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Installing Windows 8 on a new or formatted system (part 3) - Installing Windows 8 with Windows To Go

2/19/2014 3:42:32 AM

3. Joining an Active Directory domain

After the local administrator account is created for the computer, it will be a member of the WORKGROUP work group. To join the computer to an Active Directory domain, complete the following steps:

  1. On the Start screen, type or search for system.

  2. Select Settings.

  3. Tap or click System from the results.

  4. In the Computer Name, Domain, And Workgroup Settings section, select Change Settings.

  5. In the System Properties dialog box, tap or click the Change button.

  6. Select Domain in Member Of.

  7. Enter the name of the domain to join; for example, contoso.com.

  8. Tap or click OK in the Computer Name/Domain Changes dialog box.

  9. Provide credentials with permission to join a computer to the domain in the form of domain\username or .

  10. Tap or click OK twice to save the credentials and close the System Properties dialog box.

  11. Restart the computer to complete the process of joining the domain.

You can associate a Microsoft account after initial configuration by completing the following steps:

  1. Access the Start screen by selecting the Start charm or by pressing the Windows key on the keyboard.

  2. Select the Settings charm.

  3. Select Change PC Settings.

  4. On the PC Settings screen, select Users.

You can either switch to a local account if you are using a Microsoft account or add a Microsoft account if you are using a local account.

4. Installing Windows 8 with Windows To Go

Windows To Go is a new feature in the Windows 8 Enterprise edition. It redefines the concept portability by creating a Windows 8 workspace that runs from removable media. The USB drive becomes your Windows To Go workspace. There are some disadvantages to this new method, but the idea of Windows in your pocket is something that you should consider in the following scenarios:

  • Employees frequently share hardware.

  • Employees might need to access multiple Windows operating systems.

  • Employees travel frequently and do not need to or prefer not to carry a laptop.

Things to consider before deploying Windows To Go workspaces include the following:

  • Windows 8 Enterprise is required.

  • USB media must be 32 GB or larger.

  • Hibernate and Sleep actions are disabled by default. Because the installation is portable and can be moved between PCs by ejecting the USB drive containing the Windows To Go workspace and starting another computer from the device, there is little reason to allow the computer to enter a power-saving state.

  • Internal disks are not used and are offline. Windows To Go creates a completely portable Windows workspace; the computer behaves like a docking station for the operating system, bringing USB, keyboard, and screen to the Windows workspace.

  • Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is not used because the Windows To Go workspace can move between computer environments. If you encrypt the drive with BitLocker, a password rather than TPM is used at startup.

  • Windows Recovery Environment is not available. There is no benefit to including the ability to enter the recovery environment because you can change computers at a moment’s notice. The likelihood of hardware causing a problem with the workspace that wouldn’t be solved by a restart is minimal.

  • Push Button Reset is not available.

  • Windows To Go is not available on ARM systems.

To set up a Windows To Go workspace from the GUI, complete the following steps:

  1. Connect the USB device to use for your Windows To Go workspace and insert the Windows 8 installation media.

    Important

    SAVE FILES TO ANOTHER DEVICE

    This process will format your USB device. Make sure you have backed up any files or folders you want to keep.

  2. In Control Panel, select Windows To Go.

  3. Windows searches for removable media. Select the disk found with the appropriate space for Windows To Go and tap or click Next.

    Windows then searches for the installation media. If it is found, the name of the operating system is displayed for selection. If not, you can specify additional search locations to look for media.

  4. Select the operating system to install and tap or click Next.

  5. On the Set a BitLocker Password page, choose whether to encrypt the USB device with BitLocker. If you want to encrypt the device, tap or click Use BitLocker With My Windows To Go Workspace, type a password, retype the password, and then tap or click Next. If you don’t want to encrypt the device, tap or click Skip.

  6. Windows formats the target media. When prompted that data on the device will be lost, tap or click Yes to continue or No to cancel.

  7. Next, you are asked whether Windows To Go should enable BitLocker on the target drive. If you want to encrypt the information, select Yes and provide a password for encryption. If you do not want to encrypt the information, tap or click Skip.

    Windows creates a Windows To Go workspace on the target media. This can take some time, depending on the size of the media and speed of connection to your computer.

When this completes, the Installation wizard asks whether the computer should restart from the Windows To Go workspace. Tap or click Yes to start from the new workspace automatically or tap or click No if you need to change the BIOS settings on your computer so you can start into the new workspace. Tap or click Save and then Restart to close the wizard and restart your computer or tap or click Save and then Close to close the wizard without restarting.

To set up a Windows To Go workspace from the command line, complete the following steps:

  1. Plug your USB device into a computer running Windows 7 or a later operating system and open an administrative command prompt.

