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Windows 8.1 Account Settings

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win8userWith Windows 8.1 Microsoft seems to want everyone in the cloud.
Traditionally home users had a local account. Windows 8 introduced another option, the Microsoft account.
In 8.1 Microsoft made it more difficult to have a non-Microsoft account.
In this article I will explain the differences and your options.

Sections:
Local And Microsoft Accounts Defined
– Local Account
– Microsoft Account
– Which should you use, a Local or Microsoft Account?
– Accessing Account Settings

Signing On With A Local Account During A Clean Installation

Signing Up For A Microsoft Account After Installation

Using The Windows Store When You Use A Local Account For Sign-In

Switch To A Local Account
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Guide To Windows 8.1 System Image Backup

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win8logoGuide To Windows 8.1 System Image Backup

This article covers:
1 – Introduction
– What is a System Image
– The Great Windows System Image Program Hunt of 2013
2 – Launching System Image Backup From Command Line
3 – Create A Shortcut To System Image Backup
4 – Creating A System Image
5 – Running System Image Backup From Command Line
6 – Scheduling A System Image Backup
7 – Create a Recovery Drive
8 – How To Restore a Windows System Image
[Read more…] about Guide To Windows 8.1 System Image Backup

How To Downgrade Windows 8

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no8I’m not advocating it, but I understand some people may want to downgrade Windows 8. Here is how to do it:
See: Microsoft – Understanding Downgrade Rights

Downgrade only supported from from Windows 8 Pro to Windows 7 Pro (or Vista Biz, LOL).

Steps:
1 – You must have Windows 8 Pro (with license key)
2 – You’ll need a Windows 7 DVD or ISO.
You can download ISO’s here:
Windows 7 Professional with SP1 32-bit
Windows 7 Professional with SP1 64-bit
To create a DVD from an ISO use CDBurnerXP.
To create a bootable flash drive see: Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool. (If you have issues with this see here.)
3 – Install Windows 7 Pro. Do a clean install via instructions here: Installing Windows 7
4 – Activation. When entering key you will probably need to use the “Activation Support phone number” as per the Understanding Downgrade Rights above. Explain what you are doing. They will give you an activation code.
5 – That’s it!