I’ve been running Windows 8 and it’s okay, but I hear that Windows 8.1 is now available in a “preview” version and that there are a bunch of updates and new apps. Excellent. Before I jump in, however, I’m afraid of messing up my PC. Can you show me step-by-step how to install the Win8.1 upgrade?
Glad to help out as I too was very curious about what was released in “Windows 8 Blue” (the original code name, now just known as Windows 8.1). While there’s a way to do the update within the Windows 8 Store application, I found it to be pretty sketch and frustrating — it would complain that I’d already downloaded the update launcher, but then wouldn’t let me launch the update — so I’ll show you the slightly more complex but far more reliable way to upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 Preview edition by downloading the ISO disk image.
For the interim storage unit, I reformatted one of my Kingston USB flash drives in “NTFS” format (a requirement when you’re working with really big files), which you can see documented here if you don’t know how to do that: reformat usb flash drive into ntfs.
The other issue here is that you’ll not only need a flash drive or external drive to proceed, but you’ll need at least 6GB of free space on your computer drive and a decent Internet connection because you’ll be downloading an ISO disk image that’s over 3GB in size. Try that at the local café and you might be sitting there for hours, drinking coffee and trying to avoid making eye contact with the other people there who are wondering why the Internet’s running so slowly. 🙂
But let’s get to it.
The first step is to download the ISO image for Microsoft Windows 8.1 Preview. You can find it here: Download Win8.1 Preview.
It’ll take a while, even on a fast connection, but eventually you’ll have an ISO image that you can copy onto your USB flash drive. It’ll end up looking like this:
Once it’s on the removable device, you’re ready to get started. Open up the ISO image and you’ll see a variety of files and folders:
Launch “setup” by double-clicking on it and Windows 8 will confirm you want to let the program run:
Click on “Yes”, of course and the installer will launch, starting by telling you that it has to start preparing the new install:
Once it’s prepared the first step is to ensure that you don’t have any updates you need to install to your current version of Windows 8:
If it all looks good or you’d rather skip the update portion, click on “Next” and you’ll now need to flip back to the Microsoft page where you downloaded the ISO image from in the first place, because it’s time to enter the product key:
No worries, though, I’ve got you covered. Here’s what they list on that MS page:
Got it? It’s NTTX3-RV7VB-T7X7F-WQYYY-9Y92F.
Enter the product key and click “Next” when it’s validated by the installer program.
Now you have three choices as to what you want to survive the Windows 8 –> Windows 8.1 update:
To make life easy, I suggest that you choose the first of the options, “Keep Windows settings, personal files, and apps”. Check the radio button adjacent to that option and click, again, on “Next”.
Hopefully you won’t see the following fixit message, but as you can see, I had to free up some space before I could proceed:
Once you address any issues of this nature, it’s time to proceed and the Win8.1 preview installer will do just that, no intervention required.
In fact, you’ll get a status update:
After much behind the scenes work it’s ready to go:
It’s your last chance. Are you suuuuurrrreeee you want to install the Windows 8.1 Preview? If so, click on “Install” and it’ll start chugging along…
Much time passes and it, as warned, restarts three or four times. Eventually all the drivers and low-level parts are updated and the system can start updating apps, which it shows with a pretty rainbow fish:
The general consensus is that it’s a Siamese Fighting Fish, aka a “betta” fish. Get it? Betta for the beta release?
Meanwhile, it proceeds:
And proceeds…
And proceeds, until you finally get the option of whether you want the default “express” settings or not:
There are other options, but express settings work fine, so click on that to proceed and it’ll start setting up your accounts, as needed:
And here’s something that’s smart on their part: Since I signed in to my Microsoft Live account as part of the process, it knows my email address. To ensure that I’m really me and I really want to update my system, it prompts me for a security code:
Microsoft emails me an 8-digit number and I enter it as prompted. And it works!
Next step is to consider whether to use SkyDrive or not:
I’m a fan, so I opt for SkyDrive too. Good news: Windows 8.1 Preview has much tighter integration with SkyDrive, making it more useful than you’ve experienced in Windows 8. If you’d prefer not to use cloud-based storage, you can opt out too.
Either way, now it’s time for new apps to be installed. Yes, Windows 8.1 adds new apps that weren’t in Windows 8.0:
After yet another delay, it’ll restart one more time and, once you log in, drop you into Windows 8.1’s Start screen:
How do you know it’s Windows 8.1, not Windows 8.0? Click on “Desktop” and look on the lower left:
Yup, that orange icon is the much discussed “Start” button replacement. And that’s one of the cornerstones of Windows 8.1 (well, along with that “Help & Tips” orange tile on the Start screen).
Congratulations, you’re running the preview version of Windows Blue, I mean Windows 8.1.