How to Downgrade Windows 8 to Windows 7

Windows 8 is up and running. It has lots and lots of new features, new user interface and an overall new feel. If you think “Well, this is awesome and I like Windows 8”, then the following tutorial won’t be of much help to you. On the other hand, if you think that Microsoft’s “new and improved” operating system is not the one for you (and I can honestly understand why not), then you might want to go back to Windows 7 (or Vista, which is a bad idea).

Recently, this became a problem for those who have bought computers or laptops produced by HP that came with the Windows 8 OEM installed. At that time, HP declared that they will not offer support for anyone who will downgrade to Windows 7 from Windows 8, thus creating quite a stir among the owners of HP computers. Much to their relief, HP has updated their policy and now users can downgrade to Windows 7 without voiding their warranty. Maybe other OEMs will follow HP’s example.

Downgrading from Windows 8 to Windows 7

Microsoft allows users who own a copy of Windows 8 Pro to downgrade to an older version of Windows, be it 7 or Vista (downgrade to XP is not supported), as they had done with previous versions of Windows, as we can see from the Windows 8 license agreement:

Instead of using the Windows 8 Pro software, you may use one of the following earlier versions: Windows 7 Professional or Windows Vista Business.

Now that you have caught your breath knowing that you have the possibility to downgrade, let’s move on to the next step: how to downgrade to Windows 7 from Windows 8
There is no easy way to do this, because Microsoft does not provide such a tool in any of their operating systems. Also, I have consulted with the Microsoft website and there is no information available on how to downgrade your Windows operating system. This means that only those who have OEM licenses of Windows 8 can downgrade to Windows 7, but the downgrade must be done by the computer manufacturer. If you only bought a retail version of Windows 8,  you are left with one option: buy a copy of Windows 7 (if you do not have one yet) and install it on your computer.

Installing Windows 7 over Windows 8

If you are installing a new OS on your device, there are a few steps you must undergo before starting. First of all, determine if there is any information on your C: partition that you want to keep. If so, copy it on your other partitions/cloud service/external drive. Also, just to be safe, you can make a disk image of your C: drive as a backup, just in case you will encounter errors and need to revert to Windows 8. After saving all your files, you can continue by making a boot-able drive with Windows 7. For this, you will need the .ISO image file of Windows 7 and a DVD or USB flash drive (the flash drive must have at least 8GB ).

• Creating a boot-able DVD

If you want to create a DVD with Windows 7, you will need to install a program called Nero. This is allow you to create a boot-able DVD very quickly with next to no effort. After installing Nero, stick in your blank DVD and in the Nero main screen select “DVD” and “Open”, now you have to browse for your .ISO file. After opening the file, click on “Burn” and wait for the burning process to complete.

• Creating a boot-able USB Flash Drive

If you will be installing Windows 7 from a USB flash drive, you will notice that there are lots of utilities around the web that allow you to accomplish this, but from personal experience, I would recommend doing this the old fashioned way, with Command Prompt. Also, remember that you will need a USB flash drive that has 8GB or more, and before you start, copy all your files from the flash drive, because this process will erase all the data from the USB flash drive. This is how to do it:
Search for “CMD” and run it as administrator (it is crucial that you run it this way, otherwise it will give you an error later on)
After the command prompt window opens, type “DISKPART” and enter the following commands in this order:

1. “LIST DISK”
2. A list will appear with all the disks on your computer. See which of them is the USB drive (look at the size of the disk to determine which one it is). If you have only one hard drive on your computer, the USB stick will usually be Disk 1 (we will take this case as an example)
3. “SELECT DISK 1” (again, be sure that you have the same number for your USB flash drive)
4. “CLEAN”
5. “CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY”
6. “SELECT PARTITION 1”
7. “ACTIVE”
8. “FORMAT FS=NTFS” and wait for the format to complete (it takes about 10 minutes on a 8GB flash drive)
9. “ASSIGN”
10. “EXIT” – this will exit the “diskpart” utility, but the command prompt will still remain opened. Do not close it because you will use it later on. Now your USB flash drive is seen as a partition, this will allow you to create the boot drive for the Windows 7 operating system also, mount your .ISO image to a virtual drive.
11. “D: CD BOOT” (where “D” is the drive letter of your virtual drive where your .ISO file with Windows 7 is mounted)
12. “CD BOOT”
13. “BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 X:” (where “X” is the letter of your USB flash drive)

Copy all the files from the .ISO file to your USB flash drive and after the process is completed, you are done. Now, with your copy of Windows 7 ready to go, you can perform the normal installation. Select your USB drive as the boot source and install the operating system. It is quite a shame that Microsoft does not implement a feature that allows users to downgrade automatically to an older version of Windows. Especially now, when Windows 8 is so different from the older versions and it might not be to the liking of everyone.

