The developers of Windows 8.1 tried to make it as simple, friendly and convenient as possible. And they succeeded. In this article, I will show you how to install Windows 8.1 on a computer or laptop, and you will understand how easy and simple it is.
In fact, the installation of this operating system is different from other, earlier versions. Everything here is created for the average user, and now you don’t need to call a specialist to reinstall Windows.
Before you install Windows 8.1, you should prepare. To do this, make sure the following:
- You have at your disposal a disk with Windows1, which is good and working, or a bootable USB flash drive.
- There are no important documents on drive C (the one where Windows is usually installed). They must be saved to another disk or flash drive.
- You should have drivers for all devices at your disposal. If you don't have them, do so before reinstalling.
- Make sure you have installation files all the programs you need.
Installing Windows 8.1
Installing the Windows 8.1 operating system is divided into traditional three stages:
- setting up the BIOS to boot from media with a Windows distribution;
- start of installation;
- installation complete.
BIOS setup
BIOS is a firmware that is written into the motherboard chips. It controls the basic parameters of the computer.
Before installing Windows 8.1, you will need to configure the BIOS. Depending on the version, the settings will differ, so I won’t go into detail, I’ll limit myself only to what should be done so that the computer starts booting not from the hard drive, but from a CD or flash drive, that is, from the media on which the Windows distribution.
Then click the "Install" button.
Then enter your product activation key (in some cases Windows builds this step may not exist) and click the “Next” button.
Agree to the license and click Next.
You will now be prompted for an update existing Windows or installation from scratch. Here you need to choose the second one, that is, a clean installation. To do this, click “Custom: Windows installation only.”
Finally, before installing Windows 8.1, you need to select the partition on which the installation will be performed. Utility for working with hard drive allows you to operate the device: you can create and delete partitions of the required size. When the partition for installation is created, click “Format”, and then click “Next”.
Now the process itself takes place Windows installations. This may take some time. At this moment you will see the progress of the process on the screen.
When the installation is complete, the computer will restart and prepare for the first login. There may be several reboots.
Completing the installation
After Windows 8.1 has been successfully installed and the computer has successfully rebooted, the setup phase will begin. First you need to choose the interface color and give the computer a name. If necessary, these parameters can be changed later.
After this, if your computer has wifi adapter, a list of available networks will be offered, and by entering the password, you can connect to the Internet. If you do not have wi-fi, then you will not see such a message.
Then you need to choose whether you will use the computer with standard settings default (I recommend for beginners) or want to make your own settings. If you chose the second option at this stage of installing Windows 8.1, then click the “Configure” button.
First you will need to choose whether to open access to files and folders over the network or not.
You can then set up operating system updates and privacy settings.
Microsoft quite regularly releases new versions of operating systems with new features, and therefore it is not surprising that many users want to update or even reinstall Windows. Most people think that installing a new OS is difficult and problematic. In fact, this is not the case, and in this article we will look at how to install Windows 8 from a flash drive from scratch.
Attention!
Before you do anything, make sure that you have backed up all valuable information to the cloud, external storage, or simply to another drive. After all, after reinstalling the system on a laptop or computer, nothing will be saved, at least on the system disk.
Before you start doing anything, you need to create installation flash drive. You can do this using the wonderful program UltraISO. Just download the required version of Windows and burn the image to a USB flash drive using the specified program. For more information on how this is done, read the following article:
Installing Windows 8 from a flash drive is no different from installing it from a disk. In general, the entire process should not cause any difficulties for the user, because Microsoft made sure that everything was simple and understandable. And at the same time, if you are not confident in your abilities, we recommend turning to a more experienced user.
Now you can work with the brand new Windows 8. Of course, there is still a lot to be done: install the necessary drivers, set up an Internet connection and generally download the necessary programs. But the most important thing we have done is installed Windows.
You can find drivers on the official website of your device manufacturer. But they can also do it for you special programs. Agree, this will save your time a lot, and also select the necessary software specifically for your laptop or PC. You can view all programs for installing drivers using this link:
Also take care of the security of your system and do not forget to install an antivirus. There are many antiviruses, but on our website you can look through reviews of the most popular and reliable programs and choose the one you like the most. Perhaps it will be Dr. Web, Kaspersky Anti-Virus, Avira or Avast.
