FrankForum (Frankness IS Forum)

EDIT: the url below no longer works. The user must have removed the video from vimeo. Unfortunately I can't remember who 'BC' is (shoulda been bleeping computer). If I find a worthy video to update this post, I will edit again.

This post is on a live tutorial video with privacy tips. Great video by BC on essential installation steps for Windows 7, here. Turn up the sound. Here, emphasis is security and privacy on bare-metal install before you even install network drivers. So before connecting with MSFT. Notice carefully how he turns off all the phoning home features, esp. Windows Updates etc. This is vital for protecting your computer from some later slipped-in MSFT telemetry.

You can always seek updates to Window 7 manually, but if you follow the video steps, MSFT will not be contacting your machine (you'd have to re-enable services and GPO settings, or bypass them on an ad hoc basis, at your own end). So you regain control of your own machine.

So you can also see step by step, how to create a Virtual Box and in it, to install Win7.

Now, whatever other OS you want to install, will be very similar.

Here are REINSTALL tips, from sevenforums.

Click here for the seven forums steps for MBR restoration.

Click here to create the Recovery Partition.

Doesn't seem as though you can make the recovery partition bootable, see here. It's designed to work with the MBR, hence the need to restore the MBR to use the recovery partition.

Click here for MSFT's own steps (not very helpful, but not useless).

How-to-Geek's instructions include screenshots, here.

Just installed Windows 8 original release in Parallels Desktop 9 on OS X Snow Leopard. I have found the performance of Windows 8 in a virtual environment to be better than Windows 7.

The original release of Windows 8 is a frankenstein of an operating system but its perfect inside a virtual environment.

Would that be due to Win8 being less graphic-intensive?

Do you still have the video in the first post? thanks in advance.

When Windows 7 is ran with the 'classic theme' it disables WDM disabling V-Sync, which leads to a performance drop, graphically. As Windows 8 and beyond don't support the classic theme, my guess would be users are forced to use WDM and thus perceive better performance. Otherwise, Windows 7 will outperform 8 and 10.

Wow, I don't know what happened to it. Not my video. Will troubleshoot and edit this post later afterwards. Thank you for the heads-up!

EDIT: I can't remember who I meant by 'BC', nor does the video exist. I searched in Google on possible videos, but don't find any good ones.

Win7 installs best if some other OS is there first. I accidently put it on two machines simply by inserting the wrong CD (thinking I was installing XP instead). Is there some particular part you need help on? If 'yes', the folks at bleepingcomputer are sterling, and don't want your money. A few are horrible, but they crow about how Windows 10 is the greatest thing since God, so you'll know how to avoid them.

I dont know anything about computers. What I want is to use my computer without anyone spying, or imposing anything, like the updates to make windows 7 more like windows 10 (having looked around it doesnt seem entirely clear if windows 7 originally "phoned home". does it?). Will installing windows 7 in a "virtual box" do this for me? Will I be able to use my computer as if it is a normal installation?

sorry if im being stupid. thank you for your help

forgot my password so I had to register a new account

Windows 7 with the latest updates does in fact install the 'back ported' windows 10 telemetry, so that has to manually be removed after you update windows 7 to its latest.

Windows 7 'phones home' for a lot of things so you would have to clarify if the concern is just telemetry or phoning home at all, including clock synchronization and licensing. You would have to switch to local VLSC KMS licensing and spin up your own licensing server--otherwise Windows 7 will always periodically phone phone with a MAK license.

It is possible to get a near-similar experienced in Wnidows 10 like Windows 7 using Wnidows 10 LTSB Enterprise, but it still requires some modifications. Of course Microsoft made getting a valid license extremely difficult as they DO NOT want people running it.