The Store alerted me to the upgrade at 7:50 AM on the 17th. I expected that the download might be slower than usual because Microsoft’s servers were being “hammered”. Left a bit later for my exercise walk and found that four hours later, my progress was at 16%. Checked around on the internet and found that several users successfully downloaded and installed Win8.1 in about two hours. One user reported success in 25 minutes! I decided after six hours to cancel and retry. Short story is that was no quicker.

It was now in the evening so I pulled out an RTM version disk and commenced the upgrade with it. In about an hour I was up and running – changed the product key to my licensed copy of Win8 Pro and activated successfully. I used a Microsoft account and that worked flawlessly.

Perhaps my “upgrade” path was a bit more complicated than most users. My HP (Quad core) system originally came with Vista just before Win7 came out. I upgraded to Win7 gratis HP’s offer and then upgraded to Win 8 Pro when it was first available for $40.00. My system has run quite well with Vista (a short time), Win7 since it was released, and Win8 Pro since that was released.

I know that nothing runs better than a “clean install” but I just had to push the envelope! I really didn’t try to trouble shoot the slow download problem – exasperation had done me in and the RTM disk was just too inviting not to try. So here I am – running Win8.1 without a problem (so far) and have done my Terabyte backup (smile @bbearen).

Rich

My download in the early morning (shortly after 7 am EST) was quite fast. I believe the entire process was about an hour to hour and a half. The upgrade even saw my Start8 installation and kept it. I did have an upgrade available for Start8. There are also a few updates in WU, including the infamous Bing Desktop which I again hid. Yes, another restart was required for AVG, but it is working quite well. In the evening I did my wife’s PC, the download was several hours at a real crawl speed. I had to reinstall both Classic Shell, and LastPass for some reason (I did not have to install Last Pass on my PC, it was remembered during the upgrade).

Both PCs seem to be working quite well. The method to switch to Compatibility View in IE11 is somewhat different. Have to use Gear, Compatibility View settings and add the site. Not a big deal at all. I also do not really notice any great speed increase. The new Start Screen is much better IMO.

I have not yet found any compatibility issues or apps (either desktop or Store apps) that are not working. I have not actually tried all my apps yet, but all those I tried are still operational without any changes or input on my part.

Just fired up my copy of 8 since…63 windows updates ago (lost my other copy that was a little more up to date).
No Store offering/notification for 8.1 yet; maybe after the updates are complete? Everything from the dark side is opening in ModernMix and I’ve forgotten where the magic switch is to undo. Oh boy have I missed W8!…(sarcastic…just in case).

If 8.1 is still not offered after updates. go to windows.com in IE and click the turquoise “Get the free update” button.

It was front and center when the three score and three finally finished installing and configuring so apparently there was a prerequisite or two in there.

Yep, must have been. 🙂

I got error 0xC1900101-0x4000D when I got back to the install; it was already reverted so don’t know where it failed. I don’t have time to babysit a 2.6 Gig download and be on hand when it asks for something. It restarted at 50% downloaded though so maybe I’ll still be awake if something else comes up. Seems others got past this error by choosing not to save any programs or apps, just data but they don’t mention when they were presented with this choice.

Second time worked; what a slog though, 3 hours from the point of install and 8.1 is a mess right now. We’re talking video anomalies, 20 minute reboots, programs and apps in various states of impaired function or total dysfunction. I think installing VMware tools again will help a lot first and foremost, then update the apps and programs still on the fritz after that. Problem right now is the vmware tools.msi temp folder has gone missing from it’s location and from the .old location I hoped it might still reside in. I have a plan for resolution but for now, after some 5 hours of flailing, the patient remains nearly comatose; I’ve watched enough white dots circulating and spinning blue doughnuts to last me a fortnight or two. :blink:

The upgrade balked on my desktop PC, “Sorry, it looks like this PC can’t run Windows 8.1. This might be because the Users or Program Files folder is being redirected to another partition.”

… Got work to do on my desktop PC if I decide to go with 8.1 on it.

Hello bbearen,

From your later posts, you seem to have successfully updated your desktop PC.

I haven’t attempted the upgrade yet as my User folders are on drive D, so I would be grateful if you would say how you worked around the “Users/Program Files on another partition” obstacle.

Regards,

Peter

All my user data are on the D Drive as well. I updated from the Store and the Win 8.1 OS saw my data locations successfully. I did not have to do anything.

My OS is not nearly as cut up as bbearren does. My Program Files are on the C Drive. The data is all on the D Drive.