Windows 8.1 RTM Released to MSDN & Technet

Windows 8.1 is now available for download from Technet & MSDN

Based on the feedback from you and our partners, we’re pleased to announce that we will be making available our current Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.1 Pro RTM builds (as well as Windows Server 2012 R2 RTM builds) to the developer and IT professional communities via MSDN and TechNet subscriptions. The current Windows 8.1 Enterprise RTM build will be available through MSDN and TechNet for businesses later this month. For developers, we are also making available the Visual Studio 2013 Release Candidate, which you can download here. For more on building and testing apps for Windows 8.1, head on over to today’s blog post from Steve Guggenheimer.

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[SnarkyTwit]

Microsoft screwed up big time with this one! Make sure you have a backup of your Windows 7 installation before upgrading to this piece of crap. Good thing I backed up. I had years of software installed on my Windows 7 installation that was summarily wiped out by this "upgrade". I figured that when they said you have to reinstall your apps, they meant the apps from the app store. But apparently not. All of my software that I spent years accumulating was gone! I am not about to go about finding product keys and installation media for all the software that I had installed, some of which doesn't exist anymore. I had gigabytes of games installed that I would have to re-download from Steam, Origin and Blizzard again. This doesn't work well if you have a slow internet connection with download caps. As I was restoring my backup of Windows 7, I wondered why Microsoft did this. The only reason I can think of, is to drive people to their store to buy software that cannot be easily replaced by this "upgrade". I noticed that during the "upgrade" of Windows 8.1, they helpfully added a screen that said you can get apps from their app store. Nice try Microsoft, but I won't be doing that again any time soon. If I have to replace all of my software in order to upgrade, I will buy an Apple or Chromebook first, instead of your very user-unfriendly operating system.

Snarks

 

[Dave76]

This is great news, D/L'ing now from TechNet.

 

[Superfly]

Microsoft screwed up big time with this one! Make sure you have a backup of your Windows 7 installation before upgrading to this piece of crap. Good thing I backed up. I had years of software installed on my Windows 7 installation that was summarily wiped out by this "upgrade". I figured that when they said you have to reinstall your apps, they meant the apps from the app store. But apparently not. All of my software that I spent years accumulating was gone! I am not about to go about finding product keys and installation media for all the software that I had installed, some of which doesn't exist anymore. I had gigabytes of games installed that I would have to re-download from Steam, Origin and Blizzard again. This doesn't work well if you have a slow internet connection with download caps. As I was restoring my backup of Windows 7, I wondered why Microsoft did this. The only reason I can think of, is to drive people to their store to buy software that cannot be easily replaced by this "upgrade". I noticed that during the "upgrade" of Windows 8.1, they helpfully added a screen that said you can get apps from their app store. Nice try Microsoft, but I won't be doing that again any time soon. If I have to replace all of my software in order to upgrade, I will buy an Apple or Chromebook first, instead of your very user-unfriendly operating system.

Snarks

Sorry to hear.... but the upgrade path for keeping apps & settings only applies to previous versions of windows 8...and yeah backup should be a regular habit IMHO particularly if you spent years accumulating apps and setting up your rig to your specific needs.

 

[z3r010]

All updated, so far I cant see the difference other than a watermark on my desktop saying SecureBoot isn't configured correctly (doesn't say what to do about it though )

Oh and my Media center is gone

I got the same watermark. Enabling Secure Boot and installing the default key under it in your UEFI settings will remove it.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/17058-secure-boot-enable-disable-uefi.html

Yep that's what I did.

 

[djsigma]

The only problem now is the nvidia seem a little buggy, the default ones are causing my screens to have a few second blackout every now and again and the latest betas seem to crash one of my cards leaving me only 3 screens to work on, I'm sure we'll see some more drivers in the coming days.

I had that issue too after installing the leaked version, but it only did it for a few minutes and it's been fine ever since. The only thing I did was uninstall NVIDIA update and the 3D driver - maybe there is an issue with one of those.

I tried installing the latest beta from NVIDIA's site for 8.1, but it said that no compatible hardware was found (I run a GTX 670).

 

[Ex_Brit]

Upgrading an existing Windows 8 Pro w/MC - do I then have to reinstall the Pro Pack as well as the Media Center? I assume I simply do it from within Windows 8 rather than boot from the disk? Sorry to sound naive but this isn't your usual "Service Pack".

