Kyo

I believe this should sort you out: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-CLEAN-Install-Windows-8-directly-from-Hard-/

If you are looking into arch, I would suggest checkking out http://www.evolutionlinux.com/
 
It basically still gives you the option to the OS from scratch but without all of the commands. It has a graphical terminal installer and takes you through the steps one by one. I have used it many times, and it works well every time.
 
Here is a guide of the install process if you are curious to how it looks and works http://www.evolutionlinux.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=249

I'm a proud owner of a...... Let's face it .... A Nexus 4 !! ( * troll face * )
Its an amazing phone with an outdated processor , outdated screen and outdated what not !!
But it runs aosp 5.0.2 , so I've got that going for me , which is nice .
I've been using this ( ex ) Beast for 2 years now ..
It was all fine until recently , ( after playing around with my friends n6 ) That I found out that its soo much slower that other stuff ...
So I did an years worth of research in like 5 minutes and volia !
The results were disappointing.. ..
All I did was to over clock it to 1.944 GHz and overvolt it by a few mili volts ..
Turns out that my phone became very hot ( CPU temp about 74 °c ).
Droids in our pockets need a lot of ram ... That's a common mis conception.
I don't think our phones need to have more than 2 gigs of juice .
So here are some points you can do to make that thing snappier !!
1. Factory reset the phone
2. Don't install any software that cleans cache and other stuff.. Usually it does more bad than it does good ..
3. Flash an aosp ROM that isn't heavily modded ( you can find the tips and FAQ's here :- http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/127469-general-guide-to-custom-roms-and-rooting-w-faq/
4. Decrease the animation speeds . This can be done in developer options which can be unlocked by tapping the build number a few times ( maybe 8 .. I don't remember )
5. Use light weight launchers.
6. Now this is the part where some of you may argue with me ..
Our phones have plenty of ram . mine has 2 gigs of it . although it doesn't even use 50% of it !!
Here is what you do .
After you are done with an app .. You either press the back button or swipe away the cards in recents menu in order to close it .
Instead of doing that .. You press the home button . This will pause the app and cache it in your ram !
So when you again access your app it will open instantly .
This method uses a lil bit of more ram , but it increases the so called snappyness by ten times ![ THIS CACHES THE APP DATA IN THE RAM SO THAT THE CPU CAN INSTANTLY REACH FOR ITS FILES TO COMPILE . IN ART THE FILES ARE ALREADY COMPILED MAKING IT FASTER . NOTE THAT THIS DOES NOT COMSUME MORE BATTERY INSTEAD , TECHNICALLY IT SHOULD SAVE SOME BATTERY ! ]
Personally , I set the animation scales to 0.4 x.. But this option is available on lollipop only .. Other versions only have the option to set it to 0.5x etc etc ... I lollipop you have a slider which allows you to choose any value you like ..
In other versions you can only set some presets .
For those of you using dalvik on KitKat ... I would highly recommend using ART ..
7. zRam tweak !!..
[ This option is only available in some advanced ROMs like cynogenmod ]
Once you’ve unlocked developer mode, you’ll have “Developer options” and “Performance” in the System category.
From there, go to Memory Management and select zRAM. This option compresses your memory which essentially increases your available RAM. Doing so basically compresses information as it goes into your RAM and decompresses it as it’s retrieved. Since you’ve got a powerful enough processor, the compression/decompression is pretty fast, so you just get the benefit of increasing the amount of RAM available. I set my Nexus 4 to 18% (default).
8.Allow Purging of Assets
[ This option is available only in some advanced ROMs like cynogenmod ]