You will also need a web browser to surf the Internet. There are also many such programs and, most likely, you have only heard about the main ones.
In this article we will summarize the issues of installing Windows 8. In addition, we will summarize other articles that are on the site that relate to configuration and comfortable work in Windows 8. Installation of Windows 8 is possible on a regular computer, laptop, netbook or virtual machine. This guide will be primarily useful for beginners who want to install Windows 8 themselves, perhaps this is your first time installing Windows yourself.
System requirements for installing Windows 8
Let's start by installing Windows 8 on a computer, laptop, netbook. To find out whether Windows 8 will work well on your computer, check whether its parameters meet the minimum system requirements for Windows 8. So, here are the minimum system requirements:
- processor at least 1 GHz;
- 1 GB RAM for 32-bit version;
- free space on your hard drive (hard drive) of at least 16 GB;
- DirectX9 support;
- a working DVD drive or USB port (in the case of a USB port, the BIOS must support booting from USB).
And now some comments on these requirements. You may have a question: how do I know what the parameters of my computer are? The question is quite logical. There are two ways here.
First, if you have Windows XP on your computer, then to find out its parameters, right click mouse click on the icon My computer, in the list that opens, click on the last item Properties. The window “ System properties" Screenshot:
Here we are interested in the item called System. We see the following lines: Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz 1.99 GB RAM. What do they mean? Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz - model Pentium processor 4 with a frequency of 3.00 GHz; 1.99 GB RAM - means that the computer has 2 GB of RAM. Comparing this data with the minimum system requirements, it is clear that it is possible to install Windows 8.
In Windows 7, right-click on the icon Computer, in the list that opens, click Properties. A window will open View basic information about your computer. Let's look at the screenshot:
As you can see in the screenshot, the processor frequency is 2.1 GHz, and the RAM is 2 GB. This means that your computer settings are suitable for installing Windows 8.
The second way is that the manufacturer himself indicates these parameters, for example, in the instructions for your laptop or on the box. Or if you bought a laptop in an online store, then they, as a rule, write in detail the parameters of each laptop on their website.
Preparing to install Windows 8
Now it’s time to decide from which media Windows 8 will be installed. There are two options: installation from a disk or from a flash drive.
Installation from disk
If you have a ready installation disk with Windows 8, then you can safely start installation from it.
In case you have Windows image 8, then you can burn it to disk. All questions about installing Windows from a disk are discussed in the article: How to install Windows 8 from a disk.
Installation from a flash drive
By “installation from a flash drive” we mean not only a regular flash drive, but a memory card will also do. To install any Windows from a flash drive, including Windows 8, you need to make it bootable. Read more about this in the article: How to make a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 8. One more condition: Your computer, or rather its BIOS, must support USB ports. Read more about installing Windows 8 from a flash drive and setting up the BIOS in the guide: How to install Windows 8 from a flash drive.
When installing Windows 8, the following window will appear:
After waiting a little, a window will appear where you need to select the language and keyboard layout to be installed:
In our case, we chose Russian and click Next
Click Install.
In this window there is an item System Restore. With its help, you can restore Windows 8 after some kind of failure.
Now we are prompted to enter the product key. This is necessary for your copy of Windows 8 to be activated. If you do not have a key, you can continue with the installation, but in this case your Windows 8 will not be activated. You can activate it later after the installation is complete. In any case, click Next.
Before us license agreement. To continue installing Windows 8, you must accept it.
Select the second installation type: Windows installation only (for advanced users). Let's move on to the next window:
Here we choose where to install Windows. It is best to have at least two local disks on your computer. In this case, we install Windows 8 on one disk, and leave the other for other data, for example, movies, music, documents, etc.
To divide the hard drive into several local drives and/or format it, click Disk setup.
In our case, we leave it as it is and click Next.
Let's wait a few minutes. After completion, the computer will reboot and the familiar start window will appear:
Settings will then open.
In this window we can change the color from the current one to some other one. Be sure to enter the computer name and continue installing Windows 8 by clicking Next.
For now, let's stick to the standard parameters. Click Use standard settings.
