anyone encountered a system that is windows 8 locked?

[vanwazltoff]

my mom bought an asus laptop that came with windows 8 and i tried and tried to put windows 7 on it but it seemed like it was completely bios locked into windows 8 and wouldnt boot or install 7. her laptop is exactly the same as mine but hers has windows 8 [fresh install after a day of epic fail and inability to install 7] and a slightly more locked up bios and it runs EXTREMELY slow. mine has windows 7 and it runs properly quick. hers has a b980 and mine has a b970 so theoretically it should run faster given the faster processor and the "reputation" windows 8 is receiving for being faster, but its quite the opposite. i have installed classic shell on hers to get rid of metro and it helps slightly but win8 feels lacking, hard to explain why

mine was noticeably faster with a mechanical, but with an ssd it completely flies in everything i do but its useless for gaming

[Whaler_99]

What is the epic fail? Are you at least able to boot via the Windows 7 CD to start the install? And it fails at some point?

[vanwazltoff]

What is the epic fail? Are you at least able to boot via the Windows 7 CD to start the install? And it fails at some point?

actually the epic fail is not on me, its on asus. it was so bios locked that i couldnt make it physically boot from an external optical [no internal] or from a usb. i cant remember how exactly i was able to get windows 8 to finally install again but it took me a day to do it if that says anything. this was in november so i cant remember how i finally did it.

i dont know what went wrong between the win7 and win8 versions, but the win7 version is awesome, in fact i have booted many versions of linux, hbcd, bootable applications, and i have installed windows on it a few times and its never given me a single problem except for not wanting to dual boot linux and 7, but i found a way around that so its irrelevant

[Whaler_99]

So.. if you cannot get it to boot optical or usb - you may be out of luck - sounds very weird though that they would lock it down to that extent.... You may have got Win8 back on using some internal recovery partition....

[doweeez]

I have encountered problem in which notebook included vista and i couldn't install windows xp on it. But in bios i changed one option and after that it allowed to install xp. That was 4 or 5 year ago so I don't remember what i changed. Try playing around with BIOS.

[WaspishVyper]

What is the epic fail? Are you at least able to boot via the Windows 7 CD to start the install? And it fails at some point?

If your using an external drive, it's possible you lost some drivers with the clean install, this happened to me when I tried to install windows 8 on my laptop - except the problem was graphics drivers rather than an external drive.

[GoodBytes]

my mom bought an asus laptop that came with windows 8 and i tried and tried to put windows 7 on it but it seemed like it was completely bios locked into windows 8 and wouldnt boot or install 7. her laptop is exactly the same as mine but hers has windows 8 [fresh install after a day of epic fail and inability to install 7] and a slightly more locked up bios and it runs EXTREMELY slow. mine has windows 7 and it runs properly quick. hers has a b980 and mine has a b970 so theoretically it should run faster given the faster processor and the "reputation" windows 8 is receiving for being faster' date=' but its quite the opposite. i have installed classic shell on hers to get rid of metro and it helps slightly but win8 feels lacking, hard to explain why mine was noticeably faster with a mechanical, but with an ssd it completely flies in everything i do but its useless for gaming [/quote']

Windows 8 fully support UEFI firmware interface of the computer (UEFI replaced the aged old BIOS). One of the features of UEFI is the ability to lock itself to a supported OS using an encryption certificate. The idea of this system was to block malware or virus from setting itself as boot, which alters Windows files, disables or hack the virus database of A/V software to make them scan and detect nothing, and then boots Windows. Sadly, OEMs have different idea in their mind, such as blocking you from downgrading and possibly even upgrading your Windows (and if it's a Linux system, you'll be stuck with Linux, and not even able to change distro). Now there is an option in the UEFI to disable it to allow you to change the OS, but they remove the option in the UEFI menu screen. So yuo are stuck with Windows 8, and don't ask me what to do if you change the SSD/HDD. This is new, so I don't know.

So unless you find that option in the UEFI options, I am afraid you are stuck with Windows 8.

In the good news, Windows 8 is actually great OS if you get to know it. Personally, I don't want Windows 7. Windows 8 is faster, and I noticed a nice visible performance improvement in my games especially with old hardware (new stuff, not so much, like reviews pointed out). Moreover, the Start Screen is really cool. You can always search as before by just ty[ing, but you can also pin any folder you like, it excludes all the "Uninstall', "Read me", crap that programs insist in dumping on the start menu. And you can organize it the way you want.

