Windows 9 said to be free (again), this time by Microsoft

alphanumeric · 30 Sep 2014

z3r010 said:

DVD

I've not installed from one of those since the XP days (and I think that was a CD).

I do all my installs from USB thumb drives. So much faster than optical media. About the only thing I use my optical drive for these days is to install DRM protected games.

BunnyJ · 30 Sep 2014

USB Thumb Drive... I just put one on my order list from Amazon! Thanks for the tip.
Jeff

alphanumeric · 30 Sep 2014

BunnyJ said:

USB Thumb Drive... I just put one on my order list from Amazon! Thanks for the tip.
Jeff

UEFI Bootable USB Flash Drive - Create in Windows

BunnyJ · 30 Sep 2014

Thanks for the information.
Jeff :)

unifex · 30 Sep 2014

Hmm, I don't even have an optical drive on my main machine. I marked it up as "add later" when I was building it and never got around to do that. Never needed it either, except for once or twice a year, but then I could use the optical drive in the laptop.

BunnyJ · 30 Sep 2014

unifex said:

Hmm, I don't even have an optical drive on my main machine. I marked it up as "add later" when I was building it and never got around to do that. Never needed it either, except for once or twice a year, but then I could use the optical drive in the laptop.

It's really not needed today if you build your own. But at the price of them it's really not an expensive addition. For about 20-30 you can get a very good DVD/CD optical drive. Or you can just use a USB version at the same cost.

Jeff

Pendaws · 30 Sep 2014

I made up an install for Win7 Ult and I was going to use for UEFI on a new system but ended up having to do a normal install. I used a SSD through the USB 3.0 port and WOW, it was mucho fast. :)

Tony K · 30 Sep 2014

I plan on downloading the 9 ISO to my 8.1 partition and launching it to dual boot right from there. Did that for 8RP and it worked like a charm. Very quick. I have a mirror just in case. :)

Indianatone · 30 Sep 2014

I know we are preaching to the converted but if you are going to dual boot or triple boot back up back up back up.
There are many tools to use but this one is free (paid version is available) Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

I have an awful feeling we on 7 8 and 9 Forums are going to get a bunch of posts such as I installed the Windows preview and how do I get my old Windows back? Did you back up? Whatzat? Nope. Oh dear......especially since 8.x iso is so hard to get.

BunnyJ · 30 Sep 2014

Good point. I have all of my import data on a separate drive so backing up is not a huge issue for me. And I was able to get an ISO copy of Win8.1 via TechNet and I have all of the files for Update One. So, it would be easy for me to reinstall Win8.1.