Logging in - a Microsoft account will allow you to synchronize the settings of several computers and provide access to the Windows Store application store. If you don't have one account and you want to create it, then click Register a new address email. For those who do not need this, click Sign in without a Microsoft account.
Here we are again asked to create an account, but since we refused it, we click Local account. And if you suddenly need this account, you can always create it in the already installed Windows 8.
Everything in this window should be clear: enter the username, optionally a password with a hint (optional). Windows 8 installation is almost complete. Click Ready.
After waiting a little, a new look of Windows 8 will appear. Here is its screenshot:
Congratulations! Now you have new Windows 8. You can install the necessary programs on it, as well as an antivirus. Here's a guide to it: The Complete Pack of Essential Free Software for Windows.
How to install Windows 8.1 can be viewed in video format, to download, follow the link: download.
Adding a Start button (menu) in Windows 8
One of the innovations in Windows 8 is the absence of the familiar Start button with its menu. For those who do not agree with this innovation, it is possible to return the Start button. How to add a Start button (menu) read in the article: How to make a classic Start menu in Windows 8.
Installing Windows 8 on virtual machines
What is a virtual machine? In short, this is a program that allows you to emulate the operation of a computer. As a result, you seem to have another computer, but a virtual one. You can install Windows 8 on such a virtual machine. The two most popular programs for creating a virtual machine are Virtual Box and VMware Player. We read how all this is done in the manuals: How to install Windows 8 on a virtual machine (Virtual Box) and Installing Windows 8 on VMware Player.
Let's finish here. Please write your feedback and/or questions about installing and configuring Windows 8 in the comments to the article.
Today we will talk about how to install Windows 8 from a flash drive or disk on a computer and laptop. Currently, this system is the most innovative, comfortable and fastest operating system from Microsoft. We will look in detail at how to burn a Windows 8 image to disk using special utility, let's look at how Windows 8 is installed on a computer or laptop - for example, this can be done with complete removal previous version of the system or install it as a second one. I will explain all this to you in detail and show you with examples.
But, before we talk about installing Windows 8, it would be logical to list the advantages and disadvantages new system. I won’t say that I really liked it, but I can say with complete confidence that it’s pleasant to work in it. It takes a little time to get used to something new! But in any case, whether you like it or not, those who are still behind Windows XP will have to agree that time does not stand still.
By the way, I have the original Windows disk 8, if you need it, then write.
The most important changes in Windows versions 8: new interface Metro, which replaced the old Start menu. Which I can’t get used to, since I’m mostly used to using Start. You and I understand that now many users surf the Internet through tablets. Microsoft is also aware of this, and if they made Windows only for computers, laptops and netbooks, then this would be the stupidest mistake.
I was very pleased with the time it took to boot and shut down the computer. Added official app store. And now there is an opportunity quick reinstallation systems with saving important files, i.e. a kind of update. Sounds tempting, doesn't it? And this is not all the innovations of Windows 8!
The nice thing is that when you install Windows 8, almost all drivers are installed. Now we will spend even less time searching for them.
Before installation, you need to make sure that the computer meets the minimum system requirements, which is a processor with a frequency of 1 GHz, 1 GB for the 32-bit version and 2 GB for the 64-bit version, a monitor resolution of 1024x768 (preferably), and also of 20 GB free space on your hard drive. If your PC is equipped with this hardware, then Windows 8 will work stably and no serious problems will arise. To find out more about system requirements, press .
Before I tell you how to install Windows 8 on a computer or laptop, let's discuss the software that we need for this:
- A disk image in .iso format containing a copy of Windows 8. You can buy a licensed file on the official Microsoft website. If you are not against piracy, then you can try searching on torrents. If not normal internet, then don’t forget that there are neighbors, friends and just comrades who may have already installed Windows 8 on their computer.
- But one file will not be enough, so we need a free one Windows utility 7 USB/DVD Tool. With its help, we will burn our iso image to a DVD or USB drive (popularly a flash drive). Thus, you will understand how to install Windows 8 from a flash drive.
- You will also need to have either a DVD or USB drive. Anything will do here, as long as the size exceeds the 4 GB mark. If you use a flash drive, then copy the data from it, as it will be formatted and all data will be deleted.
