Windows 8.1 Upgrade or full install

[tkaw220]

I purchased the digital version from Microsoft early this year. Would I be able to download the full 8.1 installer from the purchase email after 18-Oct? Or I must download the upgrade from Store?

[threetonesun]

Upgrade. I'm going to be really damn disappointed if Microsoft can't get an upgrade to work.

[Stoffel]

From what I understand the only way to get the upgrade is to download it from the store if you want it free.

They are not releasing a ISO file for you, unless you have a subscription to TechNet or MSDN.

 

Which sucks big time because I want to upgrade 2 pc's and have a very slow internet connection.

 

So, can anybody please prove me wrong :)

 

Does anybody know if when you go through the store it will actually just let you download the file or will you have no clue as of how it got installed on your pc

[tkaw220]

From what I understand the only way to get the upgrade is to download it from the store if you want it free.

They are not releasing a ISO file for you, unless you have a subscription to TechNet or MSDN.

 

Which sucks big time because I want to upgrade 2 pc's and have a very slow internet connection.

 

So, can anybody please prove me wrong :)

 

Does anybody know if when you go through the store it will actually just let you download the file or will you have no clue as of how it got installed on your pc

 

Oh, this upset me. I was prepare to do a clean installation. Hate to install Windows 8 and then upgrade from the Store. Never like the idea of installing old files and then replace them with new patches. Silly.

[tdrock]

is anyone seeing the update in the store?

I am in Canada and no update.

[Gotenks98]

Gotenks98 is right. It's really amusing how all of you just assume that it's a service pack and then attack him without having any evidence to back it up.

The Store upgrade is essentially an in-place OS upgrade. It is NOT a service pack. A service pack just installs (a lot of) new packages to WinSxS. The Store upgrade installs a new OS, moves the old OS to Windows.old, and then performs a migration of user profiles, installed programs, and the registry.

How do I know this? Because I tried the in-store upgrade with the Preview. "But that's just the preview!" Why on Earth would Microsoft do one thing for the Preview and then do something radically different for RTM? That defeats the whole purpose of the Preview, which is to test this sort of (unprecedented) deployment method. If they completely throw that under the bus, they'll need another round of beta testing to make sure that it all works. And if this was just a service pack, why not deploy it like a service pack via Windows Update? This update is like a service pack only with respect to timing and pricing. The scope of the update is far larger than that of a SP, and the deployment is very much like that of a traditional in-place upgrade.

But hey, don't take my word for it. Try it out for yourself! Throw 6.2 onto a VM, do the Store upgrade to 6.3, and tell me what happens. Oh, and did you notice that the stuff downloaded by the Store upgrade contains things like a huge WIM file?

Edit: And to answer the original question, I'm clean-installing all my systems because I saw how icky the install process was back when I tried the Store upgrade for Preview in my VM (this is what VMs are for, guys, for testing deployments so that you don't have to ask questions like this in a forum--you don't have to activate or anything if all you're testing is what the installation process looks like). But that's all a matter of personal opinion. If you had no problems with in-placing 7 to 8, then you shouldn't have many qualms about in-placing 8 to 8.1.

Thanks, I really appreciate this post. I do not always have the best way of explaining things online but you said it better than I ever could have. Overall my posting was more so to warn about the dangers of upgrade install vs clean install nothing more. I have seen a lot of bad upgrades in my time which is why I religiously do clean installs now. I would rather have the piece of mind than to have the possibility of saving time (provided the upgrade didn't bork anything). At that point in time I can create an image to restore to at a later point in time and I know its problem free.