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Whether or not it's best to wait for the first substantial update of an OS, until now no point release required a reinstall so those who didn't want to wait were in for a surprise. At least those who tweaked or installed non-trivial software. We may see where things are headed with 8.2 in a few months.

I would not expect problems with a clean install. But the expectation with 8.1 was for it to be an SP as far as installation is concerned. A yearly reinstall of an OS is not my idea of fun, or productivity. Harry, a clean install doesn't have to mean format. It's just not over an existing OS.

I'd call that automate. Noel, the ISO images you can get online are fine, it's just the update process that's FUBARed. Anyway, I struggled half a day to clean up a whole bunch of "Unknown" devices under Network adapters, which I think broke Miracast (but I'm no longer sure of anything after so many registry edits, arcane netsh commands, installs, uninstalls, restarts). Most of them were firewall filter drives, some were VirtualBox's. Ultimately what cleaned them up, notably the firewall's, was install/uninstall/install of VirtualBox. The cause is probably what the Microsoft guy mentions in the 9th post here:

As far as I understand EI.CFG is only to automate things during setup? That's not what I needed, and anyway I'm past this stage. Do you know specifically of a way to turn Pro to Core without a reinstall (nor a masqueraded reinstall, like this "upgrade")? A simple and harmless way to be able to use my Core key would be nice, but not crucial as I've turned to a KMS server emulator to activate it. If only there was an emulator to get all my settings and software back.

Thanks submix8c, I've been through it all and more. Store and ISO are different in terms of the in-Windows initial part (before restart), and the setup key issue, but the rest, the real work, is the same as far as I can tell. Like the Microsoft page you linked says, after restart it takes quite a long while (longer than a refresh install I believe) and there's a semi-final Settings phase. And like shown here, there's "Setting up" and "Setting up a few more things", multiple restarts, License, "installing your apps". What I meant by the 8/8.1 activation issue is after doing what these sites advocate, I actually took the setup key from the Microsoft page they link to. This key is the problem. Probably all these sites had Win 8 Pro before the update. "Core" likely needs a different key in the setup (the setup accepts both Core and Pro) if you don't want trouble later when trying to activate with a real 8 key. I did quite a lot of homework, in fact, including trying it first in a VM. It's just that the VM didn't have much installed or tweaked, so beyond the wallpaper change I didn't notice the problem. I also didn't try to activate it. Clarification: I updated 8 -> "8.1 with Update" (that's the latest Microsoft ISO release for Win8, no point in updating to 8.1, then applying "Update 1" separately).

jaclaz: So you're on 7 then and didn't try the 8.1 "upgrade"? I used 7 only on other people's computers, or to check/test specific things. 8 is technically fine once tweaked (sadly that's a lot of work).

The 8.1 update/upgrade process is just as I feared: simply a full new OS install over an existing OS, with all the mess that that entails. I updated from an ISO file, but what I see on the web suggests the Store-based update is just the same, other than the download and initiation mechanism. What collateral damage did you see after the update? Did you update from the Store or by other means? "Keep your settings", yeah right. It wouldn't even keep the wallpaper! Firewall half doesn't work (plus a host of "unknwon devices" in Device Manager, probably related), VirtualBox damaged, QtTabBar a bit funny, touchpad drivers gone (meticulously tweaked in the registry), graphics driver untweaked, Explorer/shell settings and tweaks gone. That's on a superficial first look. I'm afraid to try running any of the major programs installed. But hey, LockHunter still seems functional, and other than "You have new programs to open this file type" nags the image viewer is still associated. On top of that I can't activate, nor even find a Microsoft phone number for activation issues. The 8.1 setup doesn't accept 8.0 keys (why?), so I used a setup key I found on Microsoft's site. My assumption is that activation doesn't work because the setup key was of a different type than the real key I have. Way to go, Microsoft. I don't have time for this mess right now, but even restoring a System Image of the pre-upgrade isn't easy to do because 8.1 won't restore an image created with 8.0! Since I can't find the Win8 disc, and the ISO is on a computer that's currently without a PSU, all I have to do is find a torrent for the ISO (computer didn't come with an OS disc, of course). And Microsoft now plans on releasing updates in this form, and almost at the rate of Chrome "major" updates? Oh, dear. EDIT: Haven't tried these, but for Core and non-KMS (I think) Pro setup keys for 8.1 see here: http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/47480-windows-8-1-generic-keys

That doesn't sound familiar. I know of a ~255 chars limit in Explorer and maybe other places, but not 64. Can you give more details?

On 8.0 here, Properties on C:\ gets 50K files/sec on the second run.

Thanks for the research. Yeah, I recall the Scheduler was full of opaque Custom Handlers. I wonder if there's a utility somewhere to show more meaningful information.

If someone has WSF associated with Visual Studio I'm pretty sure they'll know what to do? And the duck is a nice touch, no doubt. (I find it interesting that the VS2010 icon is okay while VS2013's has aliasing around the white shape. Ironically telling. Does 2013 fix the stupid UI design/colors of 2012 without requiring extensions and manual configuration?) Re the "elevated" warning, I changed the WSF now. It was probably a timing issue because I changed a delay in one place but not another. The message is not due to a direct check of elevation, just an inference; part of a "good enough" solution to the problem of synchronizing two WSH instances. The message shouldn't show in most normal cases. Do you know specifically of a scheduled SFC scan that runs by default, and with /SCANNOW? It's difficult to tell what are the stock Scheduler tasks, but on Win8 at least I haven't encountered files changing automatically. I'm not sure about Win8.1 as I don't yet use it regularly. The memory patcher util I mentioned will be configurable, when I get to it. In the meantime, if you're interested in a modified DLL variant I could upload one.