- After installation, you will need to install the necessary programs and drivers.
- And finally, we all need to stock up on a little patience, because the Windows 8 installation process takes some time. Of course, those who are trying to install Windows on their computer for the first time also need a little courage. I think you will succeed!
Preparing to install Windows 8
The theory has passed. Now let's start preparing for installation. It is assumed that you already have all of the above. We insert the disc into the DVD drive, or, if it is a flash drive, then into the appropriate slot.
Now let's install Windows program 7 USB/DVD Tool. To download it, go to .
We launch it through the “Start” menu - “Programs” if a shortcut has not been created on the desktop. A window appears in front of us with a line in which we need to indicate the path to ISO file. In order not to enter the entire path manually, to the right of this line there is special button"Browse" Click on it, find our image, click on it, and the path to the file will be substituted in the line. After all this, click the “Next” button.
In place of the line, an inscription will appear: English. There is no need to read it, then you are only interested in the button that appears in place of “Next”, called “USB Device”. Or "DVD". Depends on what you chose as bootable media. If you are going to install Windows 8 using DVD disc and then select “DVD”, if you are going to install from a flash drive, then click on “ USB device" I choose DVD because I don’t have a flash drive with that capacity at hand.
After selection, the “Begin burning” button will appear at the bottom right, translated as “Start recording”.
Click on it and wait for the recording to finish. This usually takes from 5 to 25 minutes.
As soon as the download bar has reached the end, your flash drive or disk is completely ready to be used to install the system on your computer. This is what the program looks like after burning the image to a DVD:
Now we are ready to proceed to the next step, namely, launching the Windows 8 Setup Wizard. First, we need to go into the BIOS and make sure that the computer boots at startup not with hard drive, but from the media on which we have an ISO image. Many may be afraid to do this, but nevertheless, I will explain in detail how to do it.
Place the newly recorded disc in your drive or connect a USB flash drive, then turn off the computer. Then we turn it on again and upon startup, continuously press the “F2”, “ESC” button (on the left in the uppermost corner of the keyboard), or “Delete” on the keyboard, if the first ones do not work. To find out exactly which key on your computer is used to log into BIOS settings, when turned on at the top or usually at the bottom of the screen, look for the inscription “ BIOS Setup" or "for setup". Opposite this inscription there should be a key to enter the BIOS.
After opening Bios, don’t be afraid that everything is in English. Next I will try to explain the sequence of actions that we need. We look in Bios for the item with the word “Boot”. When we log in, we need to select the item called “First Boot Device”, and then indicate our media. If you are going to install from DVD, then select “CDROM”, if from USB media, then look for the word USB.
Next, look for the line “Save and Exit Setup” on the screen or press F10, which means “Save changes and exit.” After which the computer reboots. If everything is done correctly, then when the computer boots, a black screen will appear with the inscription at the top “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD...”.
It will be on your monitor screen for 5 seconds. During this time, you just need to press any button on the keyboard, and the system installation wizard will start.
In this article I will look at an example when I install Windows 8 on blank disk WITH:. Therefore, I strongly recommend that you copy valuable photos to another drive, for example D:, on a flash drive, or upload them to the Internet, for example, to Yandex Disk.
Installing Windows 8
So, we were able to launch the system installation wizard, all preliminary preparations have been successfully completed.
So, it’s time to finally tell you about how Windows 8 is installed on your computer. The very first thing you will see is a window that prompts you to select a language, as well as a time and currency format. Select everything as you need and click on the “Next” button.
After this, the installation window will have one single button: “Install”. As you probably already guessed, we should just click on it.
Windows will prompt you to enter the key. If you bought an iso image on the official Microsoft website, then you should have received this key upon purchase. When you buy it in a store, they will give it to you.
If you downloaded a pirated copy of Windows from the Internet, you will find the keys on this resource. In any case, enter whatever the key is and click “Next”.
I borrowed the picture below from the Internet because my distribution is corporate.
The license agreement will appear on the screen. Check the box: “I accept the terms of the agreement.” Otherwise, the installation will not be able to continue.
