Hi I'm thinking about getting a Windows 8 laptop, I have never really used it before (except when I installed 8.1 preview on a laptop) I was wondering if you can still integrate things like Windows 7 With Windows 7 I would run ABR to backup the .xrm-ms file and the product key then I made a online integration of SP1, IE11 etc then add the .xrm.-ms in $OEM$ made a .iso so it would be a clean install and activate windows without having to go online. I heard there was some trouble updating 8 to 8.1 in that it could only be updated from the "store" i.e online, I prefer to have things in an offline image then I can reinstall without having to download a ton of updates. Did Windows 8.1 change how activation was done or something? Do Windows 8 laptops still use a SLIC bios? Or do you have to activate online all the time? I'm not interested in pirating, I just want to know if I buy a laptop that has a load of junk on it I can do a clean reinstall basically, also does it matter if I get a windows 8 or 8.1 laptop?
Thanks for the reply. If I got a laptop with Windows 8 preinstalled, then used the Windows 8.1 ISO to reinstall would it accept my key? (does the product key come on the bottom of the laptop and that's the one that needs to be activated? On Windows 7 the key on the bottom of the laptop wasn't the one used for activation, I believe they called it a oem slp key that was?) I heard Windows 8 keys and Windows 8.1 keys are different or something? Whats a KMS Emulator? Also out of interest I have Windows 8 Pro upgrade on 2 discs (x64 + x86)but never used it, I have 2 retail Windows 7 too, I heard you can do a "clean" install using the upgrade version, do you still need to use a Windows 7 key to upgrade to it? and if you do use a Windows 7 key to upgrade to Windows 8, can you still use that Windows 7 key on another PC? Does Windows 8 still keep hardware profiles and if you change too much you need to reactivate/buy a new licence, I remember XP used to reset them around every 120 days so you could upgrade if you wanted to, does Win 8 do that too?
Thanks for your help I appreciate you didn't just tell me to read the stickies although maybe the information is there but would have taken me a long time to find it.