Follow the same pre-requisites outlined above, then check “Allow purging of assets” to allow bitmap memory assets to be purged. Think of it as allowing stale items in RAM to be tossed out when you need more RAM. Keep in mind that both of the settings above won’t be applied until after you reboot.
9. Seeder app !!
The issue Seeder addresses is that Android draws from a predefined entropy pool—or set of random data—for almost all of its operations. When that limited pool of random data dries up, it has to rebuild itself, which results in delays while apps and services wait for the data they need.
Seeder takes the process that generates this data and runs it every second (it's extremely light on resources—this usually happens behind the scenes anyway, so you don't notice it), then feeds that information to a new random data pool that's constantly kept refreshed. Then, the app uses that fresh data to "top off" the system pool so it never runs out. That means you never have to wait for the generation service to start up and fill the pool with random data. The result? Almost everything about your Android phone is several times faster.
So . I tried this app on my phone .
At first I didn't notice any change , whatsoever.
Then I came up with an idea of doing a speed test !
I chose 6 apps that we most commonly use.
* WhatsApp
*dialer
*messenger
*chrome
*play store
*camera
What I did was start the stopwatch and then switch through all these apps as fast as possible and stop the counter.
Frankly ... There was no difference.
I completed the speed run in 12 seconds without turning on seeder and it took the exact same amount of time to complete the speedrun after turning on seeder !
So I did another speedrun . but this time I under clocked my CPU to 384 MHz from 1.7 GHz ... [ Boy ! That's a lot ]
This time I was easily able to notice the difference .
I completed the speedrun in 27 seconds without turning on seeder , and it took only 25 seconds to complete the speedrun after turning on seeder .
Now .. I know that doesn't seem a lot ! But the results show 8% increase in the speed !!
Now that's a lot !!
Believe me .. 8% increase in speed is a lot !
There are some issues however .
The app consumes a lil bit if more battery ..
But that's nothing to be afraid of ..
I ran some tests using geekbench and found out that seeder consumes about 4% of more battery per 24 hours than it should .
That's negligible compared to the increase in the speed you are gonna get .
Now , it won't affect the people who have good phones with good processors , because the increase in snappiness is insignificant for perfectly good phones .
But then again .. 80% of the people reading this should have a slower phone , orelse they won't be reading this in the first place !
The app is completely stable ( at least on my phone )
Please try out the app and post your results, because not all phones are made alike
I will attach the apk to this post and please note that I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING BAD THAT HAPPENS TO YOUR PHONE.
Here is the link to download the app ! :- http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1666675&d=1358857894
10. Over clock !!
Now this is a term that almost everyone on this forum is acquainted with .
So I won't tell what it is , and what it does , what are its pros n cons ?
You all know about what over clocking does to your PC. Oc'ing your phone is basically the something !
Just flash a custom kernel ( I prefer franko kernel ) that supports oc'ing and download any CPU manager ( I prefer fk updater . its the best app to manage your phone !! ) and you are good to go !!
Note:- not all phones are made the same .
Some phones can be oc'ed more than others .
Many nexus 4's can achieve a stable oc of up to 1.944 GHz , while mine only achieves
A stable oc of up to 1.75 GHz
STEPS 6,7&8 PERFORMED TOGETHER SHOULD GREATLY IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE !!!
Perform these steps and post your results below ..
I will modify the post if anyone of you gets slightly different results .
Note that these are the exact steps I performed to improve my phone's performance ...
And so far .. Its working great !
Nexus 4 , Qualcomm Snapdragon s4 pro, 2 GB ram ,Android 5.0.2_r1 Rom :- Simple Aosp ,
Kernel :- latest Franco kernel

