Each of the following Windows 8 recover methods performs a specific type of operating system reset:

• Refresh
• Reinstall
• Restore

By choosing the according recover method for your particular scenario, you may be able to save yourself some time and also reinstall Windows properly. Here are some tips for using each of the main recover methods.

Refresh – You can refresh without losing your photos, music, videos and other personal files

The Windows 8 Refresh option allows you to refresh Windows while still keeping your personal files and data that you have saved on your PC. As described in Windows 8, here’s what will happen if you Refresh a PC:

Refresh your PC

• Your files and personalization settings won’t change.
• Your PC settings will be changed back to their defaults.
• Apps from the Windows store will be kept.
• Apps you installed from discs or websites will be removed.
• A list of apps will be saved to your desktop.

To Refresh your PC in Windows 8, start by launching the Charms menu and clicking the Settings listing. Next, select the Change PC Settings option.

Scroll down to the General listing and click the Get started button listed under Refresh your PC without affecting your files.

You can also check out my previous post on creating your own Windows 8 backup image, which will allow you to install all of your apps and programs, create your image and then be able to restore to that image instead of losing all your programs.

Reinstall – Remove everything and reinstall Windows

The Windows 8 reinstall option allows you to completely reinstall the operating system without having to manually reformat the hard drive and install using a Windows 8 disc or USB drive. When you reinstall Windows 8 using the Reinstall option:

• All of your files, data, apps, programs and Windows settings will be removed. Windows will completely reinstall itself and your PC will be completely revert to a fresh Windows 8 installation.
• No prior PC data or saved data will be transferred to the fresh install.

To Reinstall Windows 8, start by launching the Charms menu and selecting the Settings listing. Select the Change PC settings option from the menu.

Scroll down to the General listing and select it. From the right-side submenu, locate the Remove everything and reinstall Windows option and click the Get started button.

Restore – Restore Windows from an Earlier Time (System Restore Point)

The Windows 8 Restore option allows you to restore, or roll back Windows to an earlier time when a System Restore point was created. This option reverts Windows to the state of the System Restore point. Here are a few details of how the Restore option operates:

• System restore does not affect any of your documents, pictures or other personal data.
• Recently installed programs and drivers might be uninstalled.

To restore Windows 8, start by launching Control Panel. From the Control Panel, scroll down to the Recovery listing and click to select it.

From the Recovery window, select the Open System Restore option.

This will launch the System Restore panel, where you can select a System Restore point to revert Windows to.

Those are the three main ways to recover the operating system in Windows 8. Thank you for stopping by the site for today’s post. Enjoy!

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Here are a few additional details regarding storage spaces, from Microsoft.com.

To get started with Storage Spaces in Windows 8, first launch the Control Panel using the path Charms > Settings > Control Panel. Once at the Control Panel, scroll down the page to find the Storage Spaces listing. Click Storage Spaces to launch the Storage Spaces utility.

If you’ve not used the Storage Spaces option before, you will be presented with the option Create a new pool and storage space. Select it to navigate to the Create a storage pool screen.

The Create a storage pool screen lists all of the available drives that are eligible to be used as storage space. It also prompts to let you know that anything on the drives will be deleted during configuration.

Proceed to click (check) any drives that you would like to utilize in the storage pool and click the Create pool button to proceed with adding a Storage Space.

The next screen is the configuration page, which allows you to define which type of storage space to setup. The selectable options will vary, depending on how many extra drives you are using. Lets run through the options quickly.

Name and drive letter

Name: – Enter a name for the drive. For example: External hard drive 1, External Hard Drive 2, or Storage Drive, etc…

Drive letter: Choose a drive letter/identifier for the particular drive so that Windows can assign it.

Resiliency

Simple (no resiliency) – A simple storage space writes one copy of your data to the drive, and doesn’t protect you from drive failures. A simple storage space requires at least one drive. – Basically, the drive is used for an extra storage volume.

Two-way mirror – A two-way mirror storage space writes two copies of your data, helping to protect you from a single drive failure. A two-way mirror storage space requires at least two drives. – A mirrored solution that utilizes one drive and then mirrors the data to another drive, protecting your from data loss should one of the drives fail.

Three-way mirror – A three-way mirror storage space writes three copies of your data, helping to protect your from two simultaneous drive failures. A three-way storage space requires at least five drives.

Parity – A parity storage space writes your data with parity information, helping to protect you from a single drive failure. A parity storage space requires at least three drives.

RAID and protected backup has never been simpler. Depending on how many external hard drives you have connected to the PC, you can choose one of the resiliency options based on your needs.

Once you’ve configured the options for the Storage Space, click the Create storage space button.

From here, Windows will configure and format the storage space.

Once that has completed, the Storage Pool will be active in the main window.

Now, you can simply navigate to the Computer pane and the freshly added Storage Space should be active and ready to use.

That’s basically all there is to it for using the Storage Spaces feature. In this tutorial, we used one external hard drive and set it up as a Storage Space. Thus, the drive is simply being used as an external storage solution, or extra volume. However, if you utilize multiple drives, you will be able to configure the drives using more options and structures. Enjoy!

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This key won’t work. Check it and try again, or try a different key.

