Windows 8 to 8.1 upgrade time

[NickelPlate]

So I finally decided to move from Win7 to Win8 since I got a new Crucial MX100.

I have to say it's been the most long and painful OS installation I've ever done since the days of Windows 95? Endless screens and reboots of "Getting Ready", "Configuring hardware", "Configuring computer", "Getting Ready some more", "Almost there", "Almost done configuring", reboots on and on ad nauseum. It's going on 3 hours now and the 8.1 update has been stuck at "applying changes 64%" for the last 30 minutes.

I tried downloading the 8.1 standalone install files from here with order of install instructions:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42335

But guess what? They don't run after installing Windows 8. You just get errors that say the clearcompressionflag.exe won't run and the other .msu files "are not applicable to your computer". Great.

It takes only about 10 min to install Windows 8 from my disk and get to the desktop on my new Crucial MX100, but then the fun starts. I have to download and install a bunch of slow updates before I can download and install 8.1 from the Windows store which is about another 3GB and dog ass slow to install. This is nuts and apparently MS doesn't provide an 8.1 iso for people with Windows 8 keys even though it's a free upgrade. I tried the trick to get the 8.1 iso from MS that's published all over the web using my 8 key, but it doesn't work anymore.

Anyone have any suggestions? This is just beyond stupid and I'm ready to throw in the towel and just go back to Win7. It's so much simpler.

 

[ArisVer]

Windows 8.1 Pro?

 

[Mem]

I tried the trick to get the 8.1 iso from MS that's published all over the web using my 8 key, but it doesn't work anymore.

The way I did it was clean install with my Win8 upgrade key since my HD died ie use Win8.1 ISO ,use the Win8.1 starter key for installation only ,then once installed use your legit Win8 key for activation.

Keys for Win8.1 install only(not activation) below depending if have pro or non Pro Win8 activation key.

• Windows 8.1 – FJWTM-42NKR-9DPD2-8FR9Y-3GMCH
• Windows 8.1 Professional – B478Q-FNMXX-FKYT6-D6FC8-HMGTD

Please note these keys will not activate they will just allow you to use Windows for 30 Days. Do not try to use these product keys for your normal Windows installation just buy a legitimate version of Windows if you want to use it.

If you get issues read this http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...-used-to/1726d238-98fb-4634-a468-04645a8ee097

 

[kmmatney]

I had a fun time installing Windows 8. It failed several times when I tried to install on a fresh SSD. I was about to give up, but on a whim I decided to see if installing it as an upgrade would work. So I installed Windows 7, and then popped in the Windows 8 DVD, and it finally was able to install OK over the top of Windows 7.

Anyway, if I were you I would have just kept Windows 7, and waited for Windows 10. I only upgrade becuase my copy of Windows 7 was 32-bit (got it free from a conference) and wanted to go to 64-bit, and Windows 8 Pro was $39 at the time.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Anyway, if I were you I would have just kept Windows 7, and waited for Windows 10. I only upgrade becuase my copy of Windows 7 was 32-bit (got it free from a conference) and wanted to go to 64-bit, and Windows 8 Pro was $39 at the time.

You are aware Win7 keys work for both x86 and x64 versions?

All you need to do is track down a Win7 x64 image to install with your current 7 key...

 

[NickelPlate]

My Win 8.1 pro installation was crashing and freezing up randomly and it was getting quite irritating. And none of the recovery options would work, system restore or PC refresh would either just hang or tell me to insert my recovery media which was always not valid =/.

I'm back on Windows 7 and everything is rock solid and I just came out of a 3 hours Prime95 blend test with no errors. It's really too bad because I actually liked 8.1 pro. Startup and shutdown times less than 10 seconds and easily got used to the metro interface and other GUI improvements. I'd try it again if I could get the 8.1 pro iso. No way am going through all that downloading and upgrades again though.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

My Win 8.1 pro installation was crashing and freezing up randomly and it was getting quite irritating. And none of the recovery options would work, system restore or PC refresh would either just hang or tell me to insert my recovery media which was always not valid =/.

I'm back on Windows 7 and everything is rock solid and I just came out of a 3 hours Prime95 blend test with no errors. It's really too bad because I actually liked 8.1 pro. Startup and shutdown times less than 10 seconds and easily got used to the metro interface and other GUI improvements. I'd try it again if I could get the 8.1 pro iso. No way am going through all that downloading and upgrades again though.

The absolute first thing you should do in 8(.1) on a desktop is to disable Hybrid Shut-down. It causes all kinds of weird issues.

 

[ArisVer]

I'd try it again if I could get the 8.1 pro iso.

http://getintopc.com/softwares/operating-systems/windows-8-1-download/

The link is at the bottom of the page. Not sure how legit it is, but it worked on a VM.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

How do you disable hybrid shutdown? does it slow down the boot process a lot?

I have to say, I haven't really noticed any problems with it myself...

The absolute first thing you should do in 8(.1) on a desktop is to disable Hybrid Shut-down. It causes all kinds of weird issues.

 

[NickelPlate]

http://getintopc.com/softwares/operating-systems/windows-8-1-download/

The link is at the bottom of the page. Not sure how legit it is, but it worked on a VM.

Thanks for the link. I'll give it a shot on a separate machine.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

How do you disable hybrid shutdown? does it slow down the boot process a lot?

I have to say, I haven't really noticed any problems with it myself...

Its pretty easy. You just have to go to control panel->power configuration->system settings (or somewhere thereabouts, I'm on a Danish version right now, so I can't see what the original English version of the text is). Remove the tick in Rapid Start, and you're good to go.

On my system it adds a few seconds to boot, but its not really something you'd notice.

As to issues, the most annoying I've experienced is regarding USB3 on my HTPC. A device will simply not connect in USB3 mode, but will fall back to USB2 if the system is not fully shut-down or restarted. This happens with all devices and is 100% reproduce-able, even after a windows reinstall (AMD A85X chipset BTW). Its likely a driver issue, but I've seen some post from others having the same issues on Intel chipsets, and since the USB3 drivers are supplied by MS (and only MS) its fair to blame MS.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

Thank you! That is very interesting because I had something odd happen with my usb 3 external drive too. I may try this and see if that fixes it!

Its pretty easy. You just have to go to control panel->power configuration->system settings (or somewhere thereabouts, I'm on a Danish version right now, so I can't see what the original English version of the text is). Remove the tick in Rapid Start, and you're good to go.

On my system it adds a few seconds to boot, but its not really something you'd notice.

As to issues, the most annoying I've experienced is regarding USB3 on my HTPC. A device will simply not connect in USB3 mode, but will fall back to USB2 if the system is not fully shut-down or restarted. This happens with all devices and is 100% reproduce-able, even after a windows reinstall (AMD A85X chipset BTW). Its likely a driver issue, but I've seen some post from others having the same issues on Intel chipsets, and since the USB3 drivers are supplied by MS (and only MS) its fair to blame MS.

 

[IGBT]

those of us with new Dell i7 desktops..will we get auto notified to upgrade when the full retail version is available??

 

[Insert_Nickname]

those of us with new Dell i7 desktops..will we get auto notified to upgrade when the full retail version is available??

No one knows at this point what the procedure will be. The closest I've heard is that the update (for 8.1) will be pushed though Windows Update.

I would be surprised if you can't do an in-place upgrade from 7 and 8.

 

[Dahak]

those of us with new Dell i7 desktops..will we get auto notified to upgrade when the full retail version is available??

Full retail of what 8.1? its been out for while now. make sure that all your windows updates are done and you have to through the windows store to get the update.
Which in reality is a full release, 4gb dl