Being able to “reset” to “factory condition” is not new to Windows. Before Windows Vista, you can use Windows installation disc to reinstall
Windows, of course. OEMs used to give Windows installation disc to the end users. Over time, they included a recovery partition and usually program that can restore the PCs back to the “factory condition”. Unfortunately, for the sake of more profits,
OEMs often included some unwanted programs in your PC, colloquially known as “crapware”, that often adversely affect the performance of the PC. Even if you manually uninstall ALL the crapware, your PC is often still far below optimal performance.
If you want optimal performance of your PC, you may want to install Windows without all those crapware. However, this cannot be done without a Windows installation disc. Of course,
it’s possible to download Windows disc images online from third party but there is no guarantee that such disc images are not being “improved”. Also since Windows XP, Microsoft includes activation mechanism to prevent piracy. But you cannot
actually activate the preinstalled Windows Vista or Windows 7 online on your own. There is a
third party tool
that allows you to back up the activation status and later restore it when you reinstall Windows. Note that this only works at the “same PC” and it is NOT piracy. The “Factory Condition Recovery” offered by OEMs will not only reinstall
Windows but also ALL the crapware.
Windows Vista has a feature called “Complete PC Backup”, which allows you to create an EXACT copy of ALL the data on at least the Windows partition of
your hard disk. Coupled with System Repair Disc, for the first time the users can “reinstall” Windows along with other data. In Windows 7, this feature has further been improved. You can optionally choose to back up other partition of the hard
disk as well.
In Windows “8” Developer Preview, the “reset” is even being put in a more noticeable place but because no image of Windows “8”
Developer Preview being put into hard disk while install Windows 8, hitting the “reset” button cannot “reset” unless you put in the Windows installation disc.
When I installed Windows “8” Developer Preview, I was not asked to enter product key or activate Windows after installing Windows “8” Developer
Preview. When I “reset” Windows “8” Developer Preview, I was asked to enter product key before the “reset” can proceed. Presumably, the shipping version of Windows “8” will require both product key and activation.
I remember from experience that Microsoft actually allows you to install Windows without entering product key or activating Windows for a limited amount of time. (Up to 120 days for Windows 7) I supposed “activation mechanism” was in fact included
but activation was not actually required at least in Windows “8” Developer Preview since I was not asked to enter product key or activate Windows when I installed it. I just hit the “Skip” button to allow the “reset” to
proceed.
When the “reset” was done, I moved on to verify my assumption with “slmgr –xpr” in Command Prompt with Administrative Privileges. I
was told that “The machine is permanently activated”. Having said that, I do not think my PC is “permanently activated”. Checking with “winver.exe”, I was told that this version of Windows “Developer Preview”
was slated to expire on March 12, 2012, which made sense since this is a pre-release program; I believed that Windows “8” Developer Preview was indeed a piece of time-limited software for evaluation purposes, which explained why the included “activation
mechanism” did not actually work in this release.
The short answer: just click the “Skip” button.
Sonic the Hedgehog
