Windows 8.1 is out and yet Windows 7 is still a better OS. Imagine that.

LMAO!

Must Win8 be the installed OS to upgrade?  Is there an option to use a Win8 License Key?  Installing an OS from the cloud without a way to recover from a disrupted install seems a little dicey.

I have 2 Win8 keys I purchased as a hedge - may (or may not) install it on my XP machine at some point.  Gathering info, doing due diligence, so TIA.

Thanks for your input Roloccolor . It is pretty hard to justify 120.00 I only paid 64.00.for my Windows 7 64 bit home premium I just could not afford the ultimate even-though it was the O.S I would have preferred . All in all I am pretty happy with my current O.S . I have all the stardock programs except those for windows 8 I love this stuff and to all you skinners out there KUDOS TO YOU AWESOME SKINS EVERY WHERE. Wish I knew how to do it but I am not that good yet!

Nobody was first starting out bodadog. If you look at the last page of my gallery you'll see that in abundance. I first started doing Rainlendar which is the easiest. I use Photoshop but my very first, a wallpaper, was made in MSPaint. Try it you may like it.

Hey thanks UVAH I think I will give it a go . But isn't photoshop quite expensive !  Or is their an affordable option to photoshop? OH and by the way to all in this posting yes I am  a newbie but then we all have to start somewhere so please be patient with me as i do ask alot of questions but that is only because i really do want to learn so i might as well learn from the best and as for the smart comment it was aimed as a compliment you all are very informative and appreciate your help !!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are alternatives to Photoshop. Gimp and Paint.Net. Both are open source, meaning the source code can be edited by the users, usually to improve the program and both are free. Gimp is the better of the two as it emulates Photoshop but Paint.Net is easier to learn on. Here are the links.

http://www.gimp.org/....

http://www.getpaint.net/...

Thanks UVAH I will try that thanks for the links.

Welcome

I probably will delete win 8.1 and revert back to win 8...

Those tile colors are stupid. It looks ugly and it's also harder to find a specific software/icon you are looking for!

8.1 is a nightmarish hell. it screws everything up.

It would seem that Win 8.1, from the comments I've read in the forums, does have a few problems.   I suppose this is some of the stuff early adopters help find and get fix.  Also, I'm sure compatibility problems with third party software will have to fixed.   

I'll say, I had to reinstall both 7 and 8 because of it. Dumb way to do things, IMO.

Microsoft tech pissed me off so bad, I eventually hung up on him. Idiots they have for phone reps. The guy I got didn't know his ass from a hole in the ground.

  I finally got 8.1 installed, from the cloud, and everything seems fairly much the same as 8, just a few minor changes. IE 11, now there's another story.

Support does take time to get the correct information, the day after they might not have much to go on.

I've heard it may be antivirus related, but I don't know for sure.  I uninstalled mine before doing the upgrade and it went fine.

I liked win8, but 8.1 is a much improved experience overall.  I've gone from like to love on this one.

I did disable my anti virus the second time, and all went well.

On another note, IE 11, sux...lol. It isn't compatible with Microsoft's own plugins. WTF?

As far as I know everyone but volume license holders and/or TechNet subscribers must do so from the cloud on a system-by-system basis (for now).  You can order discs from the Microsoft store but it may take a while to get them shipped.

It is my understanding that the keys for Win8 will not work with Win8.1 discs.  If you have a Win8 key you must install Win8 and then use the cloud to upgrade.  Also without the discs there is no longer a way to 'refresh' the OS (perform an OS reinstall without losing your data).

The MS Tech told me that as of today, downloadable ISOs would be available.

Just found this.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/19/4855660/windows-rt-8-1-update-taken-offline-due-to-installation-issues

Uvah that is Windows8.1 RT it is for ARM-CPUs...and mainly used by tablets...
But i would also be pissed if i would kill the preinstalled OS and couldn´t do nothing on my tablet anymore hahaha
Ahh makes me glad i have none 
 

Thanks, Monk.  If/when 8.1 discs are available, waiting for one should be no issue - I'm not down with the whole idea of installing a PC OS from the cloud, to put it mildly.  I know we do patches from the cloud all the time and it is routine in Apple's world but I can afford to brick a phone - not so with a PC.  Which has happened to me with Windows 'security' updates, no less.  And if 8.1 requires a two step install, first 8 then 8.1, I can live with that if I ever have to.

What device have you installed 8.1 on, or are you just posting the usual nonsense?

That.  

I did that the other day on a brand-new notebook in order to 'test' some things and let me tell you, that install went waaaay wrong.   2/3 of the way through the upgrade to 8.1 I received a 'frowny face' on a blue screen with the message "ooops something went wrong.  your system will be restarted".   Upon which the system did attempt to restart (I say 'attempt' because after letting it sit at the BIOS splash screen for 10+ minutes I finally rebooted the machine).

Once rebooted and at the 8.1 start screen it became apparent exactly what had gone wrong.  While IE 11 was most certainly installed (one could navigate to the windows folder and double-click the .exe fine) no shortcut (and no there were no other web browsers installed at the time) for IE 11 existed on the start screen and the shortcut on the desktop was a blank paper icon that didn't recognize that IE was even installed.  Using the control panel to 'add/remove windows features' for IE and rebooting etc. did nothing to solve the issue.  Forcing another APP to open the IE 11 APP browser did OPEN the browser however the Modern UI refused to recognize it even as a valid APP to tab through (Windows key + tab didn't sense it open) only ALT-tab would tab back to it and the ICON was also a blank white page.  Most of the LIBRARIES (because I have alternate storage locations) were now broken and the links to same needed to be DELETED and then recreated.  Most of the APPS were kept, as well as desktop installed programs although almost all of them went through some sort of initial post-install upon first launch in 8.1.  Windows update and a few other settings-related programs became weirdly buggy all of a sudden and it was apparent that some registry corruption was present.

Needless to say, today I used my 8.1 media for a complete and proper re-install.  Happy to report that everything is finally working as it should be. 

I