Upgrading to Windows 8.1 - your experience?

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kingrob

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Well, I upgraded my Toshiba notebook last night, and it all went smooth....well, I was asleep when most of it actually happened. :D

I'm a bit miffed that all my old themes (I loved the Earth and Windows themes!) have been replaced by some abstract low-budget themes, but I guess I can get used to it over time.

And it looks like the Windows Experience Index has been removed, unless they have hidden it somewhere else.

So far, so good.
 
kingrob said:
Well, I upgraded my Toshiba notebook last night, and it all went smooth....well, I was asleep when most of it actually happened. :D

I'm a bit miffed that all my old themes (I loved the Earth and Windows themes!) have been replaced by some abstract low-budget themes, but I guess I can get used to it over time.

And it looks like the Windows Experience Index has been removed, unless they have hidden it somewhere else.

So far, so good.
Click to expand...

Did you upgrade via the AppStore or from an iso?
 
I installed Win 8.1 last night, from the app store ... am I thrilled? No. Am I astounded? No.
I have yet to discover what the major differences are between 8 and 8.1. My boot times is about the same, and I do like the change that users can group their apps under a user-defined description.
With win8 I used a freeware start button, which I reckon was superior to the 8.1 Start function, so I may re-install it.
Underwhelmed? Yes.
 
Hooking software had to be repaired or reinstalled: netlimiter, vmplayer, sandboxie and proxifier.

Rest is working so far without issues.
 
atomcrusher said:
I installed Win 8.1 last night, from the app store ... am I thrilled? No. Am I astounded? No.
I have yet to discover what the major differences are between 8 and 8.1. My boot times is about the same, and I do like the change that users can group their apps under a user-defined description.
With win8 I used a freeware start button, which I reckon was superior to the 8.1 Start function, so I may re-install it.
Underwhelmed? Yes.
Click to expand...

I tend to agree with you - a 3.46GB upgrade and I can't really see any differences.

And the mofos took away my Windows Experience Index!! :mad:

But Chrome 30 runs very smooth, and that is my most used app, so guess it's not all bad. :)
 
kingrob said:
And it looks like the Windows Experience Index has been removed, unless they have hidden it somewhere else.
Click to expand...

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2013/09/19/farewell-to-the-windows-experience-index/

The only difference so far for me, is that I was forced to use my Windows live account (thankfully my Skype/etc etc) all got transferred (I use Skype for Desktop and not Windows 8 Skype), so that doesn't bother me. Okay, it did take me a moment to realise that my network details are now changed for my WD Live (now [email protected] and not froot or whatever).

Then the little thingies in the corner to allow me to switch from say Windows mail to my desktop app, is quite nice.
 
froot said:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2013/09/19/farewell-to-the-windows-experience-index/

The only difference so far for me, is that I was forced to use my Windows live account (thankfully my Skype/etc etc) all got transferred (I use Skype for Desktop and not Windows 8 Skype), so that doesn't bother me. Okay, it did take me a moment to realise that my network details are now changed for my WD Live (now [email protected] and not froot or whatever).

Then the little thingies in the corner to allow me to switch from say Windows mail to my desktop app, is quite nice.
Click to expand...

The switching to a Microsoft account did cheese me off a lot, as SkyDrive and all other apps just worked fine with a computer account before, but now you must use a MS account to use the apps.

Maybe Microsoft wants to get their Hotmail subscriber count up a bit?
 
kingrob said:
The switching to a Microsoft account did cheese me off a lot, as SkyDrive and all other apps just worked fine with a computer account before, but now you must use a MS account to use the apps.

Maybe Microsoft wants to get their Hotmail subscriber count up a bit?
Click to expand...

I dunno hey. I don't use mine at all, I just have it for the one or two Windows Live functions of mine.

Question is, what's going to happen if my internet is off? I haven't tried to login without an internet connection.
 
froot said:
I dunno hey. I don't use mine at all, I just have it for the one or two Windows Live functions of mine.

Question is, what's going to happen if my internet is off? I haven't tried to login without an internet connection.
Click to expand...

It caches your password on your computer, just like when you login to a domain account when you're offline, so you shouldn't have a problem.
 
kingrob said:
It caches your password on your computer, just like when you login to a domain account when you're offline, so you shouldn't have a problem.
Click to expand...

Okay cool. Was wondering if that wasn't perhaps the case.
 
kingrob said:
It caches your password on your computer, just like when you login to a domain account when you're offline, so you shouldn't have a problem.
Click to expand...

I added a pin code as well to my unlock passwords, there's no way in hell I'm typing in my Hotmail password each time I boot my laptop. (got a very time consuming password) :D
 
Dom1n8tr1x said:
I see that despite this being a upgrade I still got a windows.old folder, all 47GB of it. :eek:

Deleting it now, I need my space...
Click to expand...

Yup, likewise. Although mine isn't 48GB.
Hey, wait. It deleted mine now.
Meh. Had drivers in there I had to copy over.
 
Dom1n8tr1x said:
I see that despite this being a upgrade I still got a windows.old folder, all 47GB of it. :eek:

Deleting it now, I need my space...
Click to expand...

Do it via Disk Clean-up and selecting System Files.

It will remove everything for you, even old installation and drive file packages.

Much better, thorough and safer way than doing it manually.
 
kingrob said:
I tend to agree with you - a 3.46GB upgrade and I can't really see any differences.

And the mofos took away my Windows Experience Index!! :mad:

But Chrome 30 runs very smooth, and that is my most used app, so guess it's not all bad. :)
Click to expand...

My upgrade was only 2.6GB :erm:

To me Windows 8.1 is snappier than Windows 8. I had Windows 8 Pro with Media Centre before the upgrade.
 
On my laptop it installed some generic graphics driver, which it fixed when I did a check for updated drivers. Also removed my theme. First desktop updated with no problems other than having to upgrade the anti-virus software. I'll update the others later, but I'm not expecting any issues.

Overall I like some of the enhancements, nothing mindblowing of course.
 
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