Window 8.1

For someone who doesn't use the Metro interface, charms or apps of Win 8, is there any benefit updating to 8.1?

Yes, you'll be on the current version.

I think 8.1 lets you boot straight to the desktop. The same thought has occurred to me as I keep being prompted to upgrade but I can't see much benefit apart from being able to avoid that dreaded 'death by apps' start screen. Having tried out a few of the apps, I'm baffled as to how Microsoft can see this mess as an improvement on Win 7. The IE app is fine for a mobile phone but who needs it on a laptop? The basic error I think was to assume that most computers are mobile devices, which they're not really.

Yes, particularly if you use SkyDrive. I haven't heard any serious problems reported in 8.1 and it's free, so what have you got to lose? If particularly cautious you might want to take an image of your current setup before proceeding. I always do this, having been burnt a number of times in the past. It seems to be common nowadays (particularly with Apple and Sony) to make updates non-reversible.

Re the IE app just go into options and make it always load IE on the desktop. I have to say I think MS slip up with that one and they should have made it detect if IE was being used on a desktop and laptop and make it open on the desktop by default, but apart from that...

Tried it didn't like it. Got a message about "Security booting had not installed correctly" or something similar. Lost Windows Mail which worked fine on Win 8 along with some other tweaks.

Having followed your advice I took an image prior to installation, so was able to revert to Win 8 with all my functionality.

Depends, I have helped two different people update their machines to 8.1 and i have now put both machines back to Windows 8, i am so glad I made images of both machines.

One person thought his machine was running slower and to be honest it did seem a bit slower, but the main reason both changed back to windows 8 is because of sky drive. they both uses skydrive, they use a desktop application, which don't work on 8.1. With 8.1 your computer have to stay connected to the Microsoft account. they did not like that idea.

in other words you can't use sky drive in 8,1 like you could in windows 8 with a local account.

As of yet, I have not updated, still running windows 8, not that I use it much these days.

Edited by zyborg47 (Mon 04-Nov-13 08:45:56)

Upgraded my tablet to 8.1 and have had more BSODs than ever had on 8.0. But that is partly the nature of the tablet as it only gets turned off when it crashes (whereas laptops and desktops I tend to shut down after every use).

Updated to 8.1 (on my laptop) and following your message (thank you for the alert) did a quick search and found this article on how to make sure skydrive synchronises as before.

I use skydrive to automatically copy everything to my laptop from my desktop. It still seems to be working fine. In that I modified a file on my desktop, waited for a while for things to update, then disconnected the laptop from the network and opened the file. All modifications were there.

If there is something I am not allowing for then I would be grateful for further alerts.

The rest of the article is interesting as well.

A large number of family and friends live in very rural areas, with very slow connections. It amazes me that Microsoft and others do not seem to take this into account when they make these decisions. If I had a windows phone, then although I have a good interent connection, the mobile signal here will hardly get 3G, so I guess skydrive would be a no no.

The problem with skydrive on 8.1 is that you have to have your whole computer logged into Microsoft servers to use it, while on windows 8 you can use a local account on your computer and use the desktop application to sync Skydrive.

The other problem i have is how much info is really going up to Ms servers.

You can still use sky drive on slower connections and there are ways to change the settings and turn it off if you want to.