Need info on UEFI

[pete.i]

By "Exactly the same version of Windows," I am referring to either OEM or Retail, whether it's Standard/Pro, and whether it was 32 or 64 bit.

The recovery discs are NOT a fresh install of Windows, they return the original bloatware and such onto the drive. What used to be on recovery disks is now on a hidden partition on the harddrive (you can usually access it via a desktop application, or by hitting F8 on startup and accessing the repair function)

Oh, and by the way, when you create recovery discs, they are generally created using the recovery partition, so if malware is on your windows installation then no, making recovery disks will not pass the malware onto them. (Excluding malware which has somehow infected the recovery partition, which would be difficult considering it's not mounted)

Windows 7 discs came with an ei.cfg file which:
A) Specified with the use of a boolean (in the form of a 1 or 0) whether the disc was "Retail or not"
B) Specified which version of Windows the disc was for.

With these you could either modify the ei.cfg, or rename it so any version of windows could be installed (with the exception of 32 and 64 bit, these were on separate discs)

My best suggestion would be to get the Windows 8 disc image (.iso), create a bootable USB drive, search it for an equivalent to the Windows 7 ei.cfg file, and see if you can mess around with it.

Hope this helps.

Not in the slightest I'm afraid. What the heck has boolean got to with the price of apples. Reinstalling Windows used to be easy and now it isn't, bottom line. That is wholly down to the fact that Microsoft and computer manufacturers do not want you to do it. It's a similar thing with tablets and the Android system or apples IOS or whatever that piece of junk is called. They all, without exception, place, what in my opinion is malware, on their computers in the form of unwanted programs, usually bloatware, and unsolicited advertising of their product. If you want to get rid of the junk on an Android tablet or phone or on an Ipad or Iphone then you have to root it or as it used to be called, because some companies actually tried to make it illegal to remove their bloatware, jailbreak that device. Rooting or jailbreaking is deliberately made as hard possible so that most people with will just put up with the junk on their phones/tablets. As I have said with UEFI at the moment it is surmountable but I wouldn't mind betting that in the future manufacturers will make it impossible for you to ignore their advertising.