Windows 8.1 Preview

You can just double click the ISO and then the setup exe.

When you get to the part about entering a Microsoft account you can enter a fake email address and password. You will be notified of your error and then offered to "Continue without a Microsoft account" and then "Use existing account".

 

8 Sep 2013:
Download Windows 8.1 RTM, Visual Studio 2013 RC and Windows Server 2012 R2 RTM Today

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Microsoft gets Windows 8.1 out early to developers after all

Redmond reverses course (again) and makes the "gold" Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 bits available to developers and volume licensees ahead of the October 18 general-availability date.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-5...indows-8.1-out-early-to-developers-after-all/
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Windows 8.1 Review (Paul Thurrott)
http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/windows-81-review

 

one thing of course to make the experience smoother is to install a PDF reader and image viewer so Windows does not launch the Metro apps for those.

another tip, you can right-click on the Start button and launch admin tools from there.

i launch the Control panel from there so i don't get the Metro version of apps like Windows Updates or others if i were to search for Windows Updates from the Start screen, for example.

 

OT:

1. Put "God Mode" in easy reach

 

on an hard disk (not ssd) it's amazing slow ,isn't it?

 

mantra,

I don't think so. It's the "same speed" as Win7 on my HD. But faster on a SSD than a HD. That's for sure.

 

in this drive i have some partition create with acronis disk director xp style , the w8.1 installation could mess up this partition ?

can BIBM export partition layout and in case of loose of partition , restore them?

thanks again Brian!

 

I don't trust Acronis Disk Director partitions. At times they can be "different".

BIBM can Undelete deleted partitions as long has the Boot Sector hasn't been cleared. Deleting a partition from Disk Management doesn't clear the Boot Sector so these partitions can be Undeleted.

BIBM can save/copy/restore the MBR or the First Track.

 

Hi

reading the terabyte forum i found a windows issue
is it present in w8.1 too?

thanks

 

no problems here.
i've been creating and restoring images of 8.1 for over 2 months now with Image for Linux.

i forgot to uncheck that box (Fast Startup) when upgrading to 8.1.

everything works fine.

 

Ok, tried it, after making a backup image. Had to reactivate, as expected. Windows 8 key worked, after installing with generic Windows 8.1 key. Unfortunately my Media Center key was one of the free ones from last year. First it said it was good, then it changed it mind. It installed the Media Center, but then deactivated my Windows. I was even willing to buy another since they are cheap, but it would not allow that either. In the end I restored my backup image. I may try again when it goes public and I can installed without having it invalidate my activation.

As for applications, Sandboxie is not at all compatible. Office 2013 has to be repaired. SmartFTP had to be uninstalled and reinstalled. EMET had to be repaired. Norton IS 21 is not compatible with IE11. Overall it was a lot of work to end up dumping it anyway. I am hoping for a better experience next month after the public release. If not my Linux testing has been going pretty well.

If you were clean installing, then I would definitely recommend it. As an upgrade they have made it entirely too difficult at this point.

 

did you notice that the installer save files and folder in different drive?
i have 3 drive plugged
and i found folders and files saved in several partition even in a usb drive

is there a way to disable the hard drive via bios?

 

mantra,

I didn't see that. I had 3 drives connected and all Win8.1 files went to the OS partition.

 

No one bothered about Windows 8 containing the NSA backdoor or was that news just fake?

I figured everyone would ditch windows 8 and go back to windows 7 !

 

someone says the backdoor is in w7 too

 

True, these rumors have been going on since NT 4.0.
Interpret it as you like:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAKEY

 

The fact that people are starting to think this is true goes to show how under moderated Wilders is sometimes Just the loud mouths causing even more user confusion.

 

Yeah I guess you guys are right, guess the news just fuels the paranoia (ie myself) everything has a backdoor perhaps out there, its nice to be an wilder to be better safe then sorry.

 

if it can make you feel better, the NSA can probably spy on anything you do, backdoor or not.

 

I installed the preview of Windows 8.1 a few days ago. As of yet I have had not much time to explore it, as it is installed on a laptop I rarely use. On my primary laptop I'm still running Windows 7 (although I do have Windows 8 installed on it too).

I was not impressed that I could not do an inplace upgrade from Windows 8, so was not able to keep any of my installed software. This was not an issue on this case as I had hardly any software installed, but if I did have a lot of software installed I would not have upgraded, as I really don't like having to reinstall lots of software. For the same reason I never do a clean install of Windows except in extreme situations.

I hope when the final release of Windows 8.1 comes out, you can upgrade from Windows 8.

Oh, and I really wish that Microsoft would ditch tablet support for Windows. How about having a separate version of Windows specifically for tablets. I really see no need for having touchscreen support on a laptop. A mouse or touchpad work just fine for me. Having said that, I have just bought a really cheap old tablet from eBay to install Windows 8 on. But this is just something to play with, and in general for everyday use, I am as of yet unconvinced of the merits of making Windows touchscreen base.

 

I really truly believe that this is where they went wrong... If they had done this, everyone would have been happy, and they could have continued to develop and refine each OS separately. Let's hope they consider something like this in the future..

 

i tried both upgrading and clean install.

everything went fine in both case.

to do an inplace upgrade you have to use the Windows/Metro Store.