 

[z3r010]

I put in on a usb stick and ran setup from within Windows 8 pro w/mc to do the upgrade, when done I had to add the media center back in by adding the key at the add features bit.

 

[djsigma]

Upgrading an existing Windows 8 Pro w/MC - do I then have to reinstall the Pro Pack as well as the Media Center? I assume I simply do it from within Windows 8 rather than boot from the disk? Sorry to sound naive but this isn't your usual "Service Pack".

Here's how I installed it, upgrading from Windows 8 Pro with Media Center to 8.1 using the leaked RTM (same as the official one): -

1. Make sure you have the license key for Windows 8 Pro, the license key for the Media Center add-on, and the license key for 8.1 RTM.

2. Burn the ISO to disc and run the setup from within Windows. Choose your relevant install option (I chose to keep all files, software and settings). Enter the license key for 8.1 RTM, not one of your legit Windows keys.

3. Once complete, 8.1 will be installed, but not activated. If you need to install a language pack, you can do it now. I'm not sure what languages are included with the official RTM release, but the leaked one didn't have British English, so I had to install that separately.

4. Right-click on This PC and choose Properties. You'll see that Windows isn't activated and you can click the option to activate it. Enter in your Windows 8 Pro key. In my case, I had to use the phone activation to activate it as it said my key was in use on another PC.

5. Use the "Add a feature" option in Windows 8.1 to add the Media Center pack using your Media Center key. In my case, when I did this Windows was deactivated again as it said the key was in use on another machine, but running through the automated phone activation again sorted that out.

6. If everything is working fine, you can use Disk Cleanup to remove the Windows.old folder that contains your old Windows 8 install if you like.

 

[Ex_Brit]

I put in on a usb stick and ran setup from within Windows 8 pro w/mc to do the upgrade, when done I had to add the media center back in by adding the key at the add features bit.

If I had a spare USB key I probably would do it that way. For me with lots of blank media lying around, the disk is the easier way.

Upgrading an existing Windows 8 Pro w/MC - do I then have to reinstall the Pro Pack as well as the Media Center? I assume I simply do it from within Windows 8 rather than boot from the disk? Sorry to sound naive but this isn't your usual "Service Pack".

Here's how I installed it, upgrading from Windows 8 Pro with Media Center to 8.1 using the leaked RTM (same as the official one): -

1. Make sure you have the license key for Windows 8 Pro, the license key for the Media Center add-on, and the license key for 8.1 RTM.

2. Burn the ISO to disc and run the setup from within Windows. Choose your relevant install option (I chose to keep all files, software and settings). Enter the license key for 8.1 RTM, not one of your legit Windows keys.

3. Once complete, 8.1 will be installed, but not activated. If you need to install a language pack, you can do it now. I'm not sure what languages are included with the official RTM release, but the leaked one didn't have British English, so I had to install that separately.

4. Right-click on This PC and choose Properties. You'll see that Windows isn't activated and you can click the option to activate it. Enter in your Windows 8 Pro key. In my case, I had to use the phone activation to activate it as it said my key was in use on another PC.

5. Use the "Add a feature" option in Windows 8.1 to add the Media Center pack using your Media Center key. In my case, when I did this Windows was deactivated again as it said the key was in use on another machine, but running through the automated phone activation again sorted that out.

6. If everything is working fine, you can use Disk Cleanup to remove the Windows.old folder that contains your old Windows 8 install if you like.

Well with the RTM 8.1 from Technet it is actually a Pro key that I got, so I probably wont have to do the double key stunt that you had to do. I will, however, have to do the Add Features one for MC.

I wonder if Shawn is doing another tute for this one?

 

[z3r010]

6. If everything is working fine, you can use Disk Cleanup to remove the Windows.old folder that contains your old Windows 8 install if you like.

Thanks for the heads up on the windows.old folder, I hadn't even thought about that and it turned out to be nearly 6GB of wasted space

 

[djsigma]

Well with the RTM 8.1 from Technet it is actually a Pro key that I got, so I probably wont have to do the double key stunt that you had to do. I will, however, have to do the Add Features one for MC.

