Solved Is there such a thing as an "In Place Upgrade" from W7 to W8.1?

[Mike Lynch]

Brink,

I followed your suggestion and it worked.
Thank you again!
Windows 8 stopped doing whatever it was doing: "Restarting", and I was back at the Desktop.
Because I have the original Windows 7 hard drive that I cloned from I chose to cleanup the new drive.
I ran Cleanup and deleted whatever was offered by both screens to include the old Windows 7 files.
I then ran a Defrag / Organize and am now trying to find a thread to direct me to the 'free' Windows 8.1 Upgrade.
There are many threads that I have read but they are way too involved for my level of understanding.
At the Novice Level, I need a Thread that tells me to click on a Site which immediately begins the download.
I have also tried searching with Google for topics as such but again, way too much information to get lost in.
If you can direct me to an easy Download Site, I would be very grateful.

 

[Mike Lynch]

I am trying to become familiar with the W8 desktop.
So far, mine appears to be spread over a very wide screen.
I need to scroll to the right a full screen length to read the entire Desktop.
The old W7 Start menu was great and a single screen Desktop easy to use.
I will keep you posted on my progress.

 

[Mike Lynch]

Brink,
I am entering this Post from my Windows-8.1 PC!
Thank you for your help / encouragement.
Now I need to 'tweak" 8.1 to my preferences.
Best regards,
Mike Lynch

 

[Jody Thornton]

Good to see one more active Windows 8x user. I was worried when Brink was initially starting to point you in that Windows 10 direction. I'm glad you perservered and stayed with Windows 8.1
After you install "Classic Shell", you basically have a Windows 7-like experience.

 

[Mike Lynch]

Where do I find Classic Shell?

 

[Brink]

Brink,
I am entering this Post from my Windows-8.1 PC!
Thank you for your help / encouragement.
Now I need to 'tweak" 8.1 to my preferences.
Best regards,
Mike Lynch

Great news Miike.

 

[Jody Thornton]

Where do I find Classic Shell?

Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements
Yes it's no longer activley developed, but it's nowhere near being "behind" in terms of what you need for Windows 8x.

 

[Mike Lynch]

It's installed now, Thank you!
Any other 'tweaks' that you believe would help me?

 

[Slavic]

My two cents:
1) If you have a problem with automatic update, install manually KB3138615 from Microsoft (x86 or x64 version for your system).
2) Restore the Windows 7 - style boot menu (called by F8 button at start). Run command prompt as Administrator, then input:

BCDEdit /SET "{Current}" BootMenuPolicy Legacy

 

[Mike Lynch]

Thanks again to everyone for all the feedback / help.