The next window will offer you two options to continue: “Update” and “Custom”. Explanation: when you select the first item, Windows 8 will update, i.e. the data that is currently in your Windows will be saved in a separate folder. This is not the most best option. It is better to install on a formatted (empty) C: drive.
Therefore, we are interested in the second option – “Custom”, click on it.
Now you need to format hard drive, on which you are going to install Windows 8.
In my screenshot we see that I have only one disk with a size of 73.6 GB. In order to format, select it (by left-clicking) and click “Disk Settings”. Next, click “Format”.
A message will appear notifying you that there is some data on this disk. Reminding us that before this procedure we need to save all data to another medium. We agree and click “Yes”.
Congratulations! We've come a long way and it's finally time to relax a little. Now the files will be copied for 15 to 35 minutes. You can watch or drink tea with delicious cookies, which is what I will do 😉 .
To continue installing Windows 8, a reboot is required. You don't press anything, you just wait.
Next, a window called “Personalization” will appear. Here you are asked to choose the most suitable color design, you can specify it to your liking or leave it as is. Just below there is an input line where you can enter any computer name. After all this, click the “Next” button in the lower right side of the screen.
I draw your attention to what characters can be used in the computer name. In the screenshot below we see that special characters and space(s) cannot be used:
Another window will open on the screen, called “Standard Settings”. We click on the “Use standard parameters” button, since, in my opinion, there is nothing special or important here. If you want to customize something, you can go to “Customize.”
You will then be prompted to enter your email address to log into Windows. In order not to bother or for some reason you do not want to register by clicking “Register a new email address”, the best way out here would be to select the option: “Log in without an account” Microsoft records" In any case, we skip this opportunity, since after installation you can create an account at any time.
So there is installed Windows 8, but now you need to see which drivers are not installed and install them accordingly.
If you have a driver disk that was given to you in the store when you bought a laptop or computer, you can use it. However, the versions of these drivers are not always up to date on at the moment. If you downloaded the drivers, for example, a year ago, then I recommend downloading the “fresh” drivers, the developers do not sit still.
For example, you have motherboard ASRock brand. We type “asrock” into Google and go to the company’s official website. We choose ours there, specific model. Download drivers for it and install them. This should be done with both the video card and sound card, and in general with any board - type the name on the Internet - go to the official website - download and install. On any such resource there is a search if you cannot find the download button. All this is done on an intuitive level, and there is no point in talking about it in detail.
By the way, I talk in more detail about installing drivers in one of my articles: “”. Once all the drivers are installed, reboot the computer. Now you can start installing the programs you will use. About installation necessary programs for users, read the article: "". That seems to be all that could be said about how to install Windows 8 on a laptop or computer. Now you can go online and enjoy working in Windows 8, which is installed on your device.
P.S.: If you have installed Windows XP or Windows 7 before, then in principle nothing will be difficult for you.
Installing the Windows 8.1 operating system can be done in three ways: updating the Windows 8 operating system installed on your computer to Windows 8.1 using a web installer, or new installation operating system on the computer.
After the release of the Windows 8.1 operating system, every user of the Windows 8 operating system can upgrade it to free of charge new version. There are some exceptions to this rule, where in some cases it will not be possible to update the system as required. You can read more about this on the Microsoft website.
At Windows update 8 to Windows 8.1 you will need to download the update from " Windows Store» to your computer, and then start the operating system installation process.
You can install Windows via a web installer. will check your product key, and after that you can download the system image to your computer. You can then install the system or save the system image on your computer. In the future, this image can be burned to a DVD disc or created bootable USB flash drive.
At clean install You will need to install the system on your computer from a DVD or using a bootable USB flash drive.
First, you will need to burn an image with Windows 8.1 to a DVD or create a bootable USB flash drive for this, for example, using programs that you can read about on my website in the “Programs” section. Then you should put it in BIOS priority boot from the appropriate media, and then start the Windows installation process.
Installing Windows 8.1 is practically no different from installing the Windows 8 operating system on a computer.
Installing Windows 8.1 on a computer
After downloading, the installation of Windows 8.1 on your computer begins.
The “Windows Installation” window appears, in which you will need to select the language to install, the time and currency format, and the input method (keyboard layout). Since the operating system being installed on the computer already has Russian localization, the Russian language and other parameters were selected automatically.
