Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Windows 8.1 Update – What Fun!!

I have had the pleasure of updating 3 Windows 8.0 computers. Of the 3, 2 had been running Windows 8.1 Pro Preview that I installed when it was released in July.

First let me say that my friend Franz (The Eponymous Pickle) kind of pushed me a bit as I was waiting a day or two and he jumped right in. I know his download time was long but then on the first day that was to be win8-1 expected. I believe he said it took about 4 hours on October 17th and on the 18th it took me about 2 1/2 hours.

On my first update the computer was a fairly new HP laptop running Windows 8.0. Actual install time, after download, was about 30 minutes and it worked really well. I am jealous of the Touch screen on my wife’s computer as it really is a nice way to go.

On the two computers running the Windows 8.1 Pro Preview the story was a little bit different.

Initially I had installed Windows 8.0 Pro on both computers. 1 was a 7 (maybe 8) year old HP Desktop and the other a HP laptop only about 1 and 1/2 years old. As I said in July of this year I updated both to Windows 8.1 Pro Preview. The one thing I did that was good was to follow Microsoft’s recommendation and I when to 8.1 Pro Preview from the Windows Store. That proved to be beneficial in the final update.

Per instructions I was happy to discover that I could update both of these computers to the final release of 8.1 Pro right from the Windows Store. In reading the information it said that I would have to re-install all my Windows App’s as well as Desktop App’s. Terminology gets me here. After 40 years of referring to specific application software as “Software” I did not connect Desktop App’s with Software. I decided I did not  have any Desktop App’s that would matter and if I lost some of the ‘Gadgets’ I had installed not a problem. I plunged on.

So I updated to Windows 8.1 Pro Update. Total time about 2 1/2 hours (maybe 3 - I stepped out).

Looks good. All my folders and files are there, desktop looks the same with my special picture. This is cool.

Wait a minute; where is Office 365? What happened to Evernote, Dropbox, and on and on and on. Now I understand what Desktop Applications are. A revelation at best and "Learning Experience". Hmmm.....

Getting Office 365 back on my computer was not as easy as it should have been . There were no directions and I had to ‘assume’ that I could Deactivate it from my Computer (at the Microsoft Office 365 website) and then re-activate. Once I forged ahead to do that then everything was fine. I did search all of Microsoft's Office 365 website however I did not find anything that suggested this approach. I am sure there are others with the same quandary.  

Instead of getting frustrated I got fascinated (thanks to Jim Rohn). Golly, I wonder why that happened? WOW a learning experience. The philosophy is great; If you get frustrated you only get angry and nothing gets accomplished. If you question and look answers come and you learn.

StartScreen002After that the process of re-installing all my software and setting everything back up may have been a time consuming task however it was one that I can do and not all unhappy about. Sometimes it pays to clean up.

All in all I thought it was worth the effort. Windows 8.1 Pro looks good. All my software is installed, all my gadgets back where I want them, and my Start Screen is working for me.

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