Dual 970s will be better. It's only a little bit more then a single 980 but will give you a bigger performance improvement then cost deficit. Maxwell solves two huge problems that previously would go against SLI configurations, heat and power consumption. Now that those aren't in the way anymore, there's really no reason to choose a single 980 if you're running ATX.

Yes, would be a shame to let this wither and die IMHO.
I just need to find the time to bring it up to date again.

Please do, great thread

Since I'm not sure OP is still maintaining this thread I'm going be doing so
myself (unless OP shows up again). Since I'm terribly busy with college at
the moment I will likely need to wait until the beginning of next year with
that though.
Just FYI.

Both are good, but Rufus can't create persistent file sizes for storing changes, not since I last used it, at least.
So I prefer Universal USB Installer.

It would still be pirated, even if it was free. World of Goo game (2008), an actual really good game, won numerous awars, was for a period "pay what you want, starting at a penny", and it was the most pirated game during that time.
The game on PC was also DRM free. The independent studio was pushing anti-DRM, and how piracy doesn't hurt the industry.
The studio didn't make any other game since. I guess it didn't turn up well for them. The latest work is back in 2011 with Android version.

These giveaways are always fun to see people's arguments and complaints. Here's how I see it: Linus made the forum to create a community. He wants us to interact here and help out other people that need it. Whether you want to see it this way or not, we are the community. Yes has a bajillion subs on YouTube but how many of them are spam accounts, inactive accounts, and the like? What's the point of creating a giveaway so people can flood the sign, become one post wonders, and cause the entire thing to slow down for the rest of us. It causes instability and forum problems galore. If he started to limit giveaways (for the rare times they happen) to forum members that meet certain requirements (combination of time and/or posts / contributions to the site and community) to win then we would have a larger community and those that aren't here can't suddenly spam the heck out of here to win a prize.

People, stop fighting and do what it's expected of you and say AWNNNNNNNN, WHAT A FREAKING CUTE LIL' PUPPY  :wub:

This little guy was found abandoned in a forest. He seems to be doing fine though, we really wanted to keep him ourselves but we already have 3 dogs so that isn't an option. He will be taken care of until a permanent home can be found him, he's definitely not going to any shelters.
 
I don't know what sick bastard could possibly throw away something so sweet! These are the kind of people that need a good executing. 
 

According to them, the hardware of the PS4 and Xbox One were already obsolete at launch, something we already knew, but this time it's a statement from a main game developer.
 
What does the master race think of this?
 
Source: DSOG

Probably this:

Those are some hardcore, cinematic, couch sitting, surround sound headphones, 47 inch 1080p TV, darkened room, popcorn on 1 side and water on the other because of calories, turn my phone off, blog about it on forums when it's over because it makes you re think your view on art, watch the entire credits because you are speechless after the ending, types of entertainment experiences

Nicely suggested, already using this for LMG

For those of us who use adblock and don't want to remove it because,it makes life much easier but also want to help people like LinusTechTips by at least supporting them through Ads
There is a way for you to do both 
 
Starting with- Go to options 
 
     2.  Tick "Allow whitelisting of specific YouTube channels"

     3.  Then go to the channels you want to support and click "white list this youtube channel " from the extension 

Thats it,you might come across this bug with double reload but that only happens to me maybe.....
and i know this is something very easy/common and many people already know about it but few people like me,never noticed this before and this was in beta last time i checked (month ago)   
 

Luke is Love, Luke is Life.
i was only 9 years old, I loved Luke so much, i watched all of his video's and livestreams.
i pray to Luke everynight thanking him for all the joy i've been given.
Luke is Love I say, Luke is Life.
Linus overhear me and calls me a peasant.
I knew he was just jealous of my devotion to Luke.
i called him a midget.
he takes all my noctua's and sends me to go to sleep.
i'm crying now, and my pc is overheating.
i lay in bed and it gets really hot.
A cold is moving towards me.
I feel something touch me.
It's Luke.
I am so happy.
He whispers in to my ear "this is a h100i''
He grabs my case with his powerful and large hands and puts it on it's side.
I'm ready.
i open my side panel.
I install the h100i.
it bearly fits but i tuck it in for Luke.
i can hear the case cringe as i'm mounting the radiator.
i mount the pump on the cpu.
i want to satisfy Luke.
The pc roars as Luke turns on the pc.
Linus walks in.
Luke looks him straight in the eyes ans says ''it's LukeMediaGroup now''
Luke leaves trough the windows.
Luke is Love, Luke is Life.

Yes, poll it, could be cool.

Right, what I do is that I have adblock on at all times, if I am on a website in which i both like and they are not cocks with slapping ads everywhere then I disable it for that domain.
 
My website and this website are the only 2 that I currently disable Adblock on.

i use adblock, but i whitelist content creators that i enjoy. this would currently be linus, emma blackery and luke cutforth. other times, they would get so little out of me, that i cant be bothered. on facebook, i aditionally block some parts of it that i cant stand, like the right menu, with all the apps and crap, and the stuff below the birthday notifications...

Retrieving your key 
In a lot of cases, people want to do a clean install of windows on their machine for whatever reason, and don't have the OEM key. While in most cases the sticker on the bottom will telly you what you need to know, but if you lack the sticker or are otherwise unable to find your key, I will show you how to retrieve the key from any properly activated copy of windows, OEM or not. 
 
While there are a lot of programs out there to retrieve keys, the one I will be demonstrating is called Belarc Advisor. I picked this program for a few reasons. First, it's free. A lot of programs charge for retrieving windows keys, and that's really counter-intuitive. Second, it's a security program that I happen to really trust. Also, it doesn't feel like bloatware, run when windows starts, or install any shit like Bing toolbars or anything unwanted at all. It's a company that is really geared towards professionals, and I used their software back in my IT days. While Belarc Advisor isn't for commercial use, they do offer other programs for that. The last reason is that it's the most detailed, and I have consistently gotten the best results from it. Not only does it show your keys for windows, but other software as well, like Adobe products, and even a lot of games. 
 
