Setting up new PC

My wife's W8.1 laptop appears to have died. She has bought an HP Envy
W10 replacement which is exactly the same model as I already use. I
have set mine up with much customization to make it much less like a
W10 machine.

I now need to set up my wife's new laptop for her. She is used to
using mine occasionally and likes it very much. I make both an image
and a clone of my 'C' drive every week. So my question is: In order
to set up the new laptop, can I simply put an image or clone of mine
onto it and then uninstall/delete any stuff she doesn't want or do I
have to start from scratch.

Please excuse me if this is a silly question as I am a septuagenarian!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Chris

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wrote:

I have set mine up with much customization to make it much less like
a W10 machine.
I now need to set up my wife's new laptop for her.
It's very easy to fall into the trap that because you feel the need to
customise Win10 to your needs, that everyone else should want the same
customisations.

Sometimes it's best to see if they get on with it straight out of the
box ...

wrote:
My wife's W8.1 laptop appears to have died. She has bought an HP Envy
W10 replacement which is exactly the same model as I already use. I
have set mine up with much customization to make it much less like a
W10 machine.

I now need to set up my wife's new laptop for her. She is used to
using mine occasionally and likes it very much. I make both an image
and a clone of my 'C' drive every week. So my question is: In order
to set up the new laptop, can I simply put an image or clone of mine
onto it and then uninstall/delete any stuff she doesn't want or do I
have to start from scratch.

Please excuse me if this is a silly question as I am a septuagenarian!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Chris

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
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I should think it would work. I've restored many images and clones to
the same machine, but not to another. However, I'd bet heavily that it
would work with an identical model.

The thing to do beforehand is to make sure it's recoverable if it
doesn't work.
How far is she into using it? Would a factory restore be acceptable? If
not, take an image of where she's at.
Then go ahead.

It might be a good idea to list the steps beforehand, and tick them off
at each stage; something like this.
1. Image of new machine (factory or personal)
2. Image of old machine.
3. Restore old onto new machine.
4. Fully test.

We'll be here to help should you hit problems.

Ed

Ed Cryer wrote:
wrote:
My wife's W8.1 laptop appears to have died.Â* She has bought an HP Envy
W10 replacement which is exactly the same model as I already use.Â* I
have set mine up with much customization to make it much less like a
W10 machine.

I now need to set up my wife's new laptop for her.Â* She is used to
using mine occasionally and likes it very much.Â* I make both an image
and a clone of my 'C' drive every week.Â* So my question is: In order
to set up the new laptop, can I simply put an image or clone of mine
onto it and then uninstall/delete any stuff she doesn't want or do I
have to start from scratch.

Please excuse me if this is a silly question as I am a septuagenarian!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Chris

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus


I should think it would work. I've restored many images and clones to
the same machine, but not to another. However, I'd bet heavily that it
would work with an identical model.

The thing to do beforehand is to make sure it's recoverable if it
doesn't work.
How far is she into using it? Would a factory restore be acceptable? If
not, take an image of where she's at.
Then go ahead.

It might be a good idea to list the steps beforehand, and tick them off
at each stage; something like this.
1. Image of new machine (factory or personal)
2. Image of old machine.
3. Restore old onto new machine.
4. Fully test.

We'll be here to help should you hit problems.

Ed



One caveat. They'll need identical hardware.
Have you made any changes at all to your one since buying?
Have the manufacturers made any changes at all since selling your one?

Ed

On 2/22/2018 6:46 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:
wrote:
My wife's W8.1 laptop appears to have died.Â* She has bought an HP Envy
W10 replacement which is exactly the same model as I already use.Â* I
have set mine up with much customization to make it much less like a
W10 machine.

I now need to set up my wife's new laptop for her.Â* She is used to
using mine occasionally and likes it very much.Â* I make both an image
and a clone of my 'C' drive every week.Â* So my question is: In order
to set up the new laptop, can I simply put an image or clone of mine
onto it and then uninstall/delete any stuff she doesn't want or do I
have to start from scratch.

Please excuse me if this is a silly question as I am a septuagenarian!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Chris

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus


I should think it would work. I've restored many images and clones to
the same machine, but not to another. However, I'd bet heavily that it
would work with an identical model.

