Recently, Tech Republic released an installation chart outlining new features, potential problems, and important questions you need to ask when installing the new Windows 8 operating system. Our technicians have been testing this new environment and are looking forward to delivering the experience to our clients very soon.

For those of you not using SureTech, you can check out the full Windows 8 Installation Flowchart via TechRepublic here. We believe tech should be hassle-free, so below is a simple breakdown of the somewhat hard to read chart.

If you're installing Windows 8 to a PC:

Ensure there is plenty of RAM and adequate CPU for the Windows 8 installation. Minimum requirements: 1 GHz+ CPU, 1 GB RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit), 16 GB of disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

If you’re installing Windows 8 to a tablet:

There will be both x86 and ARM-based tablets issued in the Windows 8 space. There are plenty of differences however. Any x86 tablet will be significantly more expensive than the ARM counterparts. Be aware that critical features like Group Policy and domain membership are not supported on ARM-based Windows 8 RT tablets.

Will virtualization be required?

If you answered yes: The Windows 8 virtualization engine is the same technology as Windows Server 2012, Hyper-V. Unlike Windows 7 which came with “XP Mode”; Windows 8 instead is optionally a type 1 hypervisor. This is available on Windows 8 Pro only.

Ensure enough RAM is allocated on the Windows 8 system. Each guest machine will need its own memory requirements subtracted from the Windows 8 inventory. If external networking is required, it is recommended to set an additional network interface designated for the Hyper-V VMs. The internal and private networking options do not explicitly require a dedicated interface.

Supported Hyper-V operating system families include: Windows Server 2008, 2008 R2, Home Server 2011, Small Business Server 2011, 2003 R2, CentOS 6-6.2, RHEL 6-6.2 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11. 

Are you using Group Policy?

If answered yes: There is a critical new Group Policy feature with Windows 8. Remote Group Policy Update allows a scheduled update on all computers in a selected OU to refresh computer and user settings (click for more info). This is a big deal for the device management aspect of Windows clients. Too many times, we can’t leverage Group Policy for critical changes as we can’t control when the updates will go into effect. Now we can!

Will Windows To Go or SkyDrive be used?

Windows To Go allows a portable edition of Windows 8 Pro to run on a USB drive. This allows an experience to go with a user from device to device. SkyDrive is Microsoft’s answer to Dropbox, Box.com, GoogleDrive, and SugarSync with one exception - Windows 8 now has the ability to automatically move data to public cloud storage with SkyDrive. This is a big decision for the enterprise and business of all sizes for that matter.

If you answered yes to one or both of these: The best approach is to configure an Active Directory domain for service management done centrally.

Want to change the "Metro" interface?

The amount of changes in Windows 8 over previous versions of Windows is unprecedented. The user interface - the metro tile mosaic - is substantially different. Luckily, you can actually turn off the Metro UI! Check out this blog post by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes on how to re-enable a Start Menu on Windows 8.

Special thanks to TechRepublic for creating the flowchart.