Yeah well 10 is overshadowing all and that's expected. But for those who might have happened to still use the reliable and stable as a stone Windows 8 this is a heads up you may or may not find useful. That's ONLY if you found Microsoft's Windows 8/8.1 super backup recovery feature Custom Refresh integral to your failsafe backdrop method when Win 8 encounters the need for a redo, WITHOUT losing your settings OR installed files. Although your installed files will be removed BUT SAVED to a Windows.old folder for purposes of reinstalling them anew. You no doubt have many. Way better than a RESET which will wipe out everything no questions asked. So to cut to the chase (sorry Windows 7 never incorporated this system saving feature), if and when you perform a Custom Refresh from the Admin Command Prompt-recimg /createimage C:\RefreshImage and you encounter an error, Windows could not write / the image WIM file, fret not. In Windows 8/8.1 and just to make perfectly clear-You MUST FIRST disable Windows Defender. Or otherwise it interferes with it's own system in carrying out the writing your Custom Refresh .WIM image. And then first thing that happens is why not. I run into this same thing oodle's of times when I forget to disable WD before proceeding to create a clean new Refresh. Which so happens to save all your personalized settings as well. Yeah of course that splendid 8 feature is no substitute for Backup Imaging Programs and of course was never intended to. But it can and will save you time and effort before resorting to an Image Backup as an alternative.
Plenty of some members think EASTER is often too overboard misconceiving regarding Windows 8.1, but besides it bring a very stable Windows System (no BSOD in eons since it released). Oh when an attempt to load a third party driver doesn't comply with standards baked into it, even a safe one, there you might get that ugly screen (We're gathering info etc). Only happens when testing a 3rd party DRIVER (MiniFilter/Filter mostly) clashing with the Kernel Protect (PatchGuard) apparatus sometimes. Even a signed one can trigger it but nothing but a temporary bump requiring a simple reboot. Microsoft might not realize it or even care but the only reason some 8.1 fans cling to it is chiefly (among the stability/speed) is courtesy the Feature of Custom Refresh, which now seems MS only added in 8.1 as an experiment fully not intending for it to go beyond to the next version, especially Windows 10. For an innovative and so called advanced O/S maker one would think they would sharpen it and implement into future models just as a fallback measure user's can confidently turn to with full confidence it will RECOVER their system picture perfect. Even RESET is the other option which is like reinstalling without actually having to do that. That much is been clear. It is IMHO a huge major miss by Windows to not have pressed forward with it to Windows 10 and on to Windows 11. I mean, COME ON, really, they have the gall to put an obsolete Windows 7 system backup even on Windows 11? Custom Refresh is proven time and again for years now the best failsafe LIFELINE measure feature that one would expect from a quality and responsible O/S maker to add such an additional protection rescue. Sounds like a perfectionist complex but it's nothing of the sort. No one is been a lifelong critic of Microsoft Windows more than myself (except maybe @cruelsister-different good reasons), but only not so much mindless criticism but constructive. On the contrary i would like nothing more than for Microsoft's Windows Division to blow the doors right off the hinges. But they have time and again proven over the years, and even more so even now seem like they much more prefer to toy and play with Windows (Cortuna first comes to mind- kindergarden stuff) and it's users/customers by not taking their own creation dead serious in refining it as a masterful work of fine art. That means at least giving users a reliable EXIT RAMP built in that can take uncertainty out of some unexpected critical situation (Hello CustomRefresh) (besides malware which they are understandably obsessed with-Hello WD) I would have long tossed away ALL my 8.1's had Microsoft integrated that single 8.1 feature and would be adding Windows 10 systems and even into 11 with confidence and joyful fanfare. It's their baby now the way their pushing forward without a way out for users to turn to in a pinch like Custom Refresh would easily provide customers, home and small business market alike. But okay let them stay bogged down in the mud and come up with other nonsense users absolutely shake their heads over.