The thing to do beforehand is to make sure it's recoverable if it
doesn't work.
How far is she into using it? Would a factory restore be acceptable? If
not, take an image of where she's at.
Then go ahead.

It might be a good idea to list the steps beforehand, and tick them off
at each stage; something like this.
1. Image of new machine (factory or personal)
2. Image of old machine.
3. Restore old onto new machine.
4. Fully test.

We'll be here to help should you hit problems.

Ed


If there is any age difference between the same model machine, there is
the possibility that it has diffferent versions drivers, and software
even though the title is the same.


I would recommend setting up the new machince, and not carry all the
minor errors and old caches from on your machine into hers. The
registry some times collects old obsolete entries that are not needed.
You collect remanents of past versions of current programs and programs
you tried and removed. They all leave stuff on your computer. It is
best to start fresh

As an example I recently discovered that Firefox bookmarks are backed up
automatically and I had dozen of backup when I learned of them.

--
2018: The year we learn to play the great game of Euchre

Keith Nuttle wrote:
On 2/22/2018 6:46 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:
wrote:
My wife's W8.1 laptop appears to have died.Â* She has bought an HP Envy
W10 replacement which is exactly the same model as I already use.Â* I
have set mine up with much customization to make it much less like a
W10 machine.

I now need to set up my wife's new laptop for her.Â* She is used to
using mine occasionally and likes it very much.Â* I make both an image
and a clone of my 'C' drive every week.Â* So my question is: In order
to set up the new laptop, can I simply put an image or clone of mine
onto it and then uninstall/delete any stuff she doesn't want or do I
have to start from scratch.

Please excuse me if this is a silly question as I am a septuagenarian!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Chris

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus


I should think it would work. I've restored many images and clones to
the same machine, but not to another. However, I'd bet heavily that it
would work with an identical model.

The thing to do beforehand is to make sure it's recoverable if it
doesn't work.
How far is she into using it? Would a factory restore be acceptable?
If not, take an image of where she's at.
Then go ahead.

It might be a good idea to list the steps beforehand, and tick them
off at each stage; something like this.
1. Image of new machine (factory or personal)
2. Image of old machine.
3. Restore old onto new machine.
4. Fully test.

We'll be here to help should you hit problems.

Ed


If there is any age difference between the same model machine, there is
the possibility that it has diffferent versions drivers, and software
even though the title is the same.


I would recommend setting up the new machince, and not carry all the
minor errors and old caches from on your machine into hers.Â* The
registry some times collects old obsolete entries that are not needed.
You collect remanents of past versions of current programs and programs
you tried and removed.Â* They all leave stuff on your computer.Â* It is
best to start fresh

As an example I recently discovered that Firefox bookmarks are backed up
automatically and I had dozen of backup when I learned of them.


Where are the Firefox bookmarks backups stored?

Ed

On 22/02/2018 10:48, wrote:
So my question is: In order
to set up the new laptop, can I simply put an image or clone of mine
onto it and then uninstall/delete any stuff she doesn't want or do I
have to start from scratch.

No don't do it. Let your wife try to use Windows 10 because it is the
main Operating System these days. There is no point in buying something
you already had because life has to move on. New models of cars come
out and people don't just scrap it and put the old body work on it. Do
they? Let your wife use the new machine as it is. She must be younger
than you and very likely to be intelligent than you. The only mistake
she made is to marry an idiot like you.

Please excuse me if this is a silly question as I am a septuagenarian!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Yes it is a silly question and don't ask ever again such questions
here. You can ask on Linux NG but Windows users are generally
brighter and intelligent than Linux junkies.



---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

There you go. You are also spamming these newsgroups with your Avast
link. Hasn't anyone taught you how to remove it so that it doesn't spam
any newsgroups. Avast is a bogus organisation. They don't even know
how to create a signature. Look they have three dashes ( - - - ) so
that their spam becomes a sore to the naked eye.


