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Windows 8.1Pro Preview is a BETA product with all this problems and risks that entails. A quick review of forums dedicated to this BETA product will show people that only advanced users who not only are thoroughly familiar with their system (and have it backed up – maybe doubly – and I mean image backups, not just full backups) and computers in general and have spent literally hours if not days reading the various forum threads (TechNet, Microsoft Community,…) and then verified their system will be compatible (the number of driver and software incompatibility problems is still gigantic) and removed incompatible software if upgrading (since some prove problematic to remove after the upgrade and can turn the upgrade into the need for a clean install or a restore to the backup).

This is especially true with AV programs. Then there are issues if using a SSD that need special attention. Some systems use BIOS that cannot support the BETA and the time to know that is BEFORE and not during or after.

And while it MIGHT work in a VM situation, it will fail there just as much as it would in normal mode if the proper drivers and software aren’t compatible or available.

And while dual booting sounds like a safer method to avoid many problems, it will not solve driver problems – and many software products people use only are allowed one installation license and so one cannot necessarily install their programs on the other OS without being in violation and/or facing Genuine and/or Activation problems.

And dual booting (or VMs) where one wants to share data add further complications regarding permissions and possibly the need for clever partitioning. I’d also add that dual booting often creates boot problems which can usually be resolved, but much of that hasn’t yet been fully tested with 8.1 involved (and typically helpful products for this aren’t yet compatible) – so it could send you back to the drawing board.

If/when you get past all the installation issues, then you’ll discover a whole slew of additional bug and issues involving compatibility with many things. Some have been unable to play music or videos since installation. Some have keyboard and/or mouse issues. Some face black screens when they boot and no way to access the system repair features by any means.

Some have immediate audio problems. If you need Windows Defender Offline for a rootkit infection – sorry, it isn’t compatible yet. Some complain of constant beeping. Many are unable to download anything at all and some are operating without any AV protection because they’re unable to turn on Windows Defender for some reason and nothing else will install. Some can download nothing from the Windows Store. Some have no internet access for various reasons.

Some of these have workarounds, some have marginal workarounds, some are still open issues/bugs not yet fixed (with no idea if/when that will occur).

In short, this is not quite ready for prime time and only the very brave, very foolish, or very skilled should be going near it right now.

The final release is another matter, but nobody can properly predict to what extent all of this will be resolved by then (and with so much and a lot dependent on other vendors cooperating and not on Microsoft itself, that merely adds more to the puzzle). My clients have been advised to stay with W7 for the time being (not even the officially released W8 or W8Pro). Does anyone remember the first week Vista hit the streets? Well, triple that in spades.

To be sure, there are fans out there who are happy campers – but the forums aren’t seeing many of them. What they are seeing are droves of people with more complaints and problems than I’ve ever seen in any OS release going back to DOS – and fewer answers to major problems in reasonable timeframes (if at all). Not even the people most skilled at helping users have access to enough information and often must resort to educated guessing where the “best answer” this week is not the best answer next week – but the original threads are not fixed so people searching think that’s the way it is since it was true a whole week earlier.

That said, my own experiences have been … well … just fine (but I did the advance work and preparation as best as was known at the time and, probably more due to luck than skill, did not encounter many of the problems I see every day. On the other hand, I find that I’m using it only to help answer questions about it and simply cannot fathom using it as my primary computer OS at this time (it being any version above Windows 7 and most certainly this BETA product).