Just a follow up for those who use this platform of windows. On one and only one of a 8.1 system i encountered unexpectedly where while creating a usual CustomRefresh WIM, it stopped at 26% during Recimg's initial prescan before it usually starts to begin to write to a WIM file in your folder of choice on C:\. (System Drive) I must have read and tried a ton of fixes and alternate methods from SFC to DISM with no luck. At wits end i found a simple solution, well not so simple, but it completely repaired and fixed whatever troubled it preventing RefreshCustom from writing/building, then windows recimg proceeded as normal again. That required using a recovery/install disc ON THE SYSTEM by mounting the 8.1 ISO and using the path to that to engage a Windows REFRESH which worked to perfection. Almost similar as Custom Refresh saved to folder however after completion requires to reinstall ALL and i do mean ALL your settings and customizations because it basically takes it's recovery under SOURCES folder in the ISO and rebuilds anew. It's not a RESET because it leaves behind a Windows.old and list file of removed programs. This one time version and unique feature of Windows 8.1 ONLY is a proven tried and true method that i do wish they had incorporated into Windows 10 and even Windows 11, but instead they continue to feature Windows 7 system backup in those newest version's Control Panel. . That said, whatever caused it to malfunction did not require resorting to an image backup from any commercial imager restore as most user's would rely on when a system situation arises where in reality a Custom Refresh WIM file would fill that gap effectively and have you back in business with your normal routine again.
It wasn't that huge an ordeal and was easily remedied. Probably something i done to fudge it. But some of us have the best of both worlds. It amazes me how frantic a majority of Windows user's, even the Windows 7 bunch, were so turned off that they swore off 8. Other's of us looked under the hood and have turned it into a powerhouse (no serious constant telemetry), exceptional customizations without borking and have never had a better computing experience since. On Eight Forums there's some sharp pencils over there who purchase new Windows with 10 computers, rip out 10 and install 8.1 and are pleased even more than myself. On the other hand my spanking new DELL with Windows 10 is such a bore compared to 8.1 that it sits propped up on a shelf, and only used for an occasional update etc. It's even 11 compatible but no way Microwave is sucking this long time user into their guinea pig policy. I don't and never will buy into all their fluff about 10 or 11. It's only a bigger revenue stream they are after as always and have brainwashed the masses. But that's okay. All the security and automation needed for a quiet, relaxing, and malware-less computing system rests safely on the 8.1's i keep toned up and modernized better that MS!! Quite content to see what Windows 12 turns out to be soon. Microsoft can't run fast enough from their predecessor O/S's each and every time instead of refining them even out of support cycles. That's a greed breed of epic proportions if there ever was one.
For me, Windows 10 suits me the best. It's the best since Windows 7. In fact, I like it better than Windows 7. Sorry, but I really don't understand the Windows 8/8.1 cult. As for Windows 11. I HATE it. It takes away more than it offers. It's a frustrating operating system to use. I've always been an early adopter of new Windows operating systems, but apart from one computer that I tested Windows 11 with, the rest are staying on Windows 10 even though Microsoft keeps bugging me to upgrade (downgrade). The irony of it all, over at Windows 11 Forums, users are constantly chatting about how to reinstate lost functionality to it when it would have been easier to stay with Windows 10.
Hi @Hadron Windows 11 for you is that frustrating huh? (Im well taken and bogged down fine tuning my 8.1's and loving it). I have Windows 10 HOME. I hold an account with DELL and at a hat's drop can and will order new machines from them, but the prospect of Windows 11 doesn't exactly give me rise to excitement given this strange drop of it when Windows 10 is not that far along if you ask me. I do have Windows fairly well customized (big fan of that) and security is dumb easy to prevent anything whatsoever making for issue. Frankly at the rate i been going lately it will be more advantageous on this end to wait and see what Windows 12 has to offer. My Windows 10 is pretty well set up and as i said sits and waits for an occasional update so i don't fall too far behind. But it really doesn't impress me near as much as 8.1. but i can come to lean more to it at some point in time. Microsoft (with it's generation Z bunch) IMHO are in way too fast forward and winging it from time to time instead of (as usual) listening to their client/customer base concerns and make improvements accordingly. I as an avid 8.1 user benefit greatly from what was a HUGE pool of developers that seemingly mapped out the entire shebang and as such am privy to massive well thought out programs that won't bark, squeak or puke the first time they are installed and run.
