How to Do a Clean Install of Windows 8 with an Upgrade Disc

How to Do a Clean Install of Windows 8 with an Upgrade Disc:

Sometimes, you just need to do a clean install. Unfortunately, the Windows 8 Upgrade doesn't always allow for that, throwing you an error when you try to activate after a clean install. Reader uncommoner shows us a workaround for this issue.

If you do a clean install using the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant, you should be fine—but if you've already formatted your drive or you're moving to a new drive, you can't do a "clean install" without installing an old version of Windows first. It'll let you install Windows 8 cleanly, but when you go to activate, you get an error 0x8007007B, saying your product key can only be used for upgrading.

If you get that error, here's how to fix it:

1. Press the Windows key and type regedit. Press enter to open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate toHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/and double-click on the MediabootInstall key in the right pane.
3. Change the key's value from 1 to 0.
4. Exit the Registry Editor, press the Windows key again, and type cmd. Right-click on the Command Prompt icon and run it as an administrator.
5. Type slmgr /rearm and press Enter.
6. Reboot Windows.

When you get back into Windows, you should be able to run the Activation utility and activate Windows as normal, without getting an error. Obviously, you could use this trick for evil, but it has its legitimate place too—if, say, you're upgrading your hard drive and want to do a fresh install on it, or if you formatted your drive before upgrading.

We haven't had a chance to test it ourselves, but it's been well documented around the net, so we're confident it should work for you if you're getting this particular error. If you give it a shot, let us know how it works for you in the discussions below! Thanks for the tip, uncommoner!

How to Do a Clean Install of Windows 8 with an Upgrade License

Cannot delete files - You'll need to provide administrator permission to delete this folder

Source: http://forum.thewindowsclub.com/windows-tips-tutorials-articles/18379-how-take-ownership-full-control-permissions-files-folders-windows.html

How to Take Ownership and Full Control Permissions of Files & Folders in Windows

A lot of files and folders in Windows 7 & Vista does not actually belongs to users. Rather, most system files have “Trusted Installer” as owner, the assign or grant read+write, traverse or full control permissions to SYSTEM or CREATOR OWNER user account only. So users must take ownership and grant full access control permissions and rights to themselves if they want to modify, rename or delete these files or folders. Sometimes, users may need to take ownership and grant full rights to themselves on another drive or partition, especially on disk newly installed or inserted if they cannot browse the contents from the drive.

To take ownership and grant full control (or read write) permissions of files or folders in Windows Vista, do these steps.

1. In Windows Explorer window, locate the files or folders that you want to take ownership and grant or change full control or other access permissions.
2. Right click on the file or directory, and then select Properties on the right click menu.



3. Click on Security tab.
4. Click on Advanced button at the bottom. 



5. In “Advanced Security Settings” dialog window, click on Owner tab.
6. Here you will be able to see current owner (i.e. TrustedInstaller). To take ownership of the object, click on the Edit button. If UAC prompts for administrator’s password or permission to continue, enter the correct password or press Continue button.



7. Additional “Advanced Security Settings” dialog will appear. Highlight the user name (for example, Administrators) in the Change owner to box that you want to assign as the owner for the object. Click OK to make the change.



8. Back in original parent level “Advanced Security Settings” window, you will see the existing owner of the file or folder has changed to the user you just selected.
9. Click OK button to exit this window.
10. Click OK again to exit completely from the Properties window.
11. The ownership is now belonged to user or user account that been selected. To assign necessary permissions to the user too, repeat step 1 to 3 to open the object’s Properties window again.
12. In object’s Properties window, click on Edit button to change permissions. If UAC prompts for administrator’s password or permission to continue, enter the correct password or press Continue button.



13. Highlight the Administrators or the user who wants the permissions on the object be changed in the “Group or user names” box.

