Preparation steps to take before installing Windows 8

Preparation steps to take before installing Windows 8
Check Amazon software collective rating

If your like me, you wonder about Windows 8.   Windows 7 is a good operating system – so why change?  If I go to Amazon at Windows 8 at Amazon and look at Windows 8, it sells for around $70.  But it only has 3 out of 5 stars from over 300 respondents – that’s an average rating.

Run Windows 8 upgrade assistant

Well, I read through the Amazon description and jump to the FAQ part.  The most important FAQ is this one:

“How can I tell if my devices (keyboards, mice, webcams) will work with Windows 8?”

“Windows 8 generally works with the same peripheral devices and apps that work with Windows 7. In some cases, a device or program might need an update. The best way to tell if your devices will work before you upgrade is to run Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant, a free program that scans your current hardware, software programs, and devices for compatibility. “

So being a cautious person, I search Google for  “ Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant”.  I download this free program and run it on my HP and Dell machines.  It gives some suggestions on programs to update, along with an offer to get an electronic download for around $40.  Not bad.

But there appears to be a show stopper.  It says neither machine has a secure boot facility and I need to upgrade my motherboard BIOS.

Read technical articles and forums on the topic

Now I search for some secure boot articles and find these gems:

• HTG Explains: How Windows 8′s Secure Boot Feature Works and What It Means for Linux
• Why does Secure Boot need such draconian control? OPINION Pros and cons of Secure Boot explored
• Wiki on Windows 8
• Windows 8 Security: Mostly Good, Some Bad
• PCs Microsoft Secure Boot Could Ban Windows From
• Windows 8 Security: What’s New?
• Thread: P370EM , Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant says firmware not Compatible with Secure Boot

Check hardware with Speccy and see vendor site for firmware upgrades

A good free tool to find your current hardware setup is Speccy at piriform.com/spe… .  Find out what the motherboard hardware is.  Then visit your vendor site to see if they have a BIOS upgrade for Windows 8.  When I go to the HP site to check the product code, it says their engineers haven’t tested my PC version yet.  Will vendor engineers give upgrading existing hardware firmware a low priority?

Get a demo

I went to the local Office Depot and talked with their computer guy.  He had Windows 8 set up on a laptop. It took about 5 minutes or so to give me a walk through and answer my questions.

Check local PC repair shops to see what they recommend

I took a trip to a local PC computer repair place.   They don’t like Windows 8 or recommend it.  But they mentioned they have installed it on older customer computers – no problem.  They didn’t seem to be aware of the secure boot controversy.  Another PC repair place didn’t offer much more advice.  But they did say the program took a lot of memory.

Ask the right question on a specific forum like

LinkedIn

Here’s a  question I opened on LinkedIn this week:

“Should you upgrade old PC hardware with Windows 8 before upgrading firmware motherboard BIOS to accommodate secure boot feature?”

“If you run the Windows 8 upgrade assistant, it might say the current PC hardware doesn’t support secure boot. It might recommend to see if a firmware upgrade exists. Forums I explore say it means to check for a motherboard BIOS upgrade. Yet some local PC repair shops have installed Windows 8 on old hardware successfully, without checking for upgrades. What’s your opinion on best practices for the average consumer? “

The question stays open for 7 days.  I’ll probably won’t have definite answers until after I publish this post.  Stay tuned! But let me share one or two answers I got so far.

See when applications will be ready

Here’s a post I recently opened on the Scribus forum:

“I have run Windows 8 upgrade assistant.  It tells you what hardware and software is compatible with a Windows 8 upgrade.  One of the things it told me was that Scribus 1.4.1 is not compatible with Windows 8.  It said a paid update was available.  So here are my questions.  What release of Scribus will be Windows 8 compatible and is there a target date in mind?  Does anyone know what the paid option Windows 8 upgrade assistant is referring to?”

Let me share an answer I received:

“There aren’t many apps in the windows store yet – I would wait at least a couple of months before considering of an upgrade. (it might be time for a side grade to Ubuntu – no bigger step than to win 8…).  Lots of applications may stay incompatible for a long time. Microsoft will keep a barrier for free applications – a dangerous ‘monopoly-play’…”

“I don’t think, that there is a paid update for Scribus – this must be a wrong information.”

And what about iTunes?  Microsoft Windows 8 upgrade assistant is flagging iTunes also.

IT Support and development opinions from LinkedIn

Here’ are some different opinions I received from LinkedIn:

Answer 1

“Secure Boot is not needed to run Windows 8, but recommended.  Iit is automatically installed on new hardware but not needed for the older. I ran Windows 8 on a Windows Vista compatible laptop the other day, ran perfectly.”

Answer 2

“Always do a check for new BIOS and install that before any major system upgrade. Depending on the hardware age, it may or may not support secure boot, but the BIOS upgrade is a good idea anyway, and always better to do this before any system upgrade.”

Answer 3

“If you can boot/install/upgrade from Windows 8 media and it installs properly, then you don’t need to upgrade your BIOS.”

“Since you’ll be backing up before you do the upgrade (nod your head, you know you’ll be doing this or everyone will be saying “I told you so” later) even a failed install can be recovered from easily.”

Anti-virus

Be sure your anti-virus is ready to run Windows 8.  I had Norton Security Suite from Comcast.  Windows 8 upgrade assistant flagged it.  I had to call Comcast and Norton.  Someone from Norton upgraded my two computers.  I haven’t yet installed Windows 8 but I’m a step closer to being ready – should I take the plunge.

Some election prediction stuff – for the fun of it

As I was looking at election psychic predictions (for the fun of it, of course), I found an interesting YouTube presentation at Hillary in 2016?. While he hasn’t gotten many hits, he has an interesting prediction for 2016. Hillary Clinton will run and win, with help from Obama and Bill Clinton. He also predicted the Obama reelection.

I reading  a book entitled The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail-but Some Don’t by Nate Silver (see Nate Silver book on Amazon). He predicted on a major comedy show Obama would win – when asked. I just picked this book up at my local public library. It’s very heavy and deep – very interesting. This is about statistical and computer modeling stuff – not the psychic stuff.

Academic and business blog posts

Here are some blog posts I recommend from academic and business acquaintances of mine: