Mark your calendars for Windows 8.1!

I know a lot of folks are eager to find out when they will be able to get Windows 8.1. I am excited to share that starting at 12:00am on October 18th in New Zealand (that’s 4:00am October 17th in Redmond), Windows 8.1 will begin rolling out worldwide as a free update for consumers on Windows 8 through the Windows Store. Windows 8.1 will also be available at retail and on new devices starting on October 18th by market. So mark your calendars!



Windows 8.1 continues the vision we began with Windows 8 and is an example of our commitment to continuous innovation and improvement for our customers. And Windows 8.1 brings many improvements in areas like personalization, Internet Explorer 11, search which is powered by Bing, built-in apps including a few new ones, an improved Windows Store experience, and cloud connectivity with SkyDrive (and much more) that people will enjoy. If you haven’t already, you can give many of the new features and improvements in Windows 8.1 a try with the Windows 8.1 Preview. Business customers can begin testing Windows 8.1 for deployment in their environments with the Windows 8.1 Enterprise Preview.

Now is a great time to buy a Windows 8 device in a range of different form factors like Microsoft Surface, the Acer Iconia W3, the Lenovo Yoga 11s, the Toshiba KIRAbook or the Dell XPS 18 . For students going back to school, we have Windows Chip-in which is a crowdsourcing program to help students and parents purchase a new Windows device for school. And the Windows Store Only at Best Buy store-within-a-store experiences will be launching throughout August and September, just in time for the back-to-school shopping season to check out all the latest Windows devices! If you buy a Windows 8 device today, you can look forward to the new features and improvements from Windows 8.1 in October.

It’s very exciting to be delivering Windows 8.1 to consumers just before Windows 8 celebrates its 1-year anniversary. You can expect to read more from us on Windows 8.1 leading up to availability on October 18th!

More...

 

[CountMike]

If you buy your own parts, they come way cheaper. Not to mention the expensive OEM hardware upgrades most offer.

I'm not sure what prices are like in Europe or the US.
In Australia, you'd be hard pressed to build an "el cheapo" PC for less cost than a pre-built one.

However, once you enter the "adequate to spectacular" specification PCs, you can definitely build them cheaper yourself.

Even more so if you are upgrading and have parts that you can use from your old PC (e.g. case, monitor, power supply, HDDs, SSDs, etc.).

That's going to be quite a trick to build your own tablet, which is the theme here.

 

[Hopachi]

If you buy your own parts, they come way cheaper. Not to mention the expensive OEM hardware upgrades most offer.

I'm not sure what prices are like in Europe or the US.
In Australia, you'd be hard pressed to build an "el cheapo" PC for less cost than a pre-built one.

However, once you enter the "adequate to spectacular" specification PCs, you can definitely build them cheaper yourself.

Even more so if you are upgrading and have parts that you can use from your old PC (e.g. case, monitor, power supply, HDDs, SSDs, etc.).

That's going to be quite a trick to build your own tablet, which is the theme here.

I was more into this direction.
What I mean are upgrades offered by OEM's or directly upgraded deal that go to the total product price. Performing those upgrades yourself is generally cheaper.

Last time I checked, for example, a HP elite notebook has 8 GB RAM, they can upgrade it themselves up to 32GB but it will cost you way over 300 - 400 Euro.
HP Mobile Workstation-8770w | HP® Official Site
If you go to Crucial you can get 2 kits of 16GB for less (around 200 Euro).
Computer memory upgrades for HP - Compaq EliteBook 8770w Mobile Workstation (Quad Core Processors) Laptop/Notebook from Crucial.com

Then for tablets this thing also gets exaggerated: 64GB version costs some price, the 128GB version is generally unpayable, not to mention the 256GB if available but you can get a cheap deal SSD these days and put it in the device yourself. See Apple Ipad prices, MS Surface: these aren't meant to be upgraded by the user but you'll pay a lot less for a self-made SSD upgrade if possible (buy the cheapest available device from the range you need and put a 128 - 256 GB SSD in it).

When building a rig from scratch:
You dig and browse the market and you rely on more than one store/provider where you can choose between offers and prices. If one of them alone gets you all the parts and build the PC + maybe an OS license then they will also need to get extra cash (included in the price) for this achievement. You'll get a 'discount' maybe.

That's basically what I meant previously.

This is for those who know how to do the upgrades themselves and know the risks of opening tablets and laptops and to know how to reassemble those back in one piece.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Throw it away

That's going to be quite a trick to build your own tablet, which is the theme here.

Indeed.

I'm sure the argument against upgradeable tablets would be, "Why would you want to do that? Throw it away and buy a new one."

 

[Wenda]

That's going to be quite a trick to build your own tablet, which is the theme here.

Indeed.

I'm sure the argument against upgradeable tablets would be, "Why would you want to do that? Throw it away and buy a new one."

That would be fine if the tablet only cost A$100 or so, but at A$899 or thereabouts, I wouldn't want to be doing that with a Surface Pro too often.

I'll stick with high-end upgradeable mega-laptops for the hard work, and a 'throw-away' sub-A$100 7" tab for e-books and fun while travelling.


Wenda.

 

[Hopachi]

That's going to be quite a trick to build your own tablet, which is the theme here.

Indeed.

I'm sure the argument against upgradeable tablets would be, "Why would you want to do that? Throw it away and buy a new one."

That's the expectation at least. But coming from desktop rigs and laptops...

I'm never gonna do that.
If I throw it, why not look inside first... You have extra options, spare parts... maybe it can really be saved or... enhanced.

The Bad Samaritan:
"why waste a life, wait till there's a crowd down below, give a little when you go"

As Wenda said, if it costed a lot then you wouldn't consider throwing it (this soon).
And yes indeed, laptops are upgradeable.

