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Windows 8 Installtion Guide
Windows 8 Installtion Guide
Of course, before you get started, you should back up your data. You
can use Windows 7's Backup and Restore to create a backup or you
can simply copy your data files over to an external hard disk. You
might even want to do both operations. After all, you really can't have
too many backups, can you?
Getting started
After booting from the DVD that I created from my download, the first
thing I encountered was the new light blue Windows logo on a black
background, as shown in Figure A. This image remained on the
screen for a few moments while Setup was initializing. I was kind of
hoping that the flag would be animated, but the only animation was
the dots spinning in a circle.
Figure A
The new light blue Windows flag is introduced.
After a few minutes, you'll see the Windows Setup screen shown in
Figure B and you will specify your language settings before clicking
Next. When you do, Setup will perform some more initialization tasks
in the background.
Figure B
You'll enter your product key to start the information collection phase
of the installation procedure.
The next step is to acknowledge that you accept the license terms, as
shown in Figure E. If you take the time to read through them, you will
see that Microsoft has indeed radically overhauled EULA as Ed Bott
over at ZDNet wrote about in a recent column.
Even if you don't take the time to read the license terms during the
installation, once you have installed Windows 8, you can find the
Microsoft Software License Agreement in the Windows Help and
Support system - just search with the term License. Not only is the
license shorter in length, but it is also much clearer and easier to read.
Figure E
Figure F
On you example system there are four partitions that I will be blowing
away.
To begin blowing away partitions, you start by clicking Drive options
(advanced). When you do so, you'll see a list of commands for
managing partitions, as shown in Figure H.
Figure H
The Installing Windows stage begins with copying files from the
DVD to the hard disk.
When this phase of the process is complete, Windows will alert you
that it is going to restart in order to continue, as shown in Figure L. If
you are really impatient and really quick, you can click the Restart now
button.
Figure L
Windows Setup will get all installed devices ready to work with
Windows 8.
Figure N
After filling the details of your account on the next couple of screens,
you'll eventually see a screen that changes color as it alerts you the
Setup is getting your PC ready. The green version of this screen is
show in Figure R.
Figure R
While this screen changes color often, it will remain for a few minutes
while Setup works in the background.
As you may know, Windows 8 comes with a host of native apps for the
Start screen interface that replace and add to the group of applications
As the last step in the installation, Windows 8 installs its set of native
apps.
Once the apps are installed, you'll see the Start screen, as shown in
Figure T, and can begin using Windows 8.
Figure T