Microsoft on 26 of June announced the availability of windows 8.1 preview , the update to windows 8 at the company's developer - focused build conference. The updates will include a whole new app window sizes,a help app, more powerful search ,lock screen slideshows,much better built in- apps , redesigned windows store ,a more monetization opportunities for developers, and leading experiences .
GETTING WINDOWS 8.1
Microsoft on Wednesday made it known , it had already started accepting pre-orders for windows 8.1 . For now it's only available in the US store .As mentioned earlier , windows 8.1 will be officially released on October 18 , 2013 .Pricing for windows 8.1 will be the same for previous edition : $199.99 and PRO version will go for $199.99 .
you can pre-order from : http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Windows-8.1/productID.288095400
Windows 8.1 has three release points : preview , RTM , and general availability(GA). Well the preview has been available from Microsoft as free .
Download from here : http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/preview?ocid=blprev_pr_wom
.Installation is no different from any windows installation . Please note that , you wont be able to downgrade windows 8.1 preview installed via ