro Pack Upgrade, which is actually more than the $40 Upgrade edition.
Thanks. I will be destroying the existing Windows while creating C and D partitions and resizing them with a bootable partition manager. I keep OS and programs on C and all data on D. Once the Windows install is complete, I use a bootable version of Acronis True Image to make a backup of the C partition. I use SyncBackSE to make daily backups of data on D.During the installation from DVD after you choose Custom Install, on the next screen there is a link for Advanced Disk Options. After you click this you can highlight the partition containing Win 8 and choose to format it as part of the installation.
As I stated earlier, the DVD you receive from Dell will most likely be the Dell branded DVD and include all the Dell Junk. Plus it will most likely be the Standard version, not the Pro version. That's why I suggested the possibility of an additional purchase from MS. The download and ISO burn to DVD will give you a virgin Win 8 Pro installation without any of the Dell junk. As I stated the Pro version also allows the addition of Media Center which the Standard version does not allow.
Thanks. It appears from your link that I should be fine with the regular Windows 8. It is tempting, however, to take advantage of the Pro promotion before it expires in January. Worst case, I could always resell it to someone who needs itIf you already have a Data partition there is no reason to wipe that out. I kept my Data partition in place, formatted the C Drive as part of the install as outlined above. I further removed a dual boot and resized the Data partition to make it bigger.
Win 8 Pro (clean from MS, no manufacturer junk installed) without harming the data partition in the least. Once the installation was done I had to change the data pointers in the OS to the existing data partition. Worked great.
Wiping out the old OS and starting from scratch is great. If the Dell DVD is indeed a "virgin" windows DVD that is great. For the average home user, unless you need Media Center, the Standard version is most likely OK. This Wikipedia article has a chart showing the comparison of the various versions.
Thanks. Yes, I've tried that before but I found that it was more trouble than it was worth. Maybe with a new OS, I'll give it a try again.By changing the pointers in the approved method you can move all your system data, favorites, pictures, music, etc., to the data partition and the libraries will point to the correct folders automatically as well.
Thanks. I'll give it another try. The thing is that I've been doing without the pointers for so long, at this point it's hard to justify change. As mentioned, the only program where it's still an issue is SyncBackSE and I have a workaround for that.This has worked excellently for me. I have included a screenshot of my data drive. These were set up in Win 7 and when I installed Win 8 I simply used the same method to change the pointers to the data drive without ever touching the data drive during the installation. Worked great. This was handy when I had a dual boot because I set the pointers to both of these OSs to the same data partition. In this way it did not matter which OS I was using, my data was upgraded as I made changes in either OS.
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Thanks. I have read the same, but wonder if there's a link (possibly from MS) that verifies it. For convenience sake, I would like to purchase and download the ISO file on my 32 bit laptop running Windows 7 and then use the resulting DVD to clean install Windows 8 Pro to my new Windows 8 laptop.The downloaded ISO file is the same "Bitness" as the PC you download it on. If Win 7 is a 32 Bit, that's what you will get.
I do not know of any way to download the other "Bitness" ISO file.