Here's my thinking... some people have Windows 8 OEM PCs and don't like the bloatware that comes on them.
However, the only version of the Windows 8 installer which is readily available to consumers is the Upgrade, which as I understand it doesn't work with OEM versions of Windows 8. There is a system builder version, but you have to pay for it, I'm not even sure the licence for that allows installation on PCs that came with Windows 8.
So what would happen if...:
According to the tutorial:
The key thing is that there is an upgrade going forward from 8.1 Preview to 8.1, and you'd have created a clean install when you put the preview on.
Because it says you can't keep anything except files, it sounds like will be a thorough reinstall, not just tweaking a few files from the Preview, which is probably what people in pursuit of a clean build would want as hopefully it should clean out any bad bits in the Preview.
You still end up running Windows 8.1 Final, which is exactly what would have happened if you'd upgraded from Windows 8 to 8.1 Final, so I don't think there are any licensing issues.
(The only issue I can think of is that the 8.1 ISOs expire, but even then they might allow the user to get far enough to upgrade to 8.1 Final. And even if that didn't work, you'd still have till January 2014...)
I know I'm speculating a little on how 8.1 Final will work but what have I missed? Surely there's a catch...
However, the only version of the Windows 8 installer which is readily available to consumers is the Upgrade, which as I understand it doesn't work with OEM versions of Windows 8. There is a system builder version, but you have to pay for it, I'm not even sure the licence for that allows installation on PCs that came with Windows 8.
So what would happen if...:
- you download the Windows 8.1 Preview ISO and install it clean? (Bye-bye bloatware)
- you then upgrade to Windows 8.1 Final when it comes out.
According to the tutorial:
If upgrading from Windows 8.1 Preview/Windows RT 8.1 Preview to Windows 8.1 final/Windows 8.1 RT final (when released later this year), you will "Keep personal files only", but will lose your settings and have to reinstall all of your apps.
The key thing is that there is an upgrade going forward from 8.1 Preview to 8.1, and you'd have created a clean install when you put the preview on.
Because it says you can't keep anything except files, it sounds like will be a thorough reinstall, not just tweaking a few files from the Preview, which is probably what people in pursuit of a clean build would want as hopefully it should clean out any bad bits in the Preview.
You still end up running Windows 8.1 Final, which is exactly what would have happened if you'd upgraded from Windows 8 to 8.1 Final, so I don't think there are any licensing issues.
(The only issue I can think of is that the 8.1 ISOs expire, but even then they might allow the user to get far enough to upgrade to 8.1 Final. And even if that didn't work, you'd still have till January 2014...)
I know I'm speculating a little on how 8.1 Final will work but what have I missed? Surely there's a catch...
My Computer
System One
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- OS
- Windows 8.1, 10