Well I'm finally back after several of the most frustrating days of my life. The refresh was NOT that simple. First, my version is the called "system builder" on Amazon, but evidently not called that by Microsoft. It will NOT allow you to save anything and tells you so. I backed everything up on another drive and also a thumb drive. When it came back on, I had nothing but a blue screen with nothing on it. I could not see anything at the bottom because the screen resolution needed adjusting and I couldn't get to it. Finally, I somehow got it with the keyboard. Still, all my apps were gone and all attempts to add my saved files back in failed. Over several days and many hours I downloaded new apps and programs all over again, but still lost everything that was in the original programs--some representing years of accumulated work. I believe I still have them on my saved files, but can't get them to activate in the new system. I also lost all sound and despite much internet searching, reinstalling drivers and updates, disabling and re-enabling windows drivers, I don't have any sound. Windows says I do, and has a graph dancing up and down with the sound. It shows two devices activated and 5 others with arrows pointed down even after disabling and re-enabling them. It claims all are working, but still no sound.
Since I made a recovery USB as well as set a restore point before the refresh, I'm thinking about restoring to a point before the refresh. The problem is that the system does seem to be more stable now than it was, and even IE works well now. I just need sound and my old files back. If I could just figure out how to save my files in a way that can be reintroduced to a refreshed system. Maybe someone who has had this problem can help. Right now I'm more down on Win 8.1 than ever and my worst fears about doing a refresh came true. I view Windows 8.1 as Vista on steroids, and I threw that in the trash a month after I bought it. The worst is that once Win 8 is installed, you are stuck with it.