 

[lehnerus2000]

I'm sure the argument against upgradeable tablets would be, "Why would you want to do that? Throw it away and buy a new one."

That would be fine if the tablet only cost A$100 or so, but at A$899 or thereabouts, I wouldn't want to be doing that with a Surface Pro too often.

I'll stick with high-end upgradeable mega-laptops for the hard work, and a 'throw-away' sub-A$100 7" tab for e-books and fun while travelling.

Agreed.

However, from the POV of an overpaid marketing exec (who gets $2K/day or more) you'd be crazy not to throw it away and get a new one.
Someone has to prop up his income.

 

[mertzi]

If the tablet has Windows 8 already installed that is why you only have a small portion free. Windows 8.1 will REPLACE Windows 8 and you should have about the same free space when done.

Jim

If this really is the case, how come the Windows folder has always been growing as a cancer tumor if you do Windows updates, including sp's? Sure it might be different now with Windows 8 but we don't know that until it's out. Even with the new feature in Windows 8 in disc cleanup where you can delete Windows update files you still lose a lot of free space on c after every update.

I do manual updates once a month because I want to know what I update and if the available updates to download are about 200 mb that's at least another 1gb gone from c. I don't think ms puts any effort on this at all, but now when ssd is becoming more relevant they really should.

 

[brummyfan]

I'm not interested in 8.1 as I dislike the idea of upgrading through the store, if by any chance they change mind and provide an ISO, I may consider

 

[robinb9]

even with cleaning windows update in 8, you gain about 1 gig- big woop! now if you could gain about 10gigs that would be sweet when it comes to a tablet.
As for just throwing it away, yea if i bought it for under $100 I might throw it away but there are not many decent onces for that price, most are $499 and up. Maybe If i was a millionare or had a money tree in my back yard, I would not care and just "throw it away" but I am not and I cannot see purchasing a tablet then finding out I cannot upgrade it to 8.1 without uninstalling Office which is a pain, especially those that come built in with Office, the horror you have to go through to reinstall is worse than not having 8.1
Some of these do not come with the program on a sheet with the key info, so now what?
Some do or if you purchased a downloadable Office, and have to put it back (like I had to for the first Assus I bought because it was lossing battery and I already put Office 2013 Pro on it before I relealized the battery was so bad, BB gave me a replacement)
That was fun when it asked for the key which I had, and told me :This is an unauthorized key code"- duh, so I had to call Microsoft and exlain what happend and they gave me a new code, sitting on the phone on hold for a half hour was not a pleasant thing to do.

Why should I have to uninstall Office to get the space (which acutally is not enough because office uses when installed about 3 gigs
Why should the tablet not have the full 64gigs I am purchasing? It should be a 85gig drive but after the OS and everything else Microsoft installs, well if it comes to 64gigs, then I have enough space to put the essential programs on.
I am not using a Windows 8 tablet as a toy, I am using it for business
If I want a toy I would get an Ipad

Plain and simple!

I think we are being ripped off by Microsoft and manufactures who are selling 64gig Tablets and not giving us the full value of the tablet to use!!!

Plain and simple!

I would like to see what happens when consumers and business people who purchased the 65gig Surface Pro or one of the other manufacturers making tablets find they cannot put on 8.1 that Microsoft is forcing you to put on!

That will be real interesting news!!

 

[CountMike]

even with cleaning windows update in 8, you gain about 1 gig- big woop! now if you could gain about 10gigs that would be sweet when it comes to a tablet.
As for just throwing it away, yea if i bought it for under $100 I might throw it away but there are not many decent onces for that price, most are $499 and up. Maybe If i was a millionare or had a money tree in my back yard, I would not care and just "throw it away" but I am not and I cannot see purchasing a tablet then finding out I cannot upgrade it to 8.1 without uninstalling Office which is a pain, especially those that come built in with Office, the horror you have to go through to reinstall is worse than not having 8.1
Some of these do not come with the program on a sheet with the key info, so now what?
Some do or if you purchased a downloadable Office, and have to put it back (like I had to for the first Assus I bought because it was lossing battery and I already put Office 2013 Pro on it before I relealized the battery was so bad, BB gave me a replacement)
That was fun when it asked for the key which I had, and told me :This is an unauthorized key code"- duh, so I had to call Microsoft and exlain what happend and they gave me a new code, sitting on the phone on hold for a half hour was not a pleasant thing to do.

Why should I have to uninstall Office to get the space (which acutally is not enough because office uses when installed about 3 gigs
Why should the tablet not have the full 64gigs I am purchasing? It should be a 85gig drive but after the OS and everything else Microsoft installs, well if it comes to 64gigs, then I have enough space to put the essential programs on.
I am not using a Windows 8 tablet as a toy, I am using it for business
If I want a toy I would get an Ipad

Plain and simple!

I think we are being ripped off by Microsoft and manufactures who are selling 64gig Tablets and not giving us the full value of the tablet to use!!!

Plain and simple!

I would like to see what happens when consumers and business people who purchased the 65gig Surface Pro or one of the other manufacturers making tablets find they cannot put on 8.1 that Microsoft is forcing you to put on!

That will be real interesting news!!

Exactly the reason why tablets did not by now replace full size PC. You can't get boy to do man's work. Tablets, even the best ones are still not at the stage where they could be considered all round tools. Their popularity could be considered just a fad right now, a nifty toy if you will. To be honest, I would not even consider possibility that full size OS and decent number of programs could be run from a device with small storage and amount of memory, even if processors in them could approach the power of a regular PC. Even if somebody made that powerful tablet, the battery in it would be few times the size and weight of it. Meh, I'm not holding my breath.