Source

Read More

How to Speed Up a PC-Tips to Increase Windows Performance

Microsoft windows operating system has been designed to deliver better speeds.Especially Windows 8 is far better than its predecessor.However, as time passes ,the laptop/PC might tend to get slower.There might be many reasons behind slow PC performance but you can optimize the speed with some simple tweaks and using few software's that clean your PC to increase its speed.

PC’s performance will slow down at 3 Instances:

1. At the time of BOOTING
2. During normally usage.
3. While Shutting Down.

Tips to Speed Up Windows Performance:

Use a Good Antivirus:

If you are not using a Good antivirus then the chances for your PC getting infected are pretty high.In this present world of Internet nothing is safe online.As windows is the most widely used operating system,many new viruses/trojans are created daily to exploit windows os.

• Check out Best Antivirus softwares.
• You can also use some good free antivirus software as well.

Removing unwanted Startup Applications:

Sometimes even after the pc starts, few programs keeps on loading thereby stopping you from performing your operations.In some cases, you might come across a strange WINDOWS error known as “Blue Screen Of death”.To avoid this you have to limit the number of startup programs.Lesser the number of startup programs greater will be the pc startup speed.

•  Press” Windows key + R”(shortcut key for RUN)
• A RUN box will open .Type “Msconfig” (without quotes) in the RUN box and hit ENTER. It will take you to the “system configuration”.

• Select “START UP” from the Tab’s at the top and uncheck all the unwanted programs that you don’t want to get started along with startup. Now click “OK” and then “APPLY”.Restart the pc you will definiately notice an improvement in startup and booting speed.

Delete all the Temporary files and folders:

Windows stores some temporary files which are created while you are running any sort or applications. Deleting those Temporary files will helps you to increase your PC Performance during normal usage. Follow the steps below to delete the temporary files

• Press” Windows key + R”. 
• In the RUN box type “%temp%” (without quotes) and hit enter.

Temporary Files and Folders

• It will take you to a Folder where all the Temporary files are stored. Select and delete all the files. You may not delete all the files there, just skip those files which are undeletable.

Disk Clean Up:

Disk cleaning will delete all your temporary files from any drive of your Disk. Here is the Procedure

Press” Windows key + R”. 

Type “cleanmgr” (without Quotes) and hit enter.

Select the particular Disk that you want to Clean and click on “OK” and now you can delete all the temporary files. Repeat the same procedure for all the drives and it will really free some amount of memory in every drive.

Defragment Disk:

For Defragmenting the Disk follow the steps below:

1. Right click on any drive and select PROPERTIES

2. Click on TOOLS and select DEFRAGMENT NOW

3. ANALYSE the dick first and then DEFRAGMENT it.

Delete ”Old Windows” Files:

Normally your files of OLD version of windows can be removed easily using DISK CLEAN UP. So you can follow the same procedure to delete the files of OLD WINDOWS

Reduce Files on Desktop:

Move all the files on your Desktop to any other separate drive.Every shorcut on desktop consumes 20kb of your RAM.If there are too many shortcuts then it is definitely going to effect the performance speed of your computer.You can use shortcuts on the desktop for easy navigation (Shortcuts are less in memory). 

Using Proper Cooling System:

Make sure that your Cooling fans are working fine. Try to clean the Dust from the surface of the fans to make it work properly. Provide good ventilation for PC’s and try to maintain the room cool so that Pc can perform better.

