I've just bought new laptop, it's an HP Pavilion 17-e072nr. But it turned out it was a refurbished one, at least not an untouched one. But it is unused, plastic films still on it, smells new etc. The shop says it is delivered with Windows 8, but it is not clear wether Win8, Win 8.1, or Win8.1 Pro is installed. I think it is at least a Pro version of one of them because it has 8GB RAM. There is no disc sent along with the laptop.  This doesn't really bother me but the fact is, I really, really don't like Win8 at all and i would do anything for being able to downgrade it to Win7. I can't get used to Win8. And you would be able to do so without much trouble if you have Win8Pro.  I haven't touched the laptop yet for warranty/returning reasons, and maybe it is better to install Win7 before waking Win8, I don't know.   I couldn't find a clear guide to downgrade to Win7, and if there are any,(I would be grateful if anyone could refer me to it) I still cope with the problem that my type of notebook originally wasn't available in my country. Maybe it is even some kind of protoype, I can't find any information about it on the web. So I can't find the drivers either, and I suppose I need those for Win7 to function properly on my device. I'm a dutch so maybe that clears up something.  Long story short: I have a Win8 device which I want to downgrade to Win7, but it is a quite unfindable type so I can't find any information and drivers for it. I'm getting kind of desperate so any help would be really appreciated! If there's a post that answers this queastion, or a clear guide how to downgrade, i would be thankful if you could refer met oe it because i couln't find it.
I recently purchased an ASUS K55A. Like all Windows 8 machines, it come with a UEFI feature called Secure Boot. This basically makes sure that the laptop won't load anything other than the Windows 8 OEM version that came with it.  However the Asus UEFI allows for me to disable Secure Boot, and therefore I should be able to revert to Windows 7, Linux, etc. (drivers may or may not be supported). When I insert my Linux Mint boot disc and try to boot from it, though, nothing happens. There isn't even a boot priority list in the UEFI settings (I can provide screenshots later). It just says "Windows 8 Bootloader" and also on the other tab it says "WINDOWS 8 BOOT OVERRIDE".  Has anybody purchased a Windows 8 machine and successfully installed Windows 7 or Linux on it?
Update: Now that it's 2016 I'd use PowerShell for this unless there's a really compelling backwards-compatible reason for it, particularly because of the regional settings issue with using date. See @npocmaka's     What's a Windows command line statement(s) I can use to get the current datetime in a format that I can put into a filename?  I want to have a .bat file that zips up a directory into an archive with the current date and time as part of the name, for example, Code_2008-10-14_2257.zip. Is there any easy way I can do this, independent of the regional settings of the machine?  I don't really mind about the date format, ideally it'd be yyyy-mm-dd, but anything simple is fine.  So far I've got this, which on my machine gives me Tue_10_14_2008_230050_91:  rem Get the datetime in a format that can go in a filename. set _my_datetime=%date%_%time% set _my_datetime=%_my_datetime: =_% set _my_datetime=%_my_datetime::=% set _my_datetime=%_my_datetime:/=_% set _my_datetime=%_my_datetime:.=_%  rem Now use the timestamp by in a new ZIP file name. "d:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" a -r Code_%_my_datetime%.zip Code   I can live with this, but it seems a bit clunky. Ideally it'd be briefer and have the format mentioned earlier.  I'm using Windows Server 2003 and Windows&nbsp;XP Professional. I don't want to install additional utilities to achieve this (although I realise there are some that will do nice date formatting). The title is probably very confusing, but here's the situation:  I'm animating a flat grid curve by shrink-wrapping it onto a moving plane in order to get a uniform wave animation, it looks like this:    Before I render it, i want a bevel. What I did then was simply adding a bevel to the curve, making the curve look like this:    Now, when activating the shrinkwrap modifier, I expexted that only the curve would be shrinkwrapped, but alas, the bevel did the same:    As seen by the blue spots, the curve has been completely flattened along with the bevel.  How can I avoid this? I tried using a wave modifier instead of shrinkwrap, but this modifier doesn't seem to make perfectly round waves like this:    So, any thoughs on how to solve this?  Thanks for reading! Assume  $$G_1=\mathbb Z_5 \times \mathbb Z_{5^2}\times \mathbb Z_{5^3}\times \mathbb Z_{5^4} \times\ldots$$ $$G_2= \mathbb Z_{5^2}\times \mathbb Z_{5^3}\times \mathbb Z_{5^4} \times \ldots$$ How do I prove $G_1$ and $G_2$ aren't isomorphic? I asked  this question here  and I received tree answer, but the answer of Ludolila will be complete when  $G_1$ and $G_2$ are not isomorphic.    