In the next window, click on the “Install” button.
When installing the enterprise version (VL) of the Windows 8.1 operating system on a computer, this window for entering the activation key will not appear. In this case, you will need to activate the system after installing it on your computer.
In the “License Terms” window, you will need to activate the “I accept the license terms” item, and then click on the “Next” button.
In the next window, “Select installation type,” select and click on “Custom: installation only (for advanced users).”
The Upgrade installation type: Install Windows while keeping files, settings, and apps allows you to install Windows 8.1 on top of a supported operating system already installed on your computer.
In the "Where do you want to install Windows?" window. it will be possible to create new section on local disk. To create a section, you will need to click on the “Create” link. There is no need to create a new section, so you can immediately click on the “Next” button.
In the "Install Windows" window, the steps to install the Windows 8 operating system on your computer are performed sequentially. The files are copied, and then the files are prepared for installation, components are installed, updates are installed, and the installation is completed.
After completing this stage of operating system installation, Windows must be restarted. You don't have to wait for an automatic reboot, but for more quick launch During the reboot process, click on the “Reboot Now” button.
After restarting the computer, setting up the operating system continues. The system is being prepared.
In this window you can choose the color you like best, and you will also need to give the computer a name. You can then configure these and other settings after installing Windows on your computer.
After installing Windows on your computer, you will not be able to change personalization settings until the system is activated.
After you enter any name in the “Computer name” field, click on the “Next” button.
In the following windows, you configure the operating system parameters.
The first Options window offers standard options for using Windows. Microsoft recommends using these settings. You can configure the standard settings now or do it later, after the operating system is installed on your computer.
Click on the “Use standard settings” button.
In the next window, you can configure the “Update your computer and applications” and “Protect your computer and privacy” settings. If you are satisfied with the default system settings, then you will need to click on the “Next” button.
In the next settings window for the “Find solutions to problems online” and “Help improve products and services” options, you can accept the default settings and then click the “Next” button.
In the “Sending data to other services” window, settings for interaction between the user and various services are configured. After setting these parameters, click on the “Next” button.
This completes the settings. Once the operating system is installed on your computer, you can change these settings later if you need to.
operating room Windows system checks internet connection. Depending on the result, different windows will open in which you will either need to create a local account or enter your Microsoft account information.
If there is no Internet connection, a message will appear in the “Your Account” window stating that the Windows operating system was unable to connect to the Internet.
Therefore, you will be prompted to create a local account for now. You can set up your account later. In this window you will need to click on the “Create a local account” button.
The next “Login” window will require you to enter a username, then enter a password, password confirmation, and a password hint. After entering the data, click on the “Done” button.
If you are updating the Windows 8 operating system to Windows 8.1, then the Internet connection will work on your computer.
Therefore, the “Account Login” window will open. You will need to enter your address in the appropriate fields mailbox and account password. If you do not yet have a Microsoft account, then you can create a new account by clicking on the “Create a new account” link.
In any case, you will have to create such an account, because in the Windows 8.1 operating system many services are closely associated with the account.
After entering your data, click on the “Next” button.
In the “Help us protect your information” window, you can send an SMS with a code to telephone number, which was linked to your Microsoft account. After sending the code, click on the “Next” button.
In the “Enter the code you received” window, enter the received code, and then click on the “Next” button.
Next is setting up your account. In the “Sky Drive - your cloud storage” window you are introduced to cloud storage Sky Drive, which is now tightly integrated into operating system. In this window, click on the “Next” button.
After this, account setup is completed.
Then the installation of applications begins. During the installation period, a color window will be displayed on the monitor screen, which will change its color several times. At the bottom of the window you can see the message “Applications are being installed.”
The final stage of installing the operating system will involve preparing applications. At the bottom of the window there is a warning “Do not turn off your computer.”
After the Windows 8.1 operating system is installed on your computer, the “Start screen” will load.
The Windows 8.1 operating system was installed on the computer.
Conclusions of the article
If necessary, the user can install Windows 8.1 in order to use the new operating system on his computer.
Installing Windows 8.1 (video)
