Windows 8.1 is available now

Saw this on PCQ&A http://www.neowin.net/news/here-is-how-to-get-the-windows-81-iso-and-create-a-usb-install-stick> Wish I had found it earlier, I I spent the better part of two days trying to repair my PC and My laptop finally got the chore done, now Win 8 and 8.1 have been tossed to the waste can. No more of Microsoft Junk OS for me.

 

I just upgraded to Windows 8 to restore my connectivity to the internet. Are there still issues with 8.1 (from the vast majority)?

 

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Microsoft releases IE11 reliability patch for Windows 8.1
http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-releases-ie11-reliability-patch-for-windows-81

 

issues?
no everything has always worked fine for me.

the only issue i see is Metro, but that's another issue.

 

8.1 refused to install on both of my computers with some error codes that I see many many others are having also. (Both have W8 on) I do not seem to find any Microsoft originated resolutions either.

 

Finally upgraded to windows 8.1. It was quite a task. Thankfully HP is quick to add drivers for this windows version. I had trouble with existing Bluetooth software which caused wifi switch to malfunction. Also wifi drivers from windows update caused problems in internet connectivity. It took 3 image restores to sort out these issues.

 

Just curious. What do you mean? What version did you restore?

My experience with the upgrade from 8 (Dell laptop): No problems. After the upgrade everything worked well. The Intel graphics driver and the camera codecs were updated during the restore process. Some days later I installed all the 8.1 drivers that appeared in the Dell website. But it was a long process, 8+ hours total.

 

i have updated 3 dell laptops (one laptop is 3 years old, second one is 2 years old and the third laptop is 4 days old )
All went fine with no issues at all.

Strange and sorry for having issues with different laptop makes..

 

After upgrade to 8.1 I reinstalled graphics driver, installed windows updates (which included driver update for wifi device) and took a backup. There was no question marks in device manager and I thought everything was fine.

But I started to have internet connectivity problems, explorer crashes and wifi switch not working properly.

So l looked for drivers for my laptop in HP site. First I thought reinstalling drivers would solve these issues. But I could not and I had to comeback to windows 8 to regain connectivity. After I finished my work I would restore 8.1 image to try to solve the issues. Finally I found that the company Ralink which provided the Bluetooth drivers was merged with Mediatek. So I tried Mediatek driver provided in HP website and it worked. Also the explorer crashes were gone. I also rolled back the wifi driver obtained from windows update.

 

The update went smoothly on this end as well, but I was skeptical because of the issues reported on this forum and other places.

 

One thing, I really do not like about 8.1 (800706D9), that it now requires DHCP service or any of those for auto checking updates. Before only downloading needed it.

 

Been having big time problems with Windows Update in Win 8.1 as well. I use Windows Firewall and have a rule for Windows Updates. In Win 8 the rule worked fine but in 8.1 it doesn't. It seems wuauserv (Windows Update service) is not being used any longer. I can update Windows Defender from the gui via wuauserv just fine but negative for the regular Windows Update. I have to allow outbound for my private network within Windows Firewall before Windows Update can successfully check for updates. And there's no information on the internet about this problem that I can find. Very frustrating.

BTW, my error code is 80072EFD.

Later...

 

have you tried to reset your proxy settings (or other settings) via cmd prompt? that usually fixes that error message not sure if it will help for 8.1 though but just a thought, i never tested this yet for win 8.1

 

Not sure if this helps or you already looked at this, but a quick googling does point to below article at microsoft site...
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/windows-update-error-80072efd

 

I googled that error code when it first occurred and I've read that article but it applies to Vista (there's one for Win 7 that's exactly the same)...it didn't help. It's basically saying something is blocking Windows Update and in my case it's Windows Firewall. Like I said, if I temporarily open up outbound for my network Windows Update works. I don't know what Microsoft changed but they changed something. I'm sure eventually I'll find out but for now it's a head-scratcher.

Later...

 

Finally got a clean install of Windows 8.1 to work on my Dell XPS system with my OEM key. As most of you know OEM keys didn't get much love from MS. I did this in two phases:

Phase 1: installed the 8.1 store upgrade to retrieve the 8.1 activated key from system. Used a batch file provided by a kind user to do this.

Phase 2: Found a Windows 8.1 iso provided by user community. Reinstalled cleanly windows 8.1 using generic key, then once installed I changed the key to the retrieved Win 8.1 key extracted from phase 1. It activated properly. It did require a restart to get windows updates to work. Everything works fine. (I probably didn't need to use a generic key to get installation started, but I did.)

Now to get some sleep.

 

Heads up, from http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304682504579157780178992984

Possibly this blog post from last Wed:
http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/...ization-for-windows-8-1-store-developers.aspx

The "Advertising ID" is mentioned in the Features Supplement below, along with many other things that affect [information] security. Don't forget to read it all. Good luck!

Windows 8.1 Privacy Statement (Features Supplement)
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/windows-8-1-privacy-statement#T1=supplement

Windows 8.1 Privacy Statement (Apps Supplement)
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/windows-8-1-privacy-statement#T1=apps

 

I wonder what MS will think when it realizes I don't use the apps or IE.

 

Windows 8.1 Early Sales Performance “Below Expectations”

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-8-1-Early-Sales-Performance-Below-Expectations-395814.shtml

 

I think you can continue to use Apps/IE, Please see below quotes from ms blog..

They say that it helps one to deliver proper adds with out using any PII (personal identifiable information).

Personally, i would turn-off the feature as soon as they make it live

 

Yea, I've already turned off the Bing search results stuff under PC Settings then Search and Apps. Thanks for the info though.