In order to install Windows Media Center on Windows 8 RTM, you won’t be able to use the Technet key you used to install Windows 8. Luckily, Microsoft is giving away Windows Media Center for free until January 31st, 2013. First, go to this site and fill in your email address.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/feature-packs

Note that you can only get Windows Media Center Pack if you have Windows 8 Pro installed. So if you don’t have Windows 8 Pro, you’ll need to first purchase the Pro pack upgrade. Once you do that, you can then install Media Center for free. After January, it’s going to be $10.

After about 12 or so hours, you should get an email with a new product key for activating Windows Media Center Pack.

Now to add the feature, you have to go to the Control Panel and click on Add features to Windows 8.

Next, you want to choose the I already have a product key option.

Your product key should work and you should see the Ready to add new features dialog box.

Windows Media Center will now be installed automatically and you’ll have to restart your computer after it has finished.

That’s about it! You should now have Windows Media Center installed. Unfortunately, Microsoft is forcing users to install the Pro pack in order to add Windows Media Center. Considering you can purchase a Windows 8 Upgrade for $39.99, it’s kind of harsh to charge $69.99 for the upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 8 Pro!

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1. Roku

If you want to add more functionality to a basic television, but don’t feel like spending a lot of money to do so, your home theater solution may be a Roku!

Roku boxes range in price from around $50.00 USD to $100 USD, making them affordable but feature rich devices. With a Roku, you can add a ton of channels to your TV.

That’s a lot of channels and features for under $100 USD. However, you also need to consider that some services that are Roku ready do have their own fees. For example, Hulu PLUS and Netflix require a subscription of around $7.99 per month. However, many of these Roku channels are offered for free as well.

2. Apple TV

Apple TV devices are very similar to the Roku devices mentioned above, allowing you to stream media content directly to your TV. While Apple TV doesn’t offer quite as many channels as Roku, it does have some unique features of it’s own, such as direct iTunes library streaming from your computer.

What’s on Apple TV? Here are just a few channels:

Own multiple Apple devices? Apple TV also supports AirPlay directly from a Mac computer, iPhone, iPad or iPod. Apple TV devices are priced around $100 USD.

3. Google TV

Google TV, like their popular mobile OS, Android, is an open source system. Thus, you can purchase ready to go Google TV devices from different manufacturers; many TVs, Internet Players, Blu-ray Players, and more come with Google TV installed.

Google TV adds the following technology:

• Enhanced Live TV
• Google Search
• TV & Movies
• Chrome web browsing
• YouTube
• Google Play

Google Play also offers an extensive list of apps and channels, many of which are listed above in the Roku channels image. These are readily available through Google TV.

4. Boxee

We mentioned Boxee in our post DVRs You Can Use Without Needing a Cable Subscription.

Aside from the DVR, Boxee devices also offer several other features including free TV channels even if you don’t subscribe to cable. They even throw in the antenna.

Boxee of course is web enabled, so it offers all of the popular streaming services and apps too.

The Boxee device is priced around $100 USD, which will add several features to your existing home theater setup. Boxee is free for your your favorite TV channels and even internet apps, making it similar in functionality to Roku. However, you also have the option of adding on the unlimited DVR service mentioned above, for around $14.99 USD a month.

Those are just some of the top home theater streaming devices, but if none of the above are for you, you may also want to check out:

• Western Digital TV
• Asus O!Play
• Iomega ScreenPlay
• Netgear NeoTV
• simple.tv
• VIZIO CO-STAR
• LG SMART TV Upgrader
• Samsung Smart Hub
• Playstation 3
• Xbox 360
• Nintendo Wii
• NBOX Player
• D-Link Movie Night
• SlingPlayer
• Sony SMP
• TIVO Stream

There you have it. If you don’t already have a smart TV, here are 20 devices in total that can add new functionality, movies, TV shows, apps and more to a standard TV. Thank you for stopping by the site for today’s post. If any of our site visitors use any other devices to stream Hulu, Netflix and other web content to their TVs, feel free to list them in the comments section. Enjoy!

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Microsoft has been releasing a bunch of ads recently focused on the “click” sound that is made when you attach a type or touch cover to the Surface. That is a reassuring clicking sound so you know your keyboard it attached correctly. The annoying clicking sound is when you type on the touch cover and Windows 8 plays a clicking sound that makes you feel like you’re using a keyboard with actual buttons. I’m guessing some people will like this because it will help them figure out if they actually pressed a key or not.

However, after a few hours of typing, I quickly became annoyed with the whole fake clicking sound. Thankfully, you can get rid of it. It instantly reminded me of the time when Internet Explorer would make that annoying clicking sound whenever you refreshed a web page or clicked on a link.

If you want to disable the clicking sound when typing on the touch or type cover, here’s how you do it. First, you need to swipe from the right side of the device to the left to bring up the Charms bar.

Now you want to tap on Change PC Settings at the very bottom.

Now you want to click on General on the left hand side and scroll down until you see Touch Keyboard. Here there will be an option called Play key sounds as I type, which you can switch from On to Off.

That’s about it! Note that if you are using Windows 8 on a PC and you have the on screen keyboard enabled, it will also play clicking sounds when you press the buttons. You can disable the clicking sound there by clicking on the Options button on the keyboard.

Now you can just uncheck the Use click sound check box.

Once you get used to the new keyboards for Microsoft Surface, you’ll find you really don’t need those additional clicking sounds to type properly. Enjoy your new Surface!

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