Windows

How to downgrade Windows 8.1 Pro OEM to Windows 7 Pro

I had a client the other day bring in a laptop that he had bought that had Windows 8.1 Pro OEM installed on it. The client needed windows 7 Pro installed.

I honestly didn’t know if I could downgrade his version of Windows 8.1 Pro to Windows 7 Pro, partly because it was an OEM model but also because the laptop had no product key sticker on it(as many of the newer laptops don’t come with the Windows Product Key sticker on them anymore).

So I started searching then I found this page which said that you do have downgrade rights if you have a professional or enterprise version of Windows. You can actually downgrade Windows 8.1 Pro to Windows 7 Pro or Windows Vista Business.

So I rang Microsoft and asked them how I do this if I do not have the original product key stuck onto the laptop.

It turns out that all you have to do is bring your own version of Windows 7 Pro and your own Windows 7 Pro product key and then you install it. This means that you can use your old installation key or use a friends one, you will also need your own Windows 7 Pro installation media.

I just used one off one of our computers that was laying around the workshop.

Now this may not activate because it is an old key. (Mine didn’t and I had to do this as well)

So what you do from then is activate by phone.

You will need the original product key, which you can get by using software (one example is produkey) to extract the Windows 8.1 product key out of the operating system.

When you talk to the person from Microsoft activations just explain that you are downgrading your Windows 8.1 Pro version to Windows 7 pro and then you read out the nine sets of six numbers and they will tell you the confirmation numbers then your Windows 7 Pro install is activated.

Some things to remember:

  • You will need to check the manufacturers website before doing this though to make sure that your computer has drivers for the operating system that you are wanting to downgrade to.
  • This will not work for the standard version of Windows 8 or 8.1, or previous versions of Windows Home Premium
  • This will also work the same with desktop computers.
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Windows Server

The start screen is an addition to Microsoft Office that I personally do not like.

Thankfully there is a registry hack that can disable the Microsoft Office start screen that will make you open your programs (word, excel, publisher, etc.) alot quicker and also stop you from getting annoyed every time you start the program because it comes up with a stupid menu.

To do this you need to:

  • Open the registry editor (start menu and type in “regedit” without the quotes
  • Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\General
  • Then you will need to add a registry key by right clicking and selecting new dword 32bit value
  • Then call the new key “DisableBootToOfficeStart” (without the speaking marks)
  • Then open this key and 1

Now when you open your Microsoft Office programs you won’t need to be greeted with that pesky office start screen!
You can

through that link!

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Windows Server

Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration settings define how users browse the internet and reduce the exposure of your server to potential security risks. This can minimalise the risk for users of the server to be able to load active content and keep you Windows Server safer.
This can get quite annoying when you need to download something onto your server, so today I will show you how to disable Internet Explorer’s Enhanced Security.
Once you have finished what you are doing I recommend activating the Enhanced Security again so that it minimalises the risk for other users when browsing the internet on you server

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Windows Server

So I was installing SharePoint Server 2012 on my VMWare Virtual machine for some videos I am making yesterday and it through up this really strange error “Error 1335”, the strange part was that it was in what I believe to be Spanish.

Error 1335 SQL 2013 Install

“Error 1335. El archivo.CAV “Proof.CAB” que se necesita para esta
instalacon esta danado o no se puede usar. Esto puede indicar un error de 
red, un error al leer desde el CD-ROM, o un problema con esta paquete.:
Error 1335. El archivo.CAV “Proof.CAB” que se necesita para esta
instalacon esta danado o no se puede usar. Esto puede indicar un error de 
red, un error al leer desde el CD-ROM, o un problema con esta paquete”

Honestly this had me baffled, I cannot read Spanish so I had no idea what it meant.

Then I started researching. It turns out that this error simply means that the SharePoint installation cannot find the install files, which in my case was a mounted ISO file.

So I unmounted the ISO file and remounted the file and then pressed retry. Presto!! The installation went on.

I’m not sure why the error comes up in Spanish but at least it is easy to fix.

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Phones

Gaining root access to your android device can give you multiple benifits including installing custom ROMs and running apps that require root access.

I am using my Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 and the downloads below are for rooting the Galaxy S3. If you are using a different phone you may need different software but this should work for most, just Google your phone model first to see if compatible.
Follow this simple lesson to gain root access on your android and root your android phone for free.

CF Root Download:

Odin Download

Root Checker App

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Windows

Daemon Tools Lite is a free software released for using in a non-commercial environment to mount disk image files direcly to your system. You can mount *.mdx, *.mds/*.mdf, *.iso, *.b5t, *.b6t, *.bwt, *.ccd, *.cdi, *.bin/*.cue, *.ape/*.cue, *.flac/*.cue, *.nrg, *.isz disc images straight onto a virtual drive in your Windows system.

 

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Wordpress

WordPress Tutorial 3 – Themes and Widgets

What is a WordPress theme?

A WordPress theme is what controls the overall look and functionality of your WordPress site without changing the way that the WordPress software works in the backend of your site. This means that WordPress can be very versatile and used in a wide range of applications.

There are many themes available for free or you can pay for a premium WordPress theme. You can test and change your theme whenever you want so don’t be afraid of changing your theme because you can always go back to your old one.

What is a Widget?

A widget is basically a little box that are usually located in the sidebar or footer of the WordPress site. Widgets are an easy and simple way to add things into your site, these could be ads, search boxes, tag clouds and much more.

As you see in the video the widgets are easy to add and move around to personalise your WordPress site.

This tutorial covers:
-Finding and installing WordPress themes
-Activating WordPress themes
-Customising your theme
-Giving website new title and tagline
-What are widgets
-Adding, Removing and Customising Widgets

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Wordpress

WordPress Tutorial 2 – Your First Post

The post is an important part of WordPress and will make up most of the content on a WordPress based site.

Covered in this tutorial
-The default wordpress homepage
-Accessing the WordPress Dashboard (or administration console)
-Navigating WordPress Dashboard
-Adding New Blog Post
-Adding A Title To New Blog Post
-Adding Text To Blog Post
-Adding Link To Blog Post
-Adding Image To Blog Post
-Resizing Images
-Adding Captions To Images
-Blog Post Categories
-Saving Drafts
-Previewing Blog Posts
-Adding Tags To Blog Post
-Publishing Blog Posts
-Updating Blog Posts

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Wordpress

WordPress Tutorial 1 – Installing WordPress (on XAMPP)

WordPress is and open source blogging and CMS(Content Management System) that is designed for people to easily create their own blogs and websites.

I have created this tutorial on my own computer using XAMPP as a web server for testing purposes.

Covered in this tutorial
-Downloading WordPress files
-Creating a WordPress database through PHPMyAdmin
-Configuring the database
-Installing WordPress
-Viewing the WordPress Site

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Webserver

Turn Your PC Into A Webserver Using XAMPP

XAMPP is an open source cross platform webserver package that is compatible with Linux, Windows, Mac OSX and Solaris.

Using this software you can easily turn your operating system into a webserver.

XAMPP is and acronym for X (cross), Apache HTTP Server, MySQL, PHP and Perl and includes all of them into one package.

Follow this tutorial to find out how to install XAMPP on your Microsoft Windows computer.

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