I build a computer for someone and put Windows 8 upon his request after I did him a quick tour on my laptop of Windows 8, and he likes it a a lot, and he is not computer knowledgeable. When I pointed out the lack of the Start button, he said: "I didn't notice it was gone, I just move my mouse to the bottom and left corner of the screen and click". And I realized that he is not alone.

If it helps getting you start with Windows 8 Start Screen, here is mine on my desktop. I haven't got the time to install all my games due to University, that started (I had beta version of Windows 8 before), but you can image yourself me having all my games direct access without the need of accessing Steam first, under the group I called "Games".

(you can view the picture in actual size if you right-click on it, and select: View Image)

Also, the reason why the Start button has been removed makes perfect sense.

If you do this:

Where you have a Metro app to the right... now how do you go to the Start screen quickly. If there was a button next to the folder explorer icon, it will be very difficult to click on it. Here, it's not, Bottom left corner of the screen and you get your start screen.

Another thing, is this:

Now what do you do? I guess, assuming I don't know about the Windows key, I guess I have to forcefully close my computer. Brilliant!

So yea, it makes perfect sense why it was removed.

Another thing that is cool with Windows 8 which surly your mom will like. Free unlimited music streaming of 30 million+ songs via the XBox music app. This is almost as big as iTunes if not practically the same. FREE! And it's high quality too. There is even SmartDJ features which based on an artists you listen, it will scan other artisst that got inspired by what yuo are listening or the song artist got inspired of, and simialr genres and make you a list. A cool way to discover new music.

In my case, I got the XBox Music Pass, which allows me to download unlimited amount of songs in higher quality, and use the Zune Music Pass (shares the same libraray) which I use every day as it's a desktop app, and also I have a Zune, which I can send my downloaded songs too. (Downloaded music is only plaayable on Windows devices, so: WIndows RT, Windows XP/Vista7/8, Windows Phone 7/8, and XBox 360. And it will expends soon, with iOS and Android app so that you can use those devices to listen to music.

It's really cool, worth at least a look.

In my case I downland about 10-12 albums a month, I like a song, Whatever, I get the album it doesn't cost me more. So much money saved compared of buying my music on iTunes. It's only 10$ a month, or 100$ a year (that gives you 2 months free).

While you can't get Windows 7, I hope the above makes Windows 8 more enjoyable to use.

[shady-elite]

HAHA YEs my mum brought a HP with windows 8, i opened the bios and changed it from UEFI mode to LEGACY, before i coudlt even boot Ubuntu 12.04 from a usb drive.

[vanwazltoff]

So.. if you cannot get it to boot optical or usb - you may be out of luck - sounds very weird though that they would lock it down to that extent.... You may have got Win8 back on using some internal recovery partition....

nope, i zeroed out the drive use HBCD

[vanwazltoff]

my mom bought an asus laptop that came with windows 8 and i tried and tried to put windows 7 on it but it seemed like it was completely bios locked into windows 8 and wouldnt boot or install 7. her laptop is exactly the same as mine but hers has windows 8 [fresh install after a day of epic fail and inability to install 7] and a slightly more locked up bios and it runs EXTREMELY slow. mine has windows 7 and it runs properly quick. hers has a b980 and mine has a b970 so theoretically it should run faster given the faster processor and the "reputation" windows 8 is receiving for being faster' date=' but its quite the opposite. i have installed classic shell on hers to get rid of metro and it helps slightly but win8 feels lacking, hard to explain why mine was noticeably faster with a mechanical, but with an ssd it completely flies in everything i do but its useless for gaming [/quote']

Windows 8 fully support UEFI firmware interface of the computer (UEFI replaced the aged old BIOS). One of the features of UEFI is the ability to lock itself to a supported OS using an encryption certificate. The idea of this system was to block malware or virus from setting itself as boot, which alters Windows files, disables or hack the virus database of A/V software to make them scan and detect nothing, and then boots Windows. Sadly, OEMs have different idea in their mind, such as blocking you from downgrading and possibly even upgrading your Windows (and if it's a Linux system, you'll be stuck with Linux, and not even able to change distro). Now there is an option in the UEFI to disable it to allow you to change the OS, but they remove the option in the UEFI menu screen. So yuo are stuck with Windows 8, and don't ask me what to do if you change the SSD/HDD. This is new, so I don't know.

