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I started the upgrade on my home office laptop this morning around 9 or 10, and it's still going. It's progressing, very, very slowly, but progressing. Don't know what the deal is. It's a desktop-replacement grade laptop with a quad core processor and 16gb of ram, so hardware isn't the issue. Right now it's displaying "Getting Windows ready. Don't turn off your computer," so I think it's about done.
It's going to seriously screw up my Monday morning if it hosed that system up.
It's still sitting at this screen, 24 hours after it got there. The animation's running and all, but it's not going anywhere. I'm going to have to hard boot it in a little while and see if I have a decent computer to work with in the morning...
I upgraded to Windows 8.1 this morning and it took about three and a half hours. With the exceptions of a few minor changes, I don't see much difference.
The biggest change was the Start button, but it just takes you to the Windows 8 style start screen. If you want a real Start button, get classic shell.
The biggest change was the Start button, but it just takes you to the Windows 8 style start screen.
It was a much needed change. It was also the biggest complaint among Windows 8 users. They didn't know how to do anything without having the Start button they were so used to (which makes sense). Now that gap is no longer there. Hurray for the Start button.
It's still sitting at this screen, 24 hours after it got there. The animation's running and all, but it's not going anywhere. I'm going to have to hard boot it in a little while and see if I have a decent computer to work with in the morning...
Hosed up my system. I'm doing a clean install of a retail copy of 8.1 as I type.
I am NOT a happy camper. This is the kind of crap that simply shouldn't happen. I've given Microsoft a LOT of slack over the years when it comes to this sort of thing, but Windows should be mature enough by now to not render a system inoperable during an O/S upgrade. I'm not the only person to run into this, either. It seems to be a pretty common problem, which puts Microsoft in an even worse light.
This will be my last attempt at upgrading a Windows operating system. If they can't even manage a minor version upgrade without a significant risk of screwing up the system then there's no reason to try in the future.
The biggest change, imo, to 8.1 is that Metro Apps will now minimize to the task bar and can also be closed there with a right click. THis makes Metro behave much more like traditional Windows.
Hosed up my system. I'm doing a clean install of a retail copy of 8.1 as I type.
I am NOT a happy camper. This is the kind of crap that simply shouldn't happen. I've given Microsoft a LOT of slack over the years when it comes to this sort of thing, but Windows should be mature enough by now to not render a system inoperable during an O/S upgrade. I'm not the only person to run into this, either. It seems to be a pretty common problem, which puts Microsoft in an even worse light.
This will be my last attempt at upgrading a Windows operating system. If they can't even manage a minor version upgrade without a significant risk of screwing up the system then there's no reason to try in the future.
That's why I haven't upgraded yet. I am afraid. I don't need a start button.
My upgrade failed on a brand new laptop. I ended up installing 8.1 from scratch. One caveat though, normally, you can't clean install 8.1 with an 8.0 key. The workaround is to find any 8.1 key (from another computer, from the Internet, from a friend, etc...) to get through the install while disconnected from the Internet. After you're installed, change your key back to your 8.0 key, connect to the Internet and activate.
Upgrade went fine on my HP PC, which had windows 8 when I bought it in 2012.
I notice no real difference with the upgrade. I use the desktop 100% of the time and use Classic Shell for the Start menu. The 8.1 Start button is quite useless to me.
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I don't need a start button.