Thanks in advance Show that $\mathbb{Z}/n^2\mathbb{Z}$ is not isomorphic to other group I'm currently working on a proof, but didn't get the right idea, a hint would be appreciated:  Show that $\mathbb{Z}/n^2\mathbb{Z}$ is not isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}/n \times \mathbb{Z}/n$  So, lets assume there is an isomorphism between these groups, my first idea to was to construct a contradiction with the homomorphism property. But I don't know how, there should be an element in  $\mathbb{Z}/n \times \mathbb{Z}/n$ which is not in $\mathbb{Z}/n^2$ to reach this kind of contradiction. Of course there is $n \in \mathbb{Z}/n^2$ which is not in the other group but I don't know if this helps.  Thanks Sass .scss: Nesting and multiple classes? How can we show that the following sequence converges? $(a_n)$ is a bounded sequence with the following condition  $a_{n+1}\geq a_n-\frac{1}{2^n}$   The sequence converges, but how do we show it? In  they've somehow created "wireless" networks, meaning networks that connect two components but don't have an actual wire in the schematics.  What are these called, and how can I create them in Eagle Cad 6.5? When should a supervisor be an author? I understand that in a lot of big-lab fields it is common for the principal investigator to append their name to a paper even if they did not write the paper, design the experiment, or collect data since they spend energy securing funding, and managing the whole lab. What about for small labs?  What are the requirements for a supervisor to be included as an author on a paper, as opposed to just appearing in the acknowledgements? If you are working on your own projects independently of your supervisor, but using funding provided by your supervisor (how does this change when the funding provides resources versus just your salary), are you suppose to add them as authors or just acknowledge the source of funding? Splitting a semicolon-separated string to a dictionary, in Python I have a background in QFT, GR and differential geometry at the level of a master student in theoretical physics. I would like to touch the area of CFT. I know the textbook of Philippe Di Francesco. It may be too big for the beginner like me. Are there some good introductory lectures or textbooks adapted to the needs of beginners? This is a lake of approximately 13 ha with 81 sampled depth points in about 10 transect lines:    Previously in ARCgis with a 50 ha lake and about a 100 depth sampling points, I got decent output with the TopotoRaster tool. However, no such exact equivalent seems to exist with QGIS or open source software.  In QGIS, I got the interpolated raster below, using the TIN method in the Raster Interpolation plugin. However, this seemed to be a lucky outcome, when I tried to repeat, I got different results (unsatisfactory) in spite of not really varying any parameter.    These are more urban (constructed) tanks than lakes, therefore, they are fairly regular in their bed profile, hence the low point sampling density. Some articles seemed to suggest Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) as the most suitable technique, yet I seemed to get the worst results with that (possibly owing to low point density).  Are there any heuristics which can be employed here considering the size of the lake, its regular profile and the point sampling density to arrive at which interpolation method is apt? (between Kriging, IDW, Bilinear, Cubic convolution, TIN or spline)  Or is it always a bit of trial and error? Reading Excel files from C# Is there a free or open source library to read Excel files (.xls) directly from a C# program?   It does not need to be too fancy, just to select a worksheet and read the data as strings. So far, I've been using Export to Unicode text function of Excel, and parsing the resulting (tab-delimited) file, but I'd like to eliminate the manual step. Do you use "a" or "an" before acronyms / initialisms? I was reviewing  for , and noticed that nobody voted to close it, even though the page reports a duplicate.      Why does this happen? How can I efficiently recover a permanently deleted folder at once? Number of ways to connect sets of $k$ dots in a perfect $n$-gon Book series where they collect either stones or gems I'm looking for a fantasy book I read about 10 years ago. I don't remember a lot of it, but there are a few things I still know:   The setting was in medieval times. There was no traveling dimensions. I can't recall whether there was magic or not. It wasn't on Earth, but on some invented world. I believe it was a trilogy, with a focus on the son of some nobility. The goal for the characters was to collect a certain number of stones or gems (I believe there were 5 of them), all in certain colours. Every stone has a certain power attached to it. I believe it started out with one or two characters, but the group grew and every character had a certain colour stone at the end. What is important about the gems is that they are unique. It's not part of a bigger magic system, but they are artefacts from somewhere.   