If the user ID or group that you want to manage the permissions for the object doesn’t exist, click on Add button, and type in the user name or group name desired into the Enter object names to select box, and finish off by clicking on OK.
14. In the Permissions for Administrators box below (or any other user name or group name you chose), click on “Full Control” under the “Allow” column to assign full access rights control permissions to Administrators group.



15. Click “OK” twice when done.

Users can now do whatever you like to the files or directories processed as above. If you feel that above process is a little too long, and prefer to use command line to perform above process, then open an elevated command prompt as administrator, and issues the following commands:

For Files:

takeown /f file_name /d y
icacls file_name /grant administrators:F

For Folders or Directories (will perform action recursively):

takeown /f directory_name /r /d y
icacls directory_name /grant administrators:F /t

Replace file_name or directory_name with actual file name or folder name, with path when applicable. The first command will take ownership of the file or folder specified, and the second command will grant full control permissions to administrators user group. Note that when using command for folders, to command will run recursively. To prevent the task been perform recursively, remove the “/r” and “/t” switch.

Above two commands have been scripted in Windows command shell batch script that easily perform the task of taking ownership and grant full control permissions to Administrators user group by typing simple command. Alternatively, users can add “Take Control Of” option to right clickmenu so that the next time you need to take control of a file with full control permissions, it’s just a one click task.

Offline installation of products on Web platform installer

Important commands

1.      Cache local copy of the product and dependencies

> WebPICMD.exe /Offline /Products:[All|<Title or ID>] /Path:[offline-directory-location]

2.      Install from the local copy

> WebPICmd.exe /Install /Products:<products you want> /XML:<Offline main feed>

3.      List all the available product on web platform

> WebPICmd.exe /List /ListOption:All

Sample:

> WebPICmd.exe /List /ListOption:All > products.txt

products.txt file is stored in the current working directory. It contains the product IDs of the products.

References:

1.      http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/et-EE/hdinsight/thread/1bd4ee83-d7a6-4491-95f6-a7547c123998

2.      Web Platform Installer v4 command line (WebPICMD.exe) Preview Release

http://www.iis.net/learn/install/web-platform-installer/web-platform-installer-v4-command-line-webpicmdexe-preview-release_1072

Windows 8 ESD file

Source: http://www.gravycode.com/what-is-a-esd-file-windows-8

Short:
ESD is an Encrypted WIM file, “Encrypted Storage Disk” or “Encrypted System Disk” perhaps.

Long:
While installing Windows 8 I came across an ESD file which I had never encountered before, and the investigation began.
The Windows 8 Upgrade Assistent began downloading WinPayload.esd to “D:\Users\GravyCode\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WebSetup\Download\WinPayload.esd”.
Looking into memory I found some interesting XML data of which I will share a few abstracts below:

<WimSourcePath>D:\Users\GravyCode\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WebSetup\Download\WinPayload.esd</WimSourcePath>
< WimTargetPath>D:\Users\GravyCode\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WebSetup\Download\WinPayload.esd.decrypt</WimTargetPath>
< RemoteSourcePath>http://sg.win.esd.microsoft.com/W8DL/[somedata]/Windows8-ProESDwithApps-64bit-EnglishUnitedKingdom-X1816623.esd?t=[somevariable]</RemoteSourcePath>
< CryptoKey>[..............CUT..............]<CryptoKey>
< FileHash>[file hash]</FileHash>

So in theory it’s an encrypted WIM file of some sort.

<WimPath>D:\Users\Matty\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WebSetup\Download\WinPayload.esd.decrypt</WimPath>
< LayoutPath>C:\ESD\Windows</LayoutPath>

Looking further it seems that it will be extracted to “C:\ESD\Windows” which is a hidden folder created by the update assistant which will now contain a nice “setup.exe”.

I’ll assume it stands for “Encrypted Storage Disk” or “Encrypted System Disk”.
After the updater completing the download it will give you the option to create an ISO, create a boot-able thumb disk or leave it till another time. Don’t wait till another time. =]