So here we go, it's pretty simple. 
 
First, download and install Belarc Advisor. 
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
 
When you install it, you may skip looking for security updates and scanning the local network since we are just using it for keys. 
Once it's done loading, an IE window should pop up. (Yes, IE. Regardless of default browser)
Scroll down to "Software Licenses"
You'll likely see almost everything you've entered a key for in here. 

(Sorry about the big black boxes. I was gonna blur, but Photoshop keeps crashing after I updated to windows 8.1 from 7, and I don't feel like messing with it at the moment.)
 
Once you find your windows version, the key will be be listed right next to it.  
That's it! Just write it down or email it to yourself for later.
 I keep this program on a USB drive. It's a good tool to allow you to fix other's machines without needing them to buy windows again, regardless of the state of the sticker. 
 
Deactivating Windows
Sometimes you'll want to transfer your license from one machine to another. Maybe you got an upgrade, or a new system. It's important to note that an OEM license may or may not transfer to a different PC. 
Keep in mind that this may not be necessary, as despite only being allowed on one machine at a time, the non-OEM keys allow for as many differnt installs as you like. As it turns out,  in a lot of cases it may allow you to run multiple machines at once, maybe two or three, all activated. This seems to be especially true with msdn keys. Keep in mind that you are only allowed to have one machine activated at a time with most key types. And that's what this deactivation guide is for.  It is your responsibility to know what is and is not technically allowed with you key, and act on that with your discretion.
Here's a good place to start.   
http://www.microsoft.com/oem/en/licensing/sblicensing/Pages/licensing_faq.aspx#fbid=fe0Yk5SF4Ax
Also, I would like to mention that I'm not responsible if for some reason you deactivate windows and are not able to reactivate it, or you don't have your key or something. That's you own fault. 
 
This is pretty simple. 
First, make sure you are connected to the internet.
Next, open command prompt as an administrator. 
Enter this: 
 
slmgr.vbs -upk[i know this works in vista and up, but I'm not sure about windows xp, and I don't have anything running it right now to try it.]If successful, you should get no feedback or message in the command prompt window.  Instead this should pop up

 
To check to see if your computer is deactivated, go to Control Panel > System.
Activated

Not activated 

I have done this quite a few times now, and thus far i have not had a problem. But you may. 
So what if this didn't deactivate, or your were not able to activate on the new machine using the key you just removed from the old machine? 
Try again. If you are still unable to, the last resort is calling the hotline, and explaining your situation to a representative. 
Here is a tutorial for phone activation.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950929
When you call, you'll need to talk to a person. This can be an issue as it's is all voice prompts and totally automated. However, according to gethuman.com, you can get to a person by staying silent. I called to verify this. The voice asked me about activating Windows XP quite a few times. I never new a computer could sound so impatient. Finally, it asked about talking to an agent, but encouraged me not to. I was able at this point to say "Transfer Me Anyway", and it connected me to an agent. 
You'll need to have the activate by phone screen up on the new computer, with your machine code on screen. They can assist you with this if you can't find it/or it wont take you key at all.
There is no guarantee they'll be able to help you with this, but in cases where you are allowed to transfer to a different PC, (look at the MS article about licenses I listed above), namely non-OEM keys, they should be able to/are supposed to. Some of them simply will not know what you are talking about. Be patient and polite. Maybe try again to get a different agent.
 
 
 
 
 _____________________________________________________________________________________________________
 
 
 
Well that's it! This is my first tutorial on Linus Tech Tips, and I appreciate any Feedback/Suggestions/Likes/Pancakes. This most certainly won't be my last tutorial, and I would be willing to do about anything that's in demand.  
I recently had a poll here for a few tutorial options
http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/178495-what-do-you-want-first/#entry2396748
This was in first, the next most popular was- 
I will be doing that next. Stay tuned!

Same here for me. Great game that is in constant development. New content added every week in a game for 13 years is just awesome too. It's a shame that the MMORPG genre is going down with the MOBA trends of recently, but it's still an awesome choice for anyone wanting to try it out.