There are some minor incidents I can recall vividly:   They build up a fellowship with some stereotypical fantasy builds: an old school fighter, a minstrel, a female archer and probably more. At one point, they mention that if one of the guards in a country falls asleep on duty, he will be kept awake by his garrison/brothers in arms for seven days. At some point the minstrel falls asleep, and the old fighter teaches him how to stay awake. They travel through a forest full of leeches and other insects to reach one of the stones. Also, I seem to recall there was a member of an underground evil organisation among the nobility, who tried to poison someone and were able to do that because they built up an immunity to the poison.   Does anyone has a clue what this series might be?   Suggestions by kind people, but not what I'm looking for, are:   The Seventh Tower Deltora Quest Diadem Westria Sword of Heavens series These may be separate questions, but the following MWE:    \usepackage{pdfpages} ...   \addcontentsline{lot}{subsection}{\ref{tab:UserRoles} \textbf{User Roles}}   \includepdf[pages={-}, pagecommand={\label{tab:UserRoles}}, offset=0in -1in, addtolist={9, table, {The User Roles table}, tab:UserRoles}]{UserRolesTable}   ...   has several unexpected behaviors.   I get the following warning:  Package pdfpages Warning: There's something wrong with the entries of `addtolist'. Not all entries were processed. Check `addtolist' [in the MWE]."    Probably due to the \label not being bound to the inserted pdf (in a table environment), my inserted PDF is numbered using the section, and not the expected "Table X" value.   The manually-inserted LoT line (which also uses the section number rather than the incremented table number) is not formatted like the other lines in the LoT - the number lines up, but the table caption itself is not aligned with the others in the list.   The source PDF has no errors and displays correctly in the output PDF.  PDFLaTeX -> BibTex    MWE:  \documentclass[11pt,letterpaper,twoside,final]{article} \usepackage{pdfpages} \begin{document} \listoftables \begin{center} \textbf{Table \ref{tab:UserRoles} - The User Roles Table} \addcontentsline{lot}{subsection}{\ref{tab:UserRoles}  \textbf{User Roles}} % manual entry in ToC  \includepdf[pages={-}, pagecommand={\label{tab:UserRoles}}, offset=0in -1in, addtolist={9, table, {The User Roles table}, tab:UserRoles, lot}]{UserRolesTable} \end{center} \end{document} Persistent Dummy Output The soundcard I want to use is detected and works (it only recently switched to dummy output and didn't allow me to go back). HDMI is no longer listed under Audio and Video - KDE Control Module; everything under audio module is set to dummy output and its the only 'soundcard' on the list now. I can view my previous sound cards in alsamixer, but changing the settings from there does nothing. How can I get my real soundcards to work again? I have already tried the following answers without success:  EDIT: name@name-desktop:~$ lspci -vvv | grep -A8 Audio 00:01.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Kaveri HDMI/DP Audio Controller         Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation Kaveri HDMI/DP Audio Controller         Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx+         Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast &gt;TAbort- &lt;TAbort- &lt;MAbort- &gt;SERR- &lt;PERR- INTx-         Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes         Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 43         Region 0: Memory at ff764000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]         Capabilities: &lt;access denied&gt;         Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel         Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel -- 00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH Azalia Controller (rev 01)         Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation FCH Azalia Controller         Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-         Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=slow &gt;TAbort- &lt;TAbort- &lt;MAbort- &gt;SERR- &lt;PERR- INTx-         Latency: 32, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes         Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16         Region 0: Memory at ff760000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]         Capabilities: &lt;access denied&gt;         Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel  Could this image possibly help?:  There is another soundcard but I'm unsure of what its for because it never outputs sound, but it does have a lot of settings: that sound card is labelled as &quot;HD-Audio Generic&quot;.   So I went into Software &amp; Updates under the Additional drivers tab and I see this:  It was on Do not use the device so I changed it and applied the settings but unfortunately the soundcard isn't back even after reboot. Where do I put item tags on items inside a chest or your inventory? I am making a Minecraft Mini Game adventure map, and one of the levels has a /setblock command, I am using the command in a way to spawn an item in a chest (Wooden Button) I need the wooden button to have CanPlaceOn tag so it can be placed on a log. I have tried this command: setblock 294 5 -1251 minecraft:chest 0 replace {Items:[{Count:1,Slot:0,id:minecraft:wooden_button,CanPlaceOn:[log]}]}`