Windows 8 UEFI settings

Lum

Only applies to Windows 8 Pro, and even then it only applies if you bought a PC with it pre-installed or if you are a corporate customer buying it on a volume licence agreement.

I would assume that most people posting on this forum who are buying PCs with Win8 pre-installed will be getting the cheaper home version.


The official Microsoft approved method for doing the downgrade is to use a vanilla Win7 Pro DVD and somebody else's product key, then call them to activate.

JJ_Egan

Known problem on Win 8 and image recovery tools like Acronis .
UEFI blocks recovery from image .


jje

Mondez

@Lum The vast majority of windows 8 pro licenses are going to be OEM pre-installs or volume licenses, especially now the cut price offer has ended, but those people should mostly have an old windows 7 license to go back to anyway if they decide the upgrade was a mistake.

I agree that many will get the home version on the cheaper machines they buy though, they are mostly better off using one of the metro workaround if they don't like metro and want to stay properly licensed.

I had always wandered what the official line about downgrades was... not enough to look it up myself though, but now I know, thanks I'd still recommend the one that doesn't involve a phone call personally if you know what you are doing, much less hassle.

Lum

Win 8 home gets no downgrade rights. If you start faffing about with SLIC tables and keys to get Win 7, you will be running unlicensed.

Personally I don't care if you run unlicensed or not, but I'm not going to recommend doing so, or advise how to do so, here.