Windows 8.1 Download Available.

[Geek-9pm]

News from ABC and shown om 'Good Morning America' TV Oct. 17
Full Story
But reading then story I didn't see the link.

[Helpmeh]

It's in the App Store thing. Real pain in the *censored*, because there was no option to delay the shutdown (only to ignore it) and it took ages before my computer finally booted back up completely.

[evilfantasy]

Microsoft pulls Windows update after problems reported

Microsoft has pulled a Windows update from its website after it caused problems on some customers' devices.

The company didn't give details about the problems but says it's investigating. It removed the RT 8.1 update from the Windows Store during the weekend.

In place of the update, Microsoft posted an apology for the problem and said it's trying to resolve the situation quickly. The company says it will give updates as soon as possible. It says the problem affected only a limited number of users.

The company says RT 8.1 is an operating system for tablets and light, thin personal computers. It only runs built-in apps or apps downloaded from the Windows Store.

[Geek-9pm]

Just wondering. Is it to hard to have a
revert to stable release bottom?
Or could they have an automatic update downstream undo function?
Just thinking. 

[evilfantasy]

You are installing a new OS so no.

They warn you before starting to backup anything important before beginning the update.

Or could they have an automatic update downstream undo function?

Windows 8.1 automatically saves your personal files/folders and desktop settings to Skydrive. I thought that was a nice addition.

[BC_Programmer]

It removed the RT 8.1 update from the Windows Store during the weekend

"Microsoft has apologized to the 5 people this affected"

[Calum]

"Microsoft has apologized to the 5 people this affected"

My friend said Windows 8.1 took 6 hours to install...I said that's approximately 5 hours 45 minutes too long even for an OS installation.  Lots of tears have been shed over this update/SP/new OS, whatever the correct term is - I find it hard to believe that it truly is a disastrous release of such epic proportions so I'm coming to the conclusion that there's a healthy dose of PEBCAK going on somewhere.

[Salmon Trout]

My friend said Windows 8.1 took 6 hours to install...I said that's approximately 5 hours 45 minutes too long even for an OS installation.

A very recent article at The Register... (If you are unfamiliar with The Register, they have a very dry British sense of humour and they often call tablets "fondleslabs".)

Wait for it, waaiiit for it: We update an Atom tablet to Windows 8.1 Pro

[...]

If you own an Atom tablet and you’re pondering on upgrading to Windows 8.1 now it’s out in the wild, then there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that it installs fairly smoothly in my experience. That said, I would advise to send out for pizza and rent an epic movie, the longer the better, as the update takes an age to install on a Windows 8 Pro fondleslab.

[...]

It has a 1.8GHz Intel Atom Z2760 CPU and 2GB of RAM. It’s fairly typical of a Windows 8 tablet, although there are a number of Core i series models out there too, mostly pretending to be Ultrabooks.

[...]

2hrs and 45minutes on, as Windows 8.1 reports that while it’s “Installing your apps” that it’s also “Taking care of a few things”.

Read the whole depressing story here

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/19/updating_an_atom_tablet_to_windows_81_pro/

He says that he was 45 minutes in when a message popped up to say he needed to uninstall HP Protect Tools Security manager and a couple of related apps, including drive encryption, before he could continue. I guess if someone thought it would all proceed unattended and walked away at the start then the time before they found any hitches like this would add to to the total install duration experience.

[Calum]

I could see it taking that long (discounting any prompts as mentioned) on a slow as molasses Atom, sure, but is that also the case on a real PC?
Sounds like the installation procedure wasn't thought out too well though if prompts to uninstall software etc are given that far into the process, they should really be right at the beginning.

Edit: from reading the article, sounds like it would've been quicker to install 8.1 from scratch rather than updating from 8 to 8.1...much like Vista's service packs which also take an age to install.

[BC_Programmer]

I updated from 8.0 to 8.1 during the Developer Preview, and I don't recall it taking any longer than I would have thought. Don't know about the final release though (or on WinRT for that matter) because Upgrading to the release version from the developer preview or consumer preview was not supported, so I did a clean install for that.

[evilfantasy]

It was about an hour for me. HP Pavilion laptop and I had no errors or prompts during the download/install.

Once complete the only issues were it disabled a few of my Startup programs and wanted me to update (through Windows Update) my graphics driver to an outdated version. I fixed my Startup programs and set Windows Update to forget the outdated update. Not a big deal for me but the graphics driver could cause problems for the unsuspecting.

[Helpmeh]

As I said, it took me a long time to install it on my new laptop...rough guess says that for about 3/4 of Freddy vs. Jason my computer was completely unusable because it was "Taking care of a few things". Luckily, I had a movie to keep me busy, but still.

[Geek-9pm]

Definition of PEBCK on Jeopardy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRPiNhLGGm8

[patio]

It's PEBKAC.