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Posted: 21 Jul 2012 04:04 AM PDT
Windows 8 has some cool new tools
for fixing your PC without having to go through all kinds of crazy boot
screens and command prompts like in older versions of Windows. The two main
features you may have heard of are Refresh PC and Reset PC. Refresh PC is kind
of like doing a repair install of Windows, but now you just press one button
instead of the long process it was in Windows XP and Windows 7. Resetting
your PC is basically performing a full reinstall of the OS, again with just
one click of a button.
In addition to those options,
there is also another very easy recovery option that is better than refresh
and reset, in my opinion. You can create an image backup of your Windows 8 PC
with all your settings, data, and apps the way you want them to be restored.
The only downside to Refresh PC is that it will preserve your data and Metro
apps, but it will remove any desktop apps that you install. With an image,
you can configure Windows 8 with all the Metro and desktop apps you want,
plus any other settings and then create the image.
What’s really nice is that when
you go to refresh your PC again after creating the image, it will refresh the
PC from the image backup automatically! And again, the Refresh PC and Reset
PC options are available through Windows and they are also available in
Windows RE, which is the Windows Recovery Environment that you can load in
case Windows 8 won’t boot up.
In this article, I’ll walk you
through the steps to create a image backup of Windows 8 and also show you how
easy it is to restore the entire image. So now when your computer is infected
with malware and viruses your kids downloaded onto your computer, you can
restore it to it’s original state with ease.
Create Windows 8
Backup Image
To get started, you need to open
an elevated command prompt in Windows 8. To do this, go to the start screen
and right-click anywhere to see All
apps.
Next, right-click on the the
Command Prompt and you’ll see a couple of options show up on the bottom. Go
ahead and click on Run as
Administrator.
Now at the command prompt, you
have to type two simple commands. One to create the folder that will hold the
image and one to actually create the image.
mkdir C:\RefreshImage
recimg -CreateImage C:\RefreshImage
The process to create the image
takes about 10 to 15 minutes and could take longer depending on the amount of
data you have on your system. Overall, though, the process is fairly fast for
a backup image.
It will first initialize, then
create the snapshot, then write the image and then register the image so that
it is used automatically when you refresh the PC. That’s it! You now have a
complete backup image of your Windows 8 machine. If you go to the directory
you created, you’ll see a .WIM file there, which is a Windows Image file.
I suggest copying this backup file
to an external drive also, just so you have a backup of the file in case the
entire hard drive crashes with some kind of hardware error. In that type of
case, no recovery option will help if the hard drive is physically damaged.
You’ll have to get another hard drive and then restore the image using the
Windows Recovery Environment. Anyway, assuming your hard drive is OK and
something went wrong with Windows, you can restore the image by going to
Refresh PC.
Open the Charms bar and then
click on Settings
and then click on Change
PC Settings.
Click on General and then click
on Get Started
under Refresh Your PC.
You’ll see a dialog pop up telling
you what will happen in the process and then click Next. Refreshing the PC
from an image will take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes, possibly longer
depending on your hardware specs and the size of the image.
Once the refresh is done, you can
login and you’ll be good to go with all your settings and apps! Pretty sweet
eh! You can also update the image at any time by simply creating another one
using the commands above and the latest image will be set as the currently
registered image for the PC refresh to use. Enjoy!
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Saturday, July 21, 2012
Create a Windows 8 Backup Image
Thursday, June 14, 2012
The Windows Firewall Service and DHCP services Fails to start
Method 1: Try the steps given in the link below to fix this issue:
Note: The steps provided in this article is applicable to Windows 7 Operating system as well.
Method 2: Follow this method to delete the registry key
Important: This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the windows help article below.
Delete the registry key:
a. Go to start and type regedit.exe.
b. Navigate to the location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\wscsvc.
c. Delete the item by right clicking on it and selecting delete.
d. Close registry editor.
b. Navigate to the location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\wscsvc.
c. Delete the item by right clicking on it and selecting delete.
d. Close registry editor.
Regards,
Prashob
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Error when installing Windows 8 Release Preview: “Your PC’s CPU isn’t compatible with Windows 8.”
To install Windows 8 Release Preview on your PC, the processor (CPU) must support the following features: Physical Address Extension (PAE), NX, and SSE2. Most CPUs have support for these features, so if you receive this error, it is likely because the NX feature is not enabled on your system.
To resolve this error, follow manufacturer guidelines to enable NX (“No eXecute bit”), or the equivalent XD (“eXecute Disabled”) feature, within the BIOS security settings.
If the BIOS setting for the NX support option is not available on your system, you may need to contact the manufacturer for updating the BIOS. Note that some older processors may not contain these features and will be incompatible with Windows 8 Release Preview.
Similarly, if you are using a virtualization product to install a Windows 8 Release Preview virtual machine (VM) and receive this error (or error 0xC0000260), you must enable PAE (or PAE-NX) in the virtualization product’s settings or configuration manager when setting up the Windows 8 virtual environment.
A whitepaper has been published with further details about the PAE/NX/SSE2 requirement for Windows 8, error cases and scenarios that customers encounter when machines fail to meet the requirement, and what to do to install Windows 8 on their PC’s. You can download the whitepaper at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/hh975398.aspx.
Thanks .Steven.S
To resolve this error, follow manufacturer guidelines to enable NX (“No eXecute bit”), or the equivalent XD (“eXecute Disabled”) feature, within the BIOS security settings.
If the BIOS setting for the NX support option is not available on your system, you may need to contact the manufacturer for updating the BIOS. Note that some older processors may not contain these features and will be incompatible with Windows 8 Release Preview.
Similarly, if you are using a virtualization product to install a Windows 8 Release Preview virtual machine (VM) and receive this error (or error 0xC0000260), you must enable PAE (or PAE-NX) in the virtualization product’s settings or configuration manager when setting up the Windows 8 virtual environment.
A whitepaper has been published with further details about the PAE/NX/SSE2 requirement for Windows 8, error cases and scenarios that customers encounter when machines fail to meet the requirement, and what to do to install Windows 8 on their PC’s. You can download the whitepaper at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/hh975398.aspx.
Thanks .Steven.S
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