If only you knew that a few years later all of them would be needed for Hero's Quest.

Here's a version for 8.1.1 (sorry, "8.1 update" is a stupid name). I've added a WSH-based installer/uninstaller. Finicky thing WSH is, see if that works well enough. Tell me if you see anything unusual with the modified DLL or the WSH. uqnrkzjt: It does last. It will need to be updated if future Windows updates change AltTab.dll, but that's true anyway. Noel, bphlpt: Are there any automatic scenarios in which Windows reverts system files, or complains? CleanAltTab_win811_x64.zip

In DOS, on a 20MHz 286 with 4MB RAM, performance was completely predictable. Everything other than diskette/disk access responded immediately. There were never unexpected pauses. Now, on Windows, on a 2.5-3.1GHz i5 with 8GB RAM, I have to wait 30+ seconds *after* waking up from hibernation until disk access settles down and the computer becomes responsive. Opening the task manager with Ctrl-Shift-Esc sometimes takes 20+ seconds. Software gets temporarily stuck for no apparent reason. Video playback stutters occasionally, until a restart (I think). In DOS, software stored configuration in its directory. I could copy the config files based on date, and I'm set. Now, on Windows, software stores configuration everywhere. HKCU, HKLM, %APPDATA%, %LOCALAPPDATA%, %PROGRAMDATA%, just throws it in %HOMEPATH%, or maybe %HOMEPATH%\My Documents. Some still have it in the program directory, exclusively, or in addition to one or more of the above. The config files are intermixed with data files and temp files just to spice it up. There's no standard way to backup or restore settings. In DOS, on startup you'd get lines spouted out to indicate what's happening as you wait. Now, on Windows, half the startup time you stare at a black screen. Maybe with a mouse pointer, if you happened to move it. But not all is bad. Now computers are cheaper, and we have the web, VMs, internet shopping from China, GTX 760 rather than 8900CL, Google rather than archie, Miranda rather than talk, and square pixels. PS: Windows 3 in 1987? You had a time machine!

Yes, that was the general idea. I tested memory patching some months ago, but I'd want to make it more generalized. Generic patch format, multi-target, 32/64-bit in the same EXE, basic GUI, etc. But considering not many people are interested in this and most are probably techy, it didn't seem that important. But there were a few other things I wanted to fix in Windows (probably will require hooking). Maybe I'll drag myself into doing all of it together.

I'll have a look.

?! This sounds very odd. Desktop dev is very much alive and well. What I'd want to find, though, is the docs in a VS6-era CHM format. All the later Microsoft help viewers and formats were just more awkward, slower, limited, bigger. And that without any advantage I can think of. Surely someone, somewhere, made a tool to extract the HTMLs and recompile them as good ol' CHMs? (There's H2Viewer and H3Viewer, BTW, which may be an improvement to the MS viewers. Haven't tried them yet.)

Oddly, the indirect way to do it is to change the day part of the date format. The long date has to have day as "ddd" instead of "dddd". You may have to set it as custom format, or something. The first is HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics\Icon*Spacing. The second I set with a utility that sets it somewhere in the registry. ace2: That's quite extreme. More things I recalled: * Disable Explorer's automatic custom formats for different directory "types", like "Images directory" and all that. One thing I hated in particular about that is that for "Images" it shows an EXIF date column instead of file date, and a Tags column, which I had to undo every time. * Remove from SendTo the removable drives. * Hide in the logon screen all users that are only used to regulate LAN share access. (That means all of them besides the actual logon user.)

A few other things: * Set Windows to show absolute file dates and times instead of "5 minutes ago" and "yesterday". * Set Windows to underline shortcut letters in context menus. * Add .LNK to executable-by-default extensions (plus shortcuts and batch files to various things, placed in a common directory that's in the path, to make them easily accessible from commandline). * Decrease Desktop icon spacing (I think I did). * Decrease window border thickness. Things I still haven't figured out: * Disable smooth scrolling in Explorer. * Make the Explorer Ribbon menu work without having to release Alt before pressing the letter(s). The problem with the "write down notes" approach is that I constantly need to update it as I tweak, and not only for Windows but also for 3rd party software. I wanted to start using a wiki for that but still haven't set it up. And you really should try the programs I suggested in that other thread, if you haven't. Particularly QtTabBar to make Explorer a more viable file manager, and 7tt to tweak taskbar behavior and a bit looks.

This recent programs thread is partly similar: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/171729-your-favorite-apps-for-windows-8-and-81/ As for non-program tweaks, sadly it's mostly hard to remember. I really wish there was a simple way to keep track of and backup/restore Windows, and other software, tweaks. What I do remember: I changed the default skin to remove the Explorer hot tracking/hilite-on-hover of files (which reminds me I still need to remove this effect also from the item with keyboard selection focus). I made the taskbar non-transparent.

I can't say I see the point, but as long as there are people to pay $20 for that, good for them.

If you consider hibernation+wakeup leaving on, then sure. I have Win8 on for extended periods. But it's no different from XP. By the way, although I did have to restart occasionally, and I never left the computer on for extended periods because I turned it off every day, I never felt hindered by Win9x. In many ways it was more responsive and consistent in how it worked than NTs.

I think I'll take freeware software over a USB dongle, even if it was free. But really, to prevent screensaves I believe changing the settings still works. As for presentations and video players, I know there's plenty of dumb software around, but I'm yet to see a player that doesn't defeat the screensaver.

It was a joke. I wonder if their listing is a joke too.

Thanks. I don't like this WMI method. Cryptic, ugly, hidden. Now, THAT'S a solution: http://www.cyberguys.com/product-details/?productid=18458