The leaked RTM that I downloaded came with a Pro key too, but that's only used to install it. You can then use it until January 2014 before having to activate it with the key you got when buying Windows 8.

As long as you have all of your keys written down, you'll be fine either way.

@z3r010 - No worries! If you had the desktop SkyDrive client installed, that is disabled in 8.1 as SkyDrive is baked into the OS, but it will still show up under Programs & Features so you can uninstall that if you want to. Also, there's a backup of your user profile in the Users folder that can be deleted - I can't remember the exact name of it, so obviously proceed with caution with that or just leave it alone.

 

[cheneygreen]

Already install 8.1 RTM, is there anything different?

 

[djsigma]

Already install 8.1 RTM, is there anything different?

This version is identical to the leaked one. The hashes match 100%.

 

[johnpombrio]

Clean install of Win 8.1 Pro from Technet. When I deleted my partitions on my boot SSD, it created 4 new ones instead of the usual 2. I also needed to boot from boot manager on SSD rather than just the SSD.
Only choice for language was English UK! English US for dollars and stuff.
It asked for a Serial Number which Technet gave me two. I donno why as it is supposed to be free, isn't it? Maybe because it is Pro?
The changing of text and icon sizes in resolution tab is different but better.
Right clicking the new "Start" icon on the taskbar had some useful stuff but I still installed Start8 (ver 1.20) that worked fine.
So far, no hiccups or anything that fails to install or run. Speed is faster as I have not yet installed the tons of stuff I had on it before.
Metro Start menu is funny. There are now two screens, the main one with a few choice boxes. Scroll down tho and there is still that HUGE list of garbage boxes from program installs. Too funny that MS decided to hide all that.
Will post if I find something that is a show stopper.

 

[PhyllisColeman]

a long wait has been ended with the launch of the same .. i am going to download it through the suggested sites with the hope of getting it better and smarter now

 

[Dave76]

I put in on a usb stick and ran setup from within Windows 8 pro w/mc to do the upgrade, when done I had to add the media center back in by adding the key at the add features bit.

I clicked 'setup' from Win8.0 Pro, ran the upgrade, and have WMC still there. Had to look on the 'Apps' start screen to find it.
TechNet versions. Didn't have to install it on Win8.0 either, which was unexpected.

 

[Ex_Brit]

That's odd as the license isn't the same as the 8.1 installation one. I just installed 8.1 Pro and it took a while but succeeded. It wiped out my Vista Windows Mail a la Windows 7 hack but didn't touch my desktop address toolbar or quicklaunch or even my old-style Windows Calendar which I prefer. Apart from minor irritants such as changing the lock screen image and altering the boot order in my mutli-boot, all easily remedied, it went smoother than I thought it would. Gone is WEI, thank goodness. I get so fed up redoing that every time I update my graphics drivers.
Now debating whether to even attempt to get Windows Mail back. I really wish Microsoft had kept it going instead of that awful WLM.

 

[z3r010]

I think it's time for you to move on from Vista Windows mail and find another program that you like.

 

[Ex_Brit]

True, but I'm a stubborn old fart so will at least try to get it back LOL ;-)

 

[alphanumeric]

I just did a clean install using the en_windows_8_1_x64_dvd_2707217 which is Windows 8.1 (multiple editions) (x64) - DVD (English). Downloaded from TechNet. It didn't read or use my embedded key? I was prompted to enter one. Just for fun I tried the Windows 8 Pro TechNet key I used on that laptop before and it wouldn't accept it. I then just used one of my 8.1 Pro TechNet keys and it installed and activated OK. My Windows 8 TechNet ISO reads and uses the embedded key just fine. All my onboard hardware appears to be working fine with the default drivers with the exception of my track pad. It works but without the smart gestures utility I have no two finger scroll, no scroll at all actually as it doesn't have a dedicated scroll bar. I'm also not sure if my dual video is working as it should be or what video card its actually using. I'll look into that eventually, for now I'm just tweaking things and reinstalling some of my programs. I had no problem adding Media Center though add features. It will be a while before I get things the way I had them with the previous 8 install. Its stable at the moment which is more than I can say about my previous experience with the preview release. That was an upgrade install so no real surprise there. I'll take a clean install over an upgrade any day of the week.