Paul Thurrott - Windows 8 Secrets

Like peanut butter and chocolate, File History and Storage Spaces are two great tastes that go together. And they form the basis for an amazing centralized home network backup solution you can use with multiple PCs. Just a thought.

Like previous versions of Windows, Windows 8 includes a full suite of system recovery tools that can help fix a non-booting PC and correct other system issues. Some of these tools are available from within Windows 8, but since you often need them most when Windows won’t boot, they’re also available outside of Windows as part of the Windows Recovery Environment, or WinRE. This environment can be accessed from the Windows Setup media (DVD or USB flash drive), from a dedicated system recovery disc (or drive) you can (and should) create, or at boot time when your PC first turns on. To start, let’s examine how you can create a dedicated system recovery disc.

Because these tools are so important and are usually needed when something horrible happens, we strongly recommend taking the time to make a system recovery disc (or USB-based drive) just in case. You can do this from the Recovery control panel. (To find it, open Control Panel and search for recovery . Then, choose Recovery, and not Windows 7 File Recovery.) This interface, called Advanced recovery tools, should resemble Figure 11-20, providing you with access to a few additional tools.

Figure 11-20:Recovery control panel

The Recovery control panel won’t even provide an option for optical disc media if a USB flash drive is inserted. So if you intend to make a disc, be sure to unplug any USB media first.

Click the link titled Create a recovery drive. After a User Account Control prompt, the Recovery Media Creator will run. This tool helps you create a bootable USB flash drive or, if you prefer, CD or DVD. (The flash drive must have a capacity of at least 256 MB, and its contents will be erased during the creation process.)

The similar tool in Windows 7 could only create optical disc-based recovery media.

Which to choose? USB is faster and more reliable, but some PCs can’t boot from a USB device, so you will want to test this before committing. We recommend starting with USB and going from there.

With Windows 8, you now have a wealth of riches when it comes to booting into the Windows Recovery Environment, or WinRE. Of course, you may not be feeling all that positive about things if you have to use these tools. Here are the various ways in which you can access WinRE.

If you created a system recovery drive, you can boot from this USB flash drive or disc, instead of from the PC’s hard drive as usual, and load the Windows Recovery Environment. (Interrupting your PC’s normal boot process varies from machine to machine, so study the firmware screen that appears when the PC restarts for clues or consult your PC’s documentation for the answer.)

Your Windows 8 Setup media can also be used to run the Windows Recovery Environment. (Interrupting your PC’s normal boot process varies from machine to machine, so study the firmware screen that appears when the PC restarts for clues or consult your PC’s documentation for the answer.) When you boot from the Setup media, you will first be presented with a screen in which you select the language, time and currency format, and keyboard or input method. Click Next to skip this screen. When you do, you will be shown the Install now screen. Instead of clicking Install now, however, click the link titled Repair your computer. On the Choose an option screen that appears next, click Troubleshoot.

In previous Windows versions, you could interrupt the Windows boot process by holding down the F8 key immediately after the BIOS screen and before the Windows loading animation. If you did it just right, you’d enter the Windows Recovery Environment.

Windows 8 makes this much easier. Instead of trying to interrupt the boot manually—somewhat impossible on touch-screen tablets in particular, but difficult on all Windows 8 PCs because the OS boots so fast—simply navigate into the Metro-style PC Settings interface and visit the bottom of the General area. There, under Advanced startup, you’ll see a Restart now button, as in Figure 11-21. Click that to enter the Windows Recovery Environment.

If you have a PC configured for dual-boot (that is, you can choose between two or more operating systems at boot time), you can access WinRE from the boot menu that’s already in place. From the main menu, titled Choose an operating system screen, click Change defaults or choose other options. Then, in the Options screen, click Choose other options, and then Troubleshoot.

Figure 11-21:A new way to boot into the recovery environment

However you access these tools, you will eventually reach a Choose your option screen that has a Troubleshoot option. From the Troubleshoot screen—the heart of WinRE—you will find the following tools, many of which are accessible via the Advanced options:

• Refresh your PC and Reset your PC: These tools collectively make up a new Windows 8 capability called Push Button Reset. It’s so important, that it’s examined in the next section.

• System Restore: This is a legacy recovery capability from previous Windows versions that lets you reset the PC configuration to an earlier time, usually because you’ve installed a bad hardware driver that has made the system less stable. This feature is discussed later in the chapter.

• System Image Recovery: Another legacy feature and part of Windows Backup, this option lets you recover Windows using an image-based backup. Generally speaking, most users will not use Windows Backup with Windows 8, but you can use this option to recover a Windows 7- or Windows 8-based install if needed.

This tool is analogous to Startup Repair from the Windows 7 version of WinRE, though it fixes other errors as well.

• Automatic Repair: This useful option should be your first stop if you are having issues booting into Windows. Simply click Automatic Repair and WinRE will diagnose your PC, check for disk errors, and attempt a repair. More often than not, this will simply work and you’ll be up and running in no time.

If you sign in with a local account, you may be prompted to sign in here as well.

• Command Prompt: Designed for advanced users that know their way around a DOS-style command prompt, this interface provides access to a full slate of useful command-line tools, including diskpart.exe, recover.exe, and more.

• Startup Settings: This will apply many common troubleshooting configurations to Windows—a low-resolution video mode, Safe Mode, and so on—to ensure you can boot into a balky install and fix problems from the OS itself.

When you encounter a problem with your PC, be it performance related or otherwise, you can now undergo a surprisingly fast process in which Windows 8 is quickly wiped out and reinstalled in a factory-fresh condition. This doesn’t require mucking around with a Setup DVD or USB media, and it won’t take half the day as it did with Windows 7. Instead, Windows 8 includes a new feature called Push Button Reset, and it very well may be the single greatest new feature in this operating system.