How To Install Windows 8 On Tablet

[Sanna Pospicil]

TheLinx 7 is a Bay Trail system with 32 bit UEFI. That makes it a bit awkward to boot as most Linux distros are set up for 64 bit UEFI (which the Surface Pro 3 has, it's really an i5 laptop in tablet form, not a tablet CPU like the Bay Trail).

So you need a Linux image that supports booting from 32 bit UEFI. Distros like Ubuntu support that, but I can't see any mention that Kali does. The 32 bit Kali boot images are probably set up to boot with BIOS only.

What you might do is install Debian (there appears to be an unofficial development CD image ) and then add the Kali repositories and install its packages. It won't be as polished as installing from scratch (so perhaps not for an absolute beginner), but I think it's the only way to make things work currently.

Power off your Surface Pro 3. Now press and hold the "+" volume button and power it on. It will boot to UEFI settings, where you should disable the Secure Boot feature. With Secure Boot disabled, it is possible to boot and install another OS. Shutdown Surface Pro 3 again.

Kali linux supports live OS, i would mount or burn the kali iso to a flash drive using rufus usb tool and then just boot kali from the flash drive leaving windows partition and all intact. I actually prefer PE (preinstall environment) and live OS for pen testing because all running in flasg gets dumped once shut down and leaves less of a footprint. If you want to save files while booting from live flash you will need to set up a specific partition to mount from the usb to store files but if you are wanting to save files when you shut down then your best bet might be to run it in virtual machine. If you use oracle free virtualbox you can set the network adapter in bridge mode or if you are really doing penetration testing i assume you would have an alpha wireless card that supports mon mode and being usb you can just mount the usb wireless and disable the NIC. Another benefit of booting kali from virtualbox is that you can import the kali virtual machine into GNS3 (a virtual network topography hypervisor) and simulate entire networks with switches routers and firewalls, you could also have a server virtual machine and connect both virtual machines to a virtual switcg and or router like a router on a stick situation and use that to learn how to use metasploit and other hacker tools on your own mini virtual network lab. If you are curious about doing that ive written a step by step guide on setting this up and all tools are free. It is an absolute must for anyone learning to become a pen tester. (I run a pci compliance and network security company and trust me, these tools will bump your learning up by a lot) email me at [email protected]. i know this thread is old but im more than happy to assist anyone looking to expand their network security knowledge.

I have been trying to upgrade the tablet to Windows 10. I have set the update files to be downloaded to the 32GB SD card and all was fine until I tried to install the upgrade. It says that it requires another 3GB of space. How sad.

Edit: I have also checked out using Junctions, but even with Junctions on all the files the C:\Windows directory takes up too much space. Is it possible to safely use a junction on the Windows directory?

As the tablet is NTFS, you can 'Compress' all files and folders on it, same for the memory card. That might just give you the extra space you need, and if you want, you could uncompress after the installation is successful.

I was able to install Windows 10 on similar low disk space tablet (Kiano Intelect 8 3G MS) following instructions in Installing Windows 10 on 16GB tablet article, and some other guides; this assumes that said tablet has support for microSD storage and USB OTG (most do).

USB pendrive with at least 3GB space - I think it needs to be completely empty. You would want to either use dual USB/micro-USB pendrive with OTG support, or use ordinary USB pendrive and OTG cable (which you should have got with your tablet).

As we're lacking space on such low-end device, software will ask as for some other drive when it can store temp files and Windows Restore files. For that let's choose our microSD card from dropdown list, and hit Refresh

I tried to copy the 64-bit setup files on a 32-bit Recovery Disk created from within the 32-bit Windows, but it showed an error that this application isn't supported because my CPU is 32 bit, which is not true as stated above.

My question is how is the 32 bit Window that's installed causing issues with boot media that's 64 bit to not let it boot from it? AFAIK what happens during the boot should be out of reach of the version of Windows that is installed.

Your issue is not the CPU; it is the UEFI firmware. UEFI boot in Windows requires the firmware address size to match the OS kernel. The vast majority of systems come with a 64-bit firmware implementation, and most people install 64-bit Windows on top of that. These extremely slim tablets are a recent exception.

