Dan and Sandeep,
There is nothing wrong with either of your approaches. For the non-IT person, Dan's approach is what I would recommend for most DIY doctors. It's time consuming, perhaps, but his approach doesn't require learning a lot of new IT skills other than Windows 8 and downloading drivers from the computer OEM's website. And, since this is probably a once-every-5-year thing, it's not a big deal.
If, however, you're a system builder like Sandeep, his approach is more ideal since it allows Sandeep to deploy hundreds of machines quickly. However, more skill is required and there is more to learn.
When recommending technical approaches to people, one of the most important things to ask yourself is what kind of situation that person is in. Like I said about Dan, he may do this once every 5 years so there is no need for him to develop a serious IT skill just to find out that 5 years from now that skill is totally obsolete (and he forgot it by then, anyway). We IT types complain about the "spousal install" but for a lot of people it is the most efficient way to go.
Related blog post:
http://jamessummerlin.com/2012/06/22/the-disconnect-between-big-consultants-and-small-companies/JamesNT
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