So unless you find that option in the UEFI options, I am afraid you are stuck with Windows 8.

In the good news, Windows 8 is actually great OS if you get to know it. Personally, I don't want Windows 7. Windows 8 is faster, and I noticed a nice visible performance improvement in my games especially with old hardware (new stuff, not so much, like reviews pointed out). Moreover, the Start Screen is really cool. You can always search as before by just ty[ing, but you can also pin any folder you like, it excludes all the "Uninstall', "Read me", crap that programs insist in dumping on the start menu. And you can organize it the way you want.

I build a computer for someone and put Windows 8 upon his request after I did him a quick tour on my laptop of Windows 8, and he likes it a a lot, and he is not computer knowledgeable. When I pointed out the lack of the Start button, he said: "I didn't notice it was gone, I just move my mouse to the bottom and left corner of the screen and click". And I realized that he is not alone.

If it helps getting you start with Windows 8 Start Screen, here is mine on my desktop. I haven't got the time to install all my games due to University, that started (I had beta version of Windows 8 before), but you can image yourself me having all my games direct access without the need of accessing Steam first, under the group I called "Games".

(you can view the picture in actual size if you right-click on it, and select: View Image)

Also, the reason why the Start button has been removed makes perfect sense.

If you do this:

Where you have a Metro app to the right... now how do you go to the Start screen quickly. If there was a button next to the folder explorer icon, it will be very difficult to click on it. Here, it's not, Bottom left corner of the screen and you get your start screen.

Another thing, is this:

Now what do you do? I guess, assuming I don't know about the Windows key, I guess I have to forcefully close my computer. Brilliant!

So yea, it makes perfect sense why it was removed.

Another thing that is cool with Windows 8 which surly your mom will like. Free unlimited music streaming of 30 million+ songs via the XBox music app. This is almost as big as iTunes if not practically the same. FREE! And it's high quality too. There is even SmartDJ features which based on an artists you listen, it will scan other artisst that got inspired by what yuo are listening or the song artist got inspired of, and simialr genres and make you a list. A cool way to discover new music.

In my case, I got the XBox Music Pass, which allows me to download unlimited amount of songs in higher quality, and use the Zune Music Pass (shares the same libraray) which I use every day as it's a desktop app, and also I have a Zune, which I can send my downloaded songs too. (Downloaded music is only plaayable on Windows devices, so: WIndows RT, Windows XP/Vista7/8, Windows Phone 7/8, and XBox 360. And it will expends soon, with iOS and Android app so that you can use those devices to listen to music.

It's really cool, worth at least a look.

In my case I downland about 10-12 albums a month, I like a song, Whatever, I get the album it doesn't cost me more. So much money saved compared of buying my music on iTunes. It's only 10$ a month, or 100$ a year (that gives you 2 months free).

While you can't get Windows 7, I hope the above makes Windows 8 more enjoyable to use.

i gave 8 a chance, i just cant get it to be productive enough for myself, i am the kind of person that runs many things at the same time, 8 wants everything to be full screen of split screen, i just doesnt work for me. it depends on the hardware when it comes to the physical speed of it, my i5 rigs could run it fast, but on a pentium machine its too sluggish. its primary focus is touch screens, take out the touch screen and it feels incomplete. my mom is the kind of person that cant even navigate the internet, i have tried to teach her but she just struggles. i told her not to buy a computer but now she basically has a slow brick that she cant use because even windows 7 confuses her, try dealing with a bipolar computer illiterate, its one of the most frustrating things you will ever have to deal with

[vanwazltoff]

I have encountered problem in which notebook included vista and i couldn't install windows xp on it. But in bios i changed one option and after that it allowed to install xp. That was 4 or 5 year ago so I don't remember what i changed. Try playing around with BIOS.

i played around with the bios for day and it has little to no options, i even tried flashing to a previous bios with no luck

[ScottStevens]

Keep in mind that the majority of Windows 8 systems have the following settings enabled: Secure Boot, UEFI-mode. They also generally have the F12 (Or F8, etc) boot menu disabled. This would result in each and every issue in terms of booting from an external media, especially since by default Windows 7 disks are not UEFI enabled - you have to patch them to make them UEFI enabled.