--
With over 600 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

On 2/22/2018 7:03 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:
Keith Nuttle wrote:
On 2/22/2018 6:46 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:
wrote:
My wife's W8.1 laptop appears to have died.Â* She has bought an HP Envy
W10 replacement which is exactly the same model as I already use.Â* I
have set mine up with much customization to make it much less like a
W10 machine.

I now need to set up my wife's new laptop for her.Â* She is used to
using mine occasionally and likes it very much.Â* I make both an image
and a clone of my 'C' drive every week.Â* So my question is: In order
to set up the new laptop, can I simply put an image or clone of mine
onto it and then uninstall/delete any stuff she doesn't want or do I
have to start from scratch.

Please excuse me if this is a silly question as I am a septuagenarian!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Chris

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus


I should think it would work. I've restored many images and clones to
the same machine, but not to another. However, I'd bet heavily that
it would work with an identical model.

The thing to do beforehand is to make sure it's recoverable if it
doesn't work.
How far is she into using it? Would a factory restore be acceptable?
If not, take an image of where she's at.
Then go ahead.

It might be a good idea to list the steps beforehand, and tick them
off at each stage; something like this.
1. Image of new machine (factory or personal)
2. Image of old machine.
3. Restore old onto new machine.
4. Fully test.

We'll be here to help should you hit problems.

Ed


If there is any age difference between the same model machine, there
is the possibility that it has diffferent versions drivers, and
software even though the title is the same.


I would recommend setting up the new machince, and not carry all the
minor errors and old caches from on your machine into hers.Â* The
registry some times collects old obsolete entries that are not needed.
You collect remanents of past versions of current programs and
programs you tried and removed.Â* They all leave stuff on your
computer.Â* It is best to start fresh

As an example I recently discovered that Firefox bookmarks are backed
up automatically and I had dozen of backup when I learned of them.


Where are the Firefox bookmarks backups stored?

Ed
C:\Users\UserID\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Pr ofiles\ez8rogjb.default\bookmarkbackups

After you have deleted most of the backup, go into about:config and
change browser.bookmarks.max_backups to some thing reasonable.


--
2018: The year we learn to play the great game of Euchre

The safest thing to do is to spend the time customizing her computer.

I don't know what customizations you have, but I use (only) Classic
Start Menu and I have a "non-10 looking computer.

wrote on 2/22/2018 5:48 AM:
My wife's W8.1 laptop appears to have died. She has bought an HP Envy
W10 replacement which is exactly the same model as I already use. I
have set mine up with much customization to make it much less like a
W10 machine.

I now need to set up my wife's new laptop for her. She is used to
using mine occasionally and likes it very much. I make both an image
and a clone of my 'C' drive every week. So my question is: In order
to set up the new laptop, can I simply put an image or clone of mine
onto it and then uninstall/delete any stuff she doesn't want or do I
have to start from scratch.

Please excuse me if this is a silly question as I am a septuagenarian!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Chris

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

On 22/02/2018 12:44, Alek wrote:

I use (only) Classic
Start Menu and I have a "non-10 looking computer.


But you are a complete idiot who spends hundreds buying a new washing
machine only to turn it into a 1940 model. Only an idiot does it.





--
With over 600 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

wrote:
My wife's W8.1 laptop appears to have died. She has bought an HP Envy
W10 replacement which is exactly the same model as I already use. I
have set mine up with much customization to make it much less like a
W10 machine.

I now need to set up my wife's new laptop for her. She is used to
using mine occasionally and likes it very much. I make both an image
and a clone of my 'C' drive every week. So my question is: In order
to set up the new laptop, can I simply put an image or clone of mine
onto it and then uninstall/delete any stuff she doesn't want or do I
have to start from scratch.

Please excuse me if this is a silly question as I am a septuagenarian!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Chris

On older computers, the license key was generic (not unique per
machine), and the OS was activated by means of a SLIC table.
The SLIC table says "I'm a Dell" and the OS is a "Dell Royalty OS",
so the OS would then activate. Using MagicJellyBean license key
extractor, you would get the same license key on all the
same models. (We'll ignore the COA sticker in this case,
because the purpose and the license key on the COA, have
nothing to do with the factory OS as such.)

One benefit of SLIC, from a user perspective, is it can activate
more than one OS. A Dell SLIC table can activate Dell WinXP,
Dell Vista, Dell Win7, so you have a potential opportunity to
use more than one OS provided by Dell. This makes it simple
for Dell to offer certain "Downgrade" options, using one
of their OS images.

*******

On Windows 10 by comparison, each laptop has a unique key and
it's store in the BIOS. You no longer need a COA sticker.
One key does everything. Like SLIC, the license key is stored
in BIOS ACPI. But the table is called MSDM.

So when you transport your OS with license key 111333555
to your Wifes machine with its key of 222444666, what happens ???
I bet Winston knows :-)

My guess is, eventually the **** is going to hit the fan.
You're going to see a prompt or something, to re-activate,
even though the machine is already activated. Sooner or later,
the duplicate usage of key 111333555 will be detected. Even though
Win10 was given away to millions of Windows 7 users, that doesn't
mean that the notion of licensing is "gone" or anything.

Now, if you were to re-activate, it would probably work.

The transplanted 111333555 OS could switch to its local
key of 222444666. But the OS is not allowed to do this
on its own. That notion was caught as a bug, in a
previous Windows 10 version, where the machine got
into a "race" to use the local BIOS key, while the
user was trying to type in a key. They fixed that.
So the machine, due to that style of bug, is
not allowed to override or race the user when it
comes to licensing issues. You might need SLUI 4
to change the key, or some slmgr command to change
the key. And again, the OS cannot race you, cannot
push past you and just "volunteer" the MSDM key, because
you as the user might be changing SKUs or something.
(If you change from Home to Pro for example, you might
have a "bought" key you're trying to use.)

I expect there are some nuances here. I don't think
the nuances will break anything, but there's probably
a "right way" to do this. I'm having trouble imagining
what that might be. I can't be sure anything I suggest,
is close to being the right method. You might need
an extraction tool to list the MSDM. Use SLUI 4 to change
the key. Type in the 222444666 Wifey key, and activate.
Just a guess. This isn't exactly "design intent" after all.
With the old SLIC method, this would work without a fuss
(as SLIC wasn't really "licensing" in the retail sense and
the key in that case was bogus and not reusable).

Paul

"Good Guy" wrote in message
news On 22/02/2018 10:48, wrote:

So my question is: In order to set up the new laptop, can I simply put
an image or clone of mine onto it and then uninstall/delete any stuff
she doesn't want or do I have to start from scratch.


No don't do it. Let your wife try to use Windows 10 because it is the
main Operating System these days. There is no point in buying something
you already had because life has to move on. New models of cars come out
and people don't just scrap it and put the old body work on it. Do they?
Let your wife use the new machine as it is. She must be younger than you
and very likely to be intelligent than you. The only mistake she made is
to marry an idiot like you.

I can understand people wanting to stick with the UI that they know and like
and has *evolved* from Win 95 via 98, XP, Vista to Win7. The change to Win
10 is huge if you stick with the "mess of tiles" desktop and the cut-down
star menu that was added grudgingly to Win 10.

If MS want to introduce a new UI - or a new *anything* for that matter - it
should be alongside the legacy UI. They should only ever ever *add* new
functionality, never *remove* old functionality.

To use your car analogy, most people can switch from one car to another
fairly easily, because the controls are in roughly the same place. Now try
switching to a car where the (manual) gears are laid out in a different
order, the pedals are in a different order, you steer by joystick or
aircraft-style yoke instead of steering wheel. That is the degree of change
(as I see it) in going from Win 7 to Win 8 or 10. You can adjust, given
time, but it involves a lot of un-learning of the old way which has become
instinctive so as to learn the new way of doing things.

I would say that Win 10 is perfectly usable, as long as you install Classic
Shell to give you back the start menu and the ability to paste shortcuts for
commonly-used programs onto the desktop in fix positions, rather than having
tiles which change position day by day and which are not distinctive enough
from each other because they are monochrome (all-red, all-blue etc).


Incidentally, the main reason why you can't clone a disk image from one PC
to another is that the hardware will be different so different drivers will
be needed. If you try to boot with the "wrong" image, the PC will almost
certainly crash during booting because it will assume (for example) a Brand
X graphics card and find a Brand Y one instead. The only way to get round
this is to "sysprep" the image as you are generating it on the old PC, so as
to take out the device-specific details and force Windows to re-detect the
hardware and hopefully find built-in drivers that are good enough to allow
you to boot and then install the correct vendor-specific drivers. Been
there, done that, failed the test! I had to devise a system at work for
allowing end-user PCs to be restored back to a factory state (using a Norton
Ghost image) and then have 3rd party software reinstalled within a couple of
hours. The stumbling block was to keep the number of images as few as
possible and to include all the drivers which might be encountered when the
PC (which may be one of various models with different hardware) does its
initial hardware detection. Frustratingly, I was criticised for failing to
come up with a viable solution, but when the work was passed over to someone
else, a lot of the restrictions that I'd had to comply with were removed so
he solved the easier task without any problem - and that was used as grounds
for selecting me for redundancy :-( Lord preserve us from crap managers
who don't have the technical knowledge to understand the problems I'm having
and judge only on results.

"Good Guy" wrote in message
news On 22/02/2018 12:44, Alek wrote:


I use (only) Classic Start Menu and I have a "non-10 looking computer.

But you are a complete idiot who spends hundreds buying a new washing
machine only to turn it into a 1940 model. Only an idiot does it.

Not quite a fair analogy. It's more like wanting to keep the UI that has
been around for a long time and has become standard throughout various new
versions, rather than having used to a new UI which is unfamiliar. To use a
car analogy, you want to take advantage of all the latest technological
advances (more powerful and yet more efficient engine, ABS, power steering)
under the hood (US) / bonnet (UK) without having an unfamiliar set of
controls foisted on you.

There are two ways to solve the problem: change the UI to one you are
familiar with, using Classic Start Menu, or to bite the bullet and endure
the period of hassle while you get used to the
change-for-the-sake-of-change, and hope that MS don't redesign the UI yet
again in a few years' time.

I would opt for parallel running: have the familiar UI while you are using
the PC as a tool, and be able to switch to the new UI as you get used to it,
"playing" when you don't have to use it for real. Sad that MS didn't plan
for this, and it has take 3rd party programs like Classic Shell to make it
happen.

On Thu, 22 Feb 2018 12:39:28 +0000, Good Guy
wrote:

On 22/02/2018 10:48, wrote:
So my question is: In order
to set up the new laptop, can I simply put an image or clone of mine
onto it and then uninstall/delete any stuff she doesn't want or do I
have to start from scratch.

No don't do it. Let your wife try to use Windows 10 because it is the
main Operating System these days. There is no point in buying something
you already had because life has to move on. New models of cars come
out and people don't just scrap it and put the old body work on it. Do
they? Let your wife use the new machine as it is. She must be younger
than you and very likely to be intelligent than you. The only mistake
she made is to marry an idiot like you.

Here we go again ... Good Guy the big mouth with nothing useful to
say!


Please excuse me if this is a silly question as I am a septuagenarian!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Yes it is a silly question and don't ask ever again such questions
here. You can ask on Linux NG but Windows users are generally
brighter and intelligent than Linux junkies.

Who are you ... the posting police. You have NO RIGHT to tell anyone
not to ask questions here again, it's NOT YOUR NEWSGROUP.




---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

There you go. You are also spamming these newsgroups with your Avast
link. Hasn't anyone taught you how to remove it so that it doesn't spam
any newsgroups. Avast is a bogus organisation. They don't even know
how to create a signature. Look they have three dashes ( - - - ) so
that their spam becomes a sore to the naked eye.

You can't talk about spam. You Spam this NG all the time with your
crap LOL

On Thu, 22 Feb 2018 12:47:40 +0000, Good Guy
wrote:

On 22/02/2018 12:44, Alek wrote:

I use (only) Classic
Start Menu and I have a "non-10 looking computer.


But you are a complete idiot who spends hundreds buying a new washing
machine only to turn it into a 1940 model. Only an idiot does it.



Talking of idiots, you've opened your mouth yet again & proved you are
big one!