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plencnerb
Premium Member
join:2000-09-25
53403-1242

plencnerb to ronus

Premium Member

to ronus

Re: [WIN8] Windows 8.1

Well, the upgrade is done. Here are a few things that I noticed.

1) During the setup part, Microsoft again tries very hard to push a Microsoft account. If all you have is a local account (which I do), you have to read all the options. You can complete the process with just a local account. So, don't think you have to create a new local account, or a Microsoft account. You can use your existing local account. Just make sure you read everything.

2) All of the apps that I removed when I installed Windows 8, along with a bunch of new ones come back. As noted in another thread, there are now a few "core" apps that Microsoft feels everyone should have and cannot be removed (Photos is one of them).

3) In an effort to try to keep everyone "safe" I noticed that my Windows Firewall was modified. While the actual settings of the Firewall in the control panel did not change (I had it off, and its still off), the service was modified. Prior to the upgrade, I had that service set to "Disabled". After the upgrade, it was set to "Automatic" and running. So, I had to go disable that again.

4) I don't use a homegroup, so I had modified the two services (HomeGroup Listener and HomeGroup Provider) to be disabled. After the upgrade, Microsoft turned these two back on (startup type of manual). As with the Windows Firewall service, I had to go back and disable these.

5) I had to re-do all of my changes to the Start Menu folders located at C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs. During the upgrade, anything that I had renamed that came with Windows 8 was added back. So, I now have multiple folders that contain the same sets of icons.

6) The upgrade leaves things behind.
• folder: C:\$Windows.~BT
• folder: C:\Windows.old
• folder: C:\users\Default.migrated

Now that is just what I noticed in the last 30 mins or so. There could be other things that changed back that I have not noticed yet.

In any case, I do have a backup, so I'm going to reformat and re-install Windows 8 Pro x64. Once I get a Windows 8.1 install ISO, I'll use that so I only have to make changes to things once!

--Brian

JohnInSJ
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Aptos, CA

JohnInSJ

Premium Member

said by plencnerb:

6) The upgrade leaves things behind.
• folder: C:\$Windows.~BT
• folder: C:\Windows.old
• folder: C:\users\Default.migrated

These are supposed to get cleaned up "later" - probably within a day.

nwrickert
Mod
join:2004-09-04
Geneva, IL

nwrickert to plencnerb

Mod

to plencnerb
said by plencnerb:

If all you have is a local account (which I do), you have to read all the options. You can complete the process with just a local account.

Any hints on how to do that?

It seemed to lock me into a session with no escape, where it demanded a Windows account and would not allow me to continue without giving one.

Hmm, I didn't try just re-entering the local account into the box. Does that work?

(I just powered off, to avoid the frustration).

Ian1
Premium Member
join:2002-06-18
ON

Ian1

Premium Member

said by nwrickert:

It seemed to lock me into a session with no escape, where it demanded a Windows account and would not allow me to continue without giving one.

If I recall, if you hit "create an account", one of the options on the following screen (non-intuitively) was to continue with local account only.

nwrickert
Mod
join:2004-09-04
Geneva, IL

nwrickert

Mod

I'm not sure if I tried that particular combination.

So I rebooted into Windows to try that. It apparently did not like the fact that I had powered off. So it restored Windows 8, without even asking if I wanted that.

I think I'll leave it that way.

altermatt
Premium Member
join:2004-01-22
White Plains, NY

1 edit

altermatt to plencnerb

Premium Member

to plencnerb
Just did the win 8.1 upgrade on my brand new machine, and was stumped to find the "forcing m$ account" issue: it seemed not to give me the option of just signing in with a local account, forcing a m$ account login. For the life of me, couldn't find the previous option to just use a local account (now I read here about the unintuitive workaround to click "create"). So I signed in with a m$ account and eventually deleted it and created the desired local account. Now I can't upgrade any o the Metro apps (not that I really want most of them) in the store because instead of letting me just enter my m$ account credentials for just the upgrade (or eventual purchase if it ever comes to that), it says it will CHANGE my current account to a m$ account! I don't want that, just want to be able to use the m$ account JUST for the occasional visit to the store.

I couldn't wait to do the upgrade since I'd heard nothing but good things about it compared to the original, but it seems LESS malleable than 8, not more so far.

Ian1
Premium Member
join:2002-06-18
ON

Ian1

Premium Member

said by altermatt:

I couldn't wait to do the upgrade since I'd heard nothing but good things about it compared to the original, but it seems LESS malleable than 8, not more so far.

I am completely regretting the "upgrade" to 8.1 myself. Considering reverting.