Quite simply, I don't believe this itself is an issue with Windows 8 nor ASUS. Windows 8 does have those security features built in, that but should not stop you from being able to install another OS. I have an Acer laptop which uses the UEFI BIOS, but I was still able (after a little bit of work) to get a UEFI-enabled Windows 7 installation working along with a Ubuntu installation.

[GoodBytes]

my mom bought an asus laptop that came with windows 8 and i tried and tried to put windows 7 on it but it seemed like it was completely bios locked into windows 8 and wouldnt boot or install 7. her laptop is exactly the same as mine but hers has windows 8 [fresh install after a day of epic fail and inability to install 7] and a slightly more locked up bios and it runs EXTREMELY slow. mine has windows 7 and it runs properly quick. hers has a b980 and mine has a b970 so theoretically it should run faster given the faster processor and the "reputation" windows 8 is receiving for being faster' date=' but its quite the opposite. i have installed classic shell on hers to get rid of metro and it helps slightly but win8 feels lacking, hard to explain why mine was noticeably faster with a mechanical, but with an ssd it completely flies in everything i do but its useless for gaming [/quote']

Windows 8 fully support UEFI firmware interface of the computer (UEFI replaced the aged old BIOS). One of the features of UEFI is the ability to lock itself to a supported OS using an encryption certificate. The idea of this system was to block malware or virus from setting itself as boot, which alters Windows files, disables or hack the virus database of A/V software to make them scan and detect nothing, and then boots Windows. Sadly, OEMs have different idea in their mind, such as blocking you from downgrading and possibly even upgrading your Windows (and if it's a Linux system, you'll be stuck with Linux, and not even able to change distro). Now there is an option in the UEFI to disable it to allow you to change the OS, but they remove the option in the UEFI menu screen. So yuo are stuck with Windows 8, and don't ask me what to do if you change the SSD/HDD. This is new, so I don't know.

So unless you find that option in the UEFI options, I am afraid you are stuck with Windows 8.

In the good news, Windows 8 is actually great OS if you get to know it. Personally, I don't want Windows 7. Windows 8 is faster, and I noticed a nice visible performance improvement in my games especially with old hardware (new stuff, not so much, like reviews pointed out). Moreover, the Start Screen is really cool. You can always search as before by just ty[ing, but you can also pin any folder you like, it excludes all the "Uninstall', "Read me", crap that programs insist in dumping on the start menu. And you can organize it the way you want.

I build a computer for someone and put Windows 8 upon his request after I did him a quick tour on my laptop of Windows 8, and he likes it a a lot, and he is not computer knowledgeable. When I pointed out the lack of the Start button, he said: "I didn't notice it was gone, I just move my mouse to the bottom and left corner of the screen and click". And I realized that he is not alone.

If it helps getting you start with Windows 8 Start Screen, here is mine on my desktop. I haven't got the time to install all my games due to University, that started (I had beta version of Windows 8 before), but you can image yourself me having all my games direct access without the need of accessing Steam first, under the group I called "Games".

(you can view the picture in actual size if you right-click on it, and select: View Image)

Also, the reason why the Start button has been removed makes perfect sense.

If you do this:

Where you have a Metro app to the right... now how do you go to the Start screen quickly. If there was a button next to the folder explorer icon, it will be very difficult to click on it. Here, it's not, Bottom left corner of the screen and you get your start screen.

Another thing, is this:

Now what do you do? I guess, assuming I don't know about the Windows key, I guess I have to forcefully close my computer. Brilliant!

So yea, it makes perfect sense why it was removed.

Another thing that is cool with Windows 8 which surly your mom will like. Free unlimited music streaming of 30 million+ songs via the XBox music app. This is almost as big as iTunes if not practically the same. FREE! And it's high quality too. There is even SmartDJ features which based on an artists you listen, it will scan other artisst that got inspired by what yuo are listening or the song artist got inspired of, and simialr genres and make you a list. A cool way to discover new music.

In my case, I got the XBox Music Pass, which allows me to download unlimited amount of songs in higher quality, and use the Zune Music Pass (shares the same libraray) which I use every day as it's a desktop app, and also I have a Zune, which I can send my downloaded songs too. (Downloaded music is only plaayable on Windows devices, so: WIndows RT, Windows XP/Vista7/8, Windows Phone 7/8, and XBox 360. And it will expends soon, with iOS and Android app so that you can use those devices to listen to music.

It's really cool, worth at least a look.