  2. From the command line, type diskpart.

  3. At the DISKPART> prompt, type list disk and press Enter to see which disks are connected to your system.

    Note

    A TIP FOR FINDING A DISK NUMBER

    You can run list disk with the USB device unplugged and then run it again with the disk plugged in so that you know which disk number is assigned to the drive for which you are looking.

  4. Type select disk # at the DISKPART> prompt to select the disk to use.

  5. Clean the disk by typing clean.

  6. When the disk is clean, create a system partition of 350 MB by typing create partition primary size=350 in the command line and pressing Enter.

  7. Type active in the command line to mark the partition as active.

  8. Format the partition with the Fat32 file system and label it as the system partition by typing format fs=ntfs quick label=W2G.

    The quick option speeds up the formatting process slightly.

  9. Type Assign letter=W in the command line to add a drive letter of S for this partition.

  10. To prevent issues when starting up, set the volume being used to have no default drive letter by typing Attribute volume set NODEFAULTDRIVELETTER in the command line.

  11. Exit DiskPart by typing Exit.

    REAL WORLD: USING COMPUTER MANAGEMENT TO PREPARE A DISK FOR WINDOWS TO GO

    In addition to DiskPart and the command line, you can use computer management and the GUI to create the partitions on your Windows To Go disk. Creating the partitions in the command line is the same for these as for any other partitions. Use the options indicated in the previous procedure.

  12. You need the DISM utility from the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK).

  13. When the AIK is downloaded, mount the ISO and Install the kit on your system. Browse to the C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\Amd64 folder. Locate the Dism.exe file and copy it to an easy-to-remember folder on the C drive, such as C:\Windows\system32.

  14. Locate the Install.wim file in the sources directory of the Windows 8 media. If you downloaded an ISO, mount the ISO and browse to the sources directory.

    The Install.wim file will be rather large, 2 to 3 GB.

  15. At the administrative command prompt, change to the directory where the C:\Windows\System32 directory is and type the following:

    dism /apply-image /imagefile:e:\install.wim /index:1 /applydir:f:\

    where e:\install.wim contains the entire path to the Install.wim file, and f:\ is the drive letter of the disk on which the image will reside when the application is complete.

    During this process, expect to wait a good amount of time, given the size of the .wim file, as shown in Figure 5.

    Progress of copying Install.wim

    Figure 5. Progress of copying Install.wim

  16. When the application of the .wim file is complete, create the boot files on the Windows To Go installation by typing the following:

    Bcdboot.exe f:\windows /s f:

    where f:\ is the drive letter assigned to your Windows To Go device.

Note

THE BCDBOOT.EXE COMMAND

The preceding Bcdboot.exe command assumes that the system on which you are running it is Windows 7. If you are using a Windows 8 system to generate a Windows To Go workspace, the command is bcdboot.exe g:\windows /s g: /f ALL, where g: is the drive you created on your USB device.

Because the purpose of using Windows To Go is to be hardware-independent, the first time a computer starts from a Windows To Go device, Windows goes through the initial setup process, including asking for a product key. Each time you start on a different system, Windows tries to detect the hardware and install the necessary drivers for the connected environment. You might need to download the necessary drivers for each computer you use with this install.

Important

TEST YOUR APPLICATIONS

Applications used with Windows To Go must be tested to ensure that they can roam between environments. Some applications might not support this because they have dependencies on hardware, which can cause issues with roaming.

Other  
  •  Windows 8 : Customizing the Appearance of Windows - Adjusting Screen Resolution - Change Screen Resolution
  •  Windows 8 : Customizing the Appearance of Windows - Changing the Desktop Color Scheme - Change Windows Color and Transparency
  •  Windows 8 : Customizing the Appearance of Windows - Changing the Desktop Background - Select a Different Background
  •  Windows 8 : Customizing the Appearance of Windows - Choosing a Desktop Theme
  •  Windows 8 : Customizing the Appearance of Windows - Putting Shortcuts on the Desktop - Create a Desktop Shortcut
  •  Windows 8 : Customizing the Appearance of Windows - Modifying the Account Picture - Select an Account Picture
  •  Windows 8 : Customizing the Appearance of Windows - Setting Up Lock Screen Apps
  •  Windows 8 : Customizing the Appearance of Windows - Personalizing the Lock Screen Background - Choose a Lock Screen Image
  •  Windows 8 : Customizing the Appearance of Windows - Changing the Start Screen Background and Color
  •  Windows 8 : Modifying Tiles on the Start Screen - Change Tile Size,Move Tiles in Start Screen
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