Windows 8.1 to be made available in October

[Anole]

Old dogs don't do new trix

I just bought a discontinued HP laptop with 6gb ram, 640 gb hard drive, and 17" 1600x900 LED display.
The price of $230 was hard to argue with!
The clincher? It had Win 7/64, not Win 8!!! :up

 

[mdavej]

Win 8 is running nicely on several of my PCs at home now. Thanks for the tip about StartIsBack. I like it better than Classic Shell. Unfortunately I just had to revert back to Win 7 on my home theater PC. I just found out that my media center extenders will never be able to work with Win 8, only Microsoft hardware will (Xbox, etc.). Oh well.

Anyway, I'm posting because 8.1 RTM is available now to MSDN and TechNet subscribers, if anyone wants to try it:
http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/...-rc-and-windows-server-2012-r2-rtm-today.aspx

 

[Pepper]

I had my new Surface Pro running for approximately one hour before deciding to go ahead and install 8.1 RTM on it. No regrets at all. The new small option for the tiles is quite useful.

 

[Neutron]

I do not see it when I log into my company's MS volume license site. Does anyone else see Windows 8.1 or Server 2012 R2?

 

[mdavej]

I do not see it when I log into my company's MS volume license site. Does anyone else see Windows 8.1 or Server 2012 R2?

It's just MSDN and Technet at the moment, not volume licenses until the official October release.

 

[mike123abc]

Yeah, I want the traditional start button back on the desktop.

Well you may just get your wish... After the continuing disaster, er um, I mean decline of PC sales since Windows 8, Microsoft spys say the real start button will come back for the desktop version of Windows 8.2!

Not only that but Metro Apps will now be able to be run on the desktop without having to go whole screen!

http://www.dailytech.com/Report+Win...s+Metro+Apps+in+Desktop+Mode/article33896.htm

I sure hope this is not just a bad rumor!

If Windows 8.1 went back on some of Microsoft's decisions to ditch familiar Windows features, its successor "Windows 8.2" is expected to continue further down the path of backtracking. According to Mr. Thurrott the next bump -- expected to land sometime late next year or in early 2015 -- will include a full Start Menu similar to that found in Windows 7 and previous releases.

In addition to the huge news of the return of the Start Menu, Mr. Thurrott also claims that Windows 8.2 will allow users to run Modern UI (aka "Metro") apps in floating Windows on a desktop. How this clash of styles will wind up looking, if the rumor holds true, will be interesting to say the least.

 

[harshness]

I'm betting the metro apps were grounded in not having to share a screen with other apps. This whole virtual machine thing is getting out of hand.

 

[John Kotches]

I want the group of software engineers who decided putting your mouse at the top right of the screen to get something like a start menu back on Win 8/8.1/Win Server 2012 to spend a month of workdays doing nothing more than moving their mouse to the top right of the screen to make the menu pop up over and over again.

Perhaps then they would learn their lesson. The above is magnified 100 fold when you are running an RDP session into a server to manage it.

 

[avg1joe]

Yeah. That is my biggest complaint on windows 8, things popping up when I don't want them to.

 

[whitewolf8214]

SlingPlayer app arrives for Windows 8, costs $15 after free trial runs out http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/13/slingplayer-app-windows-8-and-RT/?ncid=rss_truncated

 

[dfergie]

Finally installed it on my desktop today, Start 8 remained also ... seems better.

 

[Stargazer]

I downloaded 8.1 preview last year. Will 8.1 still automatically download or will I have to uninstall 8.1 preview first? It still states that the preview is on there when I looked up the version of windows. If I have to remove that first then how do I do that and how do I update it to the new 8.1 version?

 

[avg1joe]

When I downloaded 8.1 it was through the windows store. I'd recommend you download it and install it over the preview. You'll have to reinstall your apps. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/update-from-preview

 

[dfergie]

I did it thru the store also, took all night Saturday to download (slow IP) I've tried before but this was first time I got it all ... I'm finally able to use my Sony 3D cam with Sony programs now.

 

[mike123abc]

8.1 has worked better for me too. It was a good upgrade. MS's "start button" fix was still worthless...

 

[Peter Parker]

I downloaded 8.1 preview last year. Will 8.1 still automatically download or will I have to uninstall 8.1 preview first? It still states that the preview is on there when I looked up the version of windows. If I have to remove that first then how do I do that and how do I update it to the new 8.1 version?

When you installed the ptreview there should have been warning messages that it could not be uninstalled and that you could not upgrade from it. You will have to reinstall over it and reinstall all apps.

 

[dfergie]

With 8 my desktop wouldn't let me run some Sony camcorder programs, 7 would (with different HDD that crashed)8.1 let me start using them again yesterday ...

 

[Stargazer]

It wont let me do it even when I install my disc unless I reinstall windows. This sucks. I probably wouldn't have done 8.1 preview had I known this.

 

[dfergie]

Had a hard crash last night, system restore won't bring back nor will original 8 disc, going to clone drive then try to refresh ... (fired up my W7 drive)

 

[Peter Parker]

It wont let me do it even when I install my disc unless I reinstall windows. This sucks. I probably wouldn't have done 8.1 preview had I known this.

That was why most of the tech media was telling people not to install the preview.