In my case I downland about 10-12 albums a month, I like a song, Whatever, I get the album it doesn't cost me more. So much money saved compared of buying my music on iTunes. It's only 10$ a month, or 100$ a year (that gives you 2 months free).

While you can't get Windows 7, I hope the above makes Windows 8 more enjoyable to use.

Ok I am confused, it's a new computer how can it be slow? That is impossible, Windows 8 minimum specs are over Windows 8 actual minimum specs, and OEM needs to follow the minimum of Windows 8 specs to be able to sale it, else Microsoft isn't giving to right to do so (Microsoft applied this strict policy since Windows 7, to avoid a Vista again). Also remember that you have laws that alloys your return a computer between 7 to 15 days, for full money back, depending on where you live. So you can return that computer and not buy a new one, or get something that works smoothly as what she got is impossible to be this slow.

Ok I am going to go on a tangent here, and then come back into topic. I am not talking about the case for your mom, just you and me.

Windows 8 doesn't run everything as full screen. The Metro apps, yes, but your desktop apps, are just desktop app. The desktop will show and the app will open. Just see it this way: Start Menu.,.. full screen... with Windows gadgets embedded into it. That is all. It's not less or more productive.

People are running Windows 8 smoothly on a Atom, and that's not much faster than a Pentium 4. While I don't have any facts on this, I won't be surprised if a Pentium 4 can perform better than an Atom in single threads. Anyway, since Windows Vista, the interface of Windows is rendered by the GPU. So if your GPU is inadequate, like many people that got Vista, you are not going to have a smooth experience. You dont' need a power house GPU. A GeForce 9300M is waaaayy more than enough power. You can probably run it smooth with a GeForce 6200 128MB of memory... yea that's an old GPU. One of my system, with Windows 7 runs on that perfectly well actually @ 1920x1200, but don't open too many windows, it gets a choppy quiet fast due to the lack of GPU memory.

The primary focus of Windows 8 is multi-device interface. People say that the desktop is dead, while the market share of such device is diminishing it's not dead, really not. I see the desktop will evolve much like the mouse. Dispate all the hatrate of teh mouse, and how it was stupid, and you can't work with a mouse, the mouse never replaced the keyboard. It complement it. And I see not only touch but digitize pen support will both at the same time, compliment the desktop. How is it possible you say?

Simple, Wacom has the spirit behind the idea, check out their Cintiq product line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79SdxuA1WjY

While what you see is obviously costly as it's aimed for professional that seek special features like a super fancy monitor with uniform back light, and pin point color accuracy and the pen requires to be support a dozen pressure levels... the idea is here, and it is possible. I am sure you can cut a huge amount of features outs and just keep it as a basic digitize pen and 10 point multi-touch for 100-150$ over a normal price monitor, that includes the stand that you see to be able to put the monitor flat or an angle down or up right like a normal monitor.

Considering that 4 years ago, a tablet with a digitize pen support (one that you didn't fight for), was 3000$ starting price with ridicously weak specs, and now you have the same, if not even better on a normal super thin and light tablet with similar battery life (4-5h) and much more powerful (example: Surface Pro, and other tablets with digitize pen support) for under 1000$, this is amazing! Soon, as demand increases it will be cheap to have.

Ok back to topic.

You know when I got Office 2007 on my mom computer, I was afraid that the ribbon bar would scare here away. Well it did at first.. but what was once that EVERY FREAKING TIME there was anything, and I mean anything that was not Bold, Italic or underline, she called me, to now she was calling me over to show me that she managed to put a picture in a document. I mean wow! That was amazing, and I was like "People freak out about this? This is amazing!".

I think if you adjust the layout a bit to her needs, like put her needed folders, make sure that every file time shows up with the right problem, feel free to leave her the Whether and news for the live tiles thing, that she will be fine.

Beside you don't have much choice if that secure boot option isn't in the UEFI settings so that you can disable it. You are stuck with Windows 8. And things will not change with Windows 9 or 10. Doing a multi-OS for all devices is what Microsoft has been doing since XP. And they were always too afraid to do what was needed to make it happen so it NEVER worked. Not even Windows 7 worked on a tablet. Now they did. So that's that. While for sure there will be improvements on the Start Screen as Microsoft collects new telemetry data from users world wide, and get proper feedback on how to make it better it will, this is what we have now.

If that really doesn't work for you and your mom, then you can get Start Menu alternatives.