Note that it's technically possible for an OS to switch to a different mode on boot; however, this is not implemented by Windows 8 or 10 (and comes with some limitations of its own). Linux only implemented it with kernel 3.15, released mid-2014.

While in UEFI mode, the Windows version must match the PC architecture. A 64-bit UEFI PC can only boot 64-bit versions of Windows. A 32-bit PC can only boot 32-bit versions of Windows. In some cases, while in legacy BIOS mode, you may be able to run 32-bit Windows on a 64-bit PC, assuming the manufacturer supports 32-bit legacy BIOS mode on the PC.

Now uefi will crack it over the OS that is installed on the tablet so you will have to now use a Linux live usb to boot the tablet and install grub on the tablet to circumvent this restriction and point it t boot up your 64 bit windows install.

It seems that a "cumulative update" for W10 left my tablet in an unusable state (no input box for password or PIN). After much trial and error, I've just succeeded in a clean install of Windows 10. This is how I did it.

It chugged through all the stages, and after creating a basic account I now have W10 (1903) running on the tab. It's a very basic install - no touchscreen yet, nor wifi - will need to load the drivers from Dell. So far, so good, though. (I've have been just as happy if the original update - which was shown as some sort of extra option - had worked correctly, nevertheless.)

Worth noting that another contributor to these pages recommended instead holding the power button to force shutdown while the "juggling balls" are displayed. Do this three times, and (he says) the repair options appear, including the option to use a command window, and maybe reset Windows. That might be a better option if you can get it to work (I had tried, but I'd lost patience and was massacring partitions by the time I read his comment). But if you can get it to work, you may then be able to access the (encrypted) C: drive with Secure Boot still in effect. In my case, running the SC command may have been enough to configure the Credentials Manager service to Automatic (plausible solution to my original problem), and save me all the trouble above. Try that first!

Worked like a charm. Used Dell MicroUSB data/charger dongle (powers the tablet while installing, hard to find it now but there seem cheap alternatives), 4GB flash drive, 4 port USB hub, wireless keyboard/mouse combo and a lot of patience.

Took a long time to install. I almost quit before seeing the familiar Win10 installation dialog. As pointed out, the touch screen does not work so you need mouse and keyboard connected. Deleted all existing partitions (back up before doing this) and unallocated space as a target.

Great - that's brightened my morning! As you'll have found, all the necessary drivers work fine, and Windows 10 gives this little tablet a new lease of life for some years to come. Of course it's not a very brisk machine by today's standards, but it's entirely useable, and it's compact enough to have with you when you'd leave a bigger one behind.

This is how I was able to finish the installation process. I used a USB Hub. I connected a keyboard and the bootable USB 2.0 drive to navigate through the menu. Thank you for your post, it actually allowed me to create a USB installer that was bootable. Other USB medias i made was not bootable. I followed your instructions and boom. i'm good! no more bricked tablet.

Nice job! Must have taken hours to write that very helpful review. It's worth it though, the Venue 8 Pro was ahead of its time - the hardware was willing, but the software (Win 8.1) wasn't. With 10, version 1709, it's sweet.

These points were really helpful:

The accelerometers aren't working, so you have to work in portrait mode.

The touchscreen doesn't work.

It's funny that the MSFT Windows installation media doesn't have these basic drivers. I've update tons of older laptops, plus stuff like the Latitude 11 tablet, that were a lot easier - they are ready to go with wifi, at least, which means they self "heal" if fundamental drivers like touch are missing. The 5830 (Venue 8) was a bit of a challenge.

BTW I was able to complete the install with an unpowered, dual-port usb adapter hooked to the OTG adapter. I used Assistive/On Screen Keyboard for typing.

What saved me at the end - I hadn't stumbled across your article - was going to the Dell support page and scanning and downloaded the chipset driver. I DID download it to a separate USB - that's how I got wifi working - but didn't install it, thinking the Win Update tool would do a better job (it usually does).

Now let's see if its bug free. I updated a different 5830 purchased new, but I think I still have those wasteful 2g & 6gb Dell recovery partitions. On this one, I erased all the partitions as part of the clean install, and reclaimed that wasted space.

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