Removing Visual Effects:

Follow the steps below to disable unwanted Visual effects

1. Go to CONTROL PANEL > SYSTEM AND SECURITY > SYSTEM >ADVANCED SYSTEM SETTINGS ( A box will pop up)

2.  Click on SETTINGS of PERFORMANCE section.

3. There check all the visual effects and remove those which are not need for your and save those settings

Deleting Internet Cache

There are many software’s available on internet to Delete internet cache but, CC Cleaner is the free software and its very effect in deleting the file temporary files.

Use Revo Uninstaller to uninstall programs:

Completely uninstall programs and applications using a program like Revo Uninstaller. It will get rid of registries left behind by normal uninstalls.

Repairing Registry Files:

There are many Good software’s available on internet to fix all your registry errors. You can pick anyone of them. I will suggest you to use TUNE UP UTILITIES as it perform better than much other software.

Using Ready Boost:

Connect a USB stick to a Windows computer – even on Windows 8 – and it will ask if you want to speed up your system using ReadyBoost. ReadyBoost was introduced in Windows Vista, where it was a heavily promoted feature.

Upgrade your Hardware:

Last but very important thing is to upgrade your hardwares.If you are still using old hardwares then its time for you to replace then to boost pc speed.

Read More

Using Microsoft Network Monitor

In this post I'll describe how to use Microsoft Network Monitor to analyze the connections that your computer creates out on the Internet, and find out what goes on between the programs you run and the servers they send information to. First, what is Network Monitor? It used to be that Microsoft only made basic monitoring tools, but since version 3.0, the Network Monitor tool has become a powerful packet capture and analysis program.

Now, why would someone want to use it as opposed to something like Wireshark? The two are very similar but do have a few differences. For one, the big advantage of Network Monitor is that it separate conversations based on the program, and on the server it connects to. For example, you will see an entry for your browser, your mail client, and so on, and inside of each, you'll have a different conversation for each web site you currently have open. Also, in my opinion the filters provided are easier to work with than Wireshark. On the negative side, it doesn't provide color-coded entries, but you can add your own.

Getting started

First you'll have to download the latest version of Network Monitor from the Microsoft site here. This will install the packet capture driver and the monitoring software. Simply double click on the icon to launch it.

In the program window, you can see a list of your interfaces on the lower left corner. Usually you'll want to select your Local Area Connection or whichever link you use to connect to the Internet. Then, click on the New Capture toolbar button. This will open a new tab for your capture, and you can click the Start toolbar button.

As the capture is going on, you will be able to see on the left pane the various applications that use the network, and the conversations they are having. You will see application names such as Firefox or Internet Explorer, and less obvious ones like System, svhost and Unknown. Once you've captured for a while you can Stop the capture and start analyzing the results.

Packet analysis

If you aren't familiar with networking protocols this may look intimidating. First, click on a conversation on the left pane, such as a web site you went to. Next to each conversation, you will see your own IP address and the IP of the machine you connected to. On the right side of the screen you will see the list of packets that were sent. You may also see the host names of the servers you connected to, which is more useful than just IP addresses.

As you click on any of the lines on the right pane, you will see the details appear in the two windows at the bottom right of the screen. The right one is the raw packet in HEX code, but the left one gives you information about all the protocols used, such as the version number, which ports were used, and so on.

You can also filter the results by using the top right box. Simply click on the Load Filter button, and you can see a series of default filters that Microsoft has by default. You could restrict to just web traffic, or network shares, DNS, and so on.

Real world example

Here's a quick example of what can be found this way. In the screenshot above I showed about 2 minutes of network traffic, during which I went to a few web sites, one of which was Microsoft.com. In the list, there was a conversation with an unknown IP, under the System process, which I clicked on, as shown below.



As you can see in this screenshot, this IP turned out to be microsoft.webtrends.akadns.net, which I assume is some kind of ads or monitoring service. But if you look at the packet information, at the very bottom of the screen, we can see exactly the URL called. It seems that by going to a Microsoft site, it also invoked a script on this site, to which it passed not only the address I went to on the Microsoft site, but also the Google search string I used to find the site, as a referral.

This is the kind of nifty information that can be shown, network connections you may not even imagine your computer is doing, and Network Monitor can be a great tool to track them down. While this example is probably quite benign, you can use the same steps to track down spyware and so on.

Read More