Return to factory settings

This is probably a dumb question, but I really haven't been able to get a
good answer from my research. I installed Windows 8 on an older laptop that
came with Vista. Later I installed Windows 7. Now I find that I really
hate Windows 8. Windows 8 has an option to return my machine to original
factory settings (in case of recycling or selling the machine). Will this
work on this machine, or is this just an option for computers that came with
Windows 8 installed?
TIA

"apuzzler" wrote in message ...


This is probably a dumb question, but I really haven't been able to get a
good answer from my research. I installed Windows 8 on an older laptop that
came with Vista. Later I installed Windows 7. Now I find that I really
hate Windows 8. Windows 8 has an option to return my machine to original
factory settings (in case of recycling or selling the machine). Will this
work on this machine, or is this just an option for computers that came with
Windows 8 installed?


If you upgraded from Vista to Windows 8, the upgrade was a clean install.

The utilities provided by Windows 8 for Restore, Refresh and Reset are explained he
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...fresh-reset-pc

Afaik...none of these are intended to remove Win8 and return a pc to Vista.

Microsoft references regarding your question
qp
"If you decide to go back to your previous operating system, you'll need to reinstall it from the recovery or installation media
that came with your PC, which is typically DVD media.

"If you don’t have recovery media, you might be able to create it from a recovery partition on your PC using software provided by
your PC manufacturer. Check the support section of your PC manufacturer's website for more information. After you install Windows
8, you won’t be able to use the recovery partition on your PC to go back to your previous version of Windows."
/qp

i.e. to return to Vista you will need to:
a.) boot from a full version Vista DVD and wipe the existing Win8 and reinstall Vista
or
b.) use recovery media (provided by your pc manufacturer or created by you) and instructions from your pc manufacturer to return
the pc to factory condition.

--
....winston
msft mvp

On 12/17/2012 12:07 PM, apuzzler wrote:
This is probably a dumb question, but I really haven't been able to get
a good answer from my research. I installed Windows 8 on an older laptop
that came with Vista. Later I installed Windows 7. Now I find that I
really hate Windows 8. Windows 8 has an option to return my machine to
original factory settings (in case of recycling or selling the
machine). Will this work on this machine, or is this just an option for
computers that came with Windows 8 installed?
TIA



Probably the best thing to do is install one of the utilities for
essentially turning Win8 to a Win7 gui


http://code.google.com/p/power8/

--
https://www.createspace.com/3707686

On 18-Dec-12 5:07 AM, apuzzler wrote:

really hate Windows 8. Windows 8 has an option to return my machine to
original factory settings (in case of recycling or selling the
machine). Will this work on this machine, or is this just an option for
computers that came with Windows 8 installed?
It'll only return your system to a virginal Win8 system. If you retained
your OEM's system recovery disks you might be able to restore the
machine to the OEM's factory settings. If you had an OEM recovery
partition before you installed Win 8, it's possible that Win 8 deleted
the pointers into that recovery partition (as it did for me) even if the
recovery partition is otherwise intact. Contact your OEM to see if
there's an alternative way to run that recovery if possible.
Personally, my solution was to make a full clone of the original disk
before I installed Win8, so I can restore that if necessary and can
still re-run the OEM recovery from the clone (I've tested that it does
work for me) and I also have a set of OEM DVDs with the recovery stuff
exported form that system when it was new.
HTH

apuzzler wrote:
This is probably a dumb question, but I really haven't been able to get
a good answer from my research. I installed Windows 8 on an older laptop
that came with Vista. Later I installed Windows 7. Now I find that I
really hate Windows 8. Windows 8 has an option to return my machine to
original factory settings (in case of recycling or selling the
machine). Will this work on this machine, or is this just an option for
computers that came with Windows 8 installed?
TIA

This isn't exactly the recipe you need. The purpose of presenting
this article, is to introduce you to the "windows.old" folder.
Notice that recovery, isn't all that straightforward at all.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933168

Windows 8 should prepare a windows.old, when you do an upgrade
install.

But Windows 8 will apparently also delete windows.old, after
sufficient time has passed (in an effort to recover space).
So don't wait too long, before using the contents of it.

*******

You can do a system image now, to save C: as it currently
stands. Then if something silly happens in the next three
weeks, you'll be ready for it.

For a system image on Windows 8, you can use the same method
I was using on my laptop for Windows 7. In Command Prompt,
try "sdclt.exe", as it has the control panel for System Image
option.

sdclt has two kinds of backups. The first might be used
to back up the entire C:. The second is for some flavor of
file-by-file backup. The first one will do as much for
you, as a copy of Macrium Reflect Free program might do.

sdclt /configure
sdclt /configure /target

If you can't get sdclt to work, use this, having in
hand a blank CD for the recovery disc, and an external
hard drive to hold the backup.

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Paul

On 12/17/2012 10:07 AM, apuzzler wrote:
This is probably a dumb question, but I really haven't been able to get
a good answer from my research. I installed Windows 8 on an older laptop
that came with Vista. Later I installed Windows 7. Now I find that I
really hate Windows 8. Windows 8 has an option to return my machine to
original factory settings (in case of recycling or selling the machine).
Will this work on this machine, or is this just an option for computers
that came with Windows 8 installed?
TIA

You got great advice from everybody. Although there is something I like
to add. Now you didn't say how long you ran Windows 8 or anything. But
it seems to be normal to hate Windows 8 at first. After all, it is the
biggest change in Windows for the past 17 years.

And I noticed that those that hang on for awhile, usually start liking
Windows 8 more and more. I am well past that point nowadays. And I
rather use the Windows 8 desktop instead of the Windows 7 one now. I
wish Windows 7 had hybrid boot, graphic file transfers, etc. that
Windows 8 has. ;-)

--
Bill
Dell Latitute Slate Tablet 128GB SSD ('12 era) - Thunderbird v12
Intel Atom Z670 1.5GHz - 2GB - Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8