Contents
Introduction. 1
Windows 10 (Download for free from
Microsoft). 1
Windows 10 Keys. 1
Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 keys can be
used for Windows 10. 1
Windows 10 Home Edition (you can use
it). 1
Windows 10 Home Registry Hacks. 1
Preparing Windows Installation Media
(USB Stick from ISO). 1
Some notes on preparing the Windows Operating System.
You can use the “MediaCreationTool.exe” from the Microsoft
site to download an ISO or create a bootable installer on a removable drive,
you don’t even need to register anywhere.
You must have a licence key to use Windows. On older
machines they are often on a sticker somewhere. With machines sold with Windows
pre-installed they key is often embed into the hardware.
When asked for they key during installation of Windows 10
you often don’t need to enter it. You can always enter the key later if needed
when Windows is up and running.
You can now install Windows 10 officially using existing
keys from: Windows 7, 8, and 8.1.
Windows 10 Home Edition does defiantly include IIS, MSMQ,
and all the .net Framework stuff. You can use the Home edition of Windows 10 to
develop applications and run the Spludlow Framework.
This was not true for earlier versions of Windows Home you
only got IIS with the “Pro” edition, there seems a little confusion on this
issue with Windows 10.
As Home is now feasible for a development machine or a test
server I decided to use it for a few tests, here are the limitations I found:
·
No Group policy editor “gpedit.msc”. You can achieve the same
goals using registry hacks “regedt32.exe”.
·
No Local Security Policy “secpol.msc”. You can achieve the same
goals using registry hacks “regedt32.exe”.
·
No remote desktop control (The client is present).
·
Unable to join a Windows Domain.
·
No Local Users & Groups in Computer Management. Have to use
the new control panel, the command line (“net localgroup” & “net user”),
and the half useful “netplwiz.exe”.
·
No Hyper-V (Virtualization) Server (no client either). You can
use VMware or VirtualBox.
Provided none of these limitations are show stoppers for you
then don’t feel bad about running the “Home” version.
You could serve up a low usage small office Intranet on a
Home edition Windows 10 computer.
As home does not have group policy editor you have to use
the registry editor.
My 3 favourite hacks (use normal search, prevent Windows
Update unwanted reboots, and disable Defender real-time protection):
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows
Search]
"AllowCortana"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU]
"AUOptions"=dword:00000002
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
Defender\Real-Time Protection]
"DisableRealtimeMonitoring"=dword:00000001
NOTE: If you copy this to a text file and name it with a
.reg extension you can double click to make the changes to registry (make sure
you include the header line).
NOTE: Registry hacks normally require a reboot for the
changes to take effect.
You can create a bootable USB stick from a Windows Installer
ISO by doing the following:
·
Extract the ISO using 7-Zip to a folder on your hard drive. Can
jump to next steps while waiting.
·
Format the USB Stick with the NTFS file system. Default block
size and quick format.
·
Run “diskpart.exe” from the command line and when you get a
prompt type “list volume”
·
Type “select volume X” where X is the number of the USB Stick
volume.
·
Type “active” confirmation should be displayed.
·
Type “exit” to leave DiskPart.
·
Find the full path to bootsect.exe within the “boot” directory of
the ISO you extracted in step 1. For example:
C:\en_windows_10_multiple_editions_version_1511_x64_dvd_7223712\boot\bootsect.exe
·
Enter the full path to bootsect.exe with the following parameters
“/nt60 X: /mbr” where X is the drive letter of the USB Stick. Confirmation
should be displayed make sure no errors.
·
You can now copy all the extracted files from step 1 onto the USB
Stick with setup.exe at the root. Eject it and it is now ready to boot from,
just like a DVD.
NOTE: When extracting downloaded Windows ISOs you may
receive a warning about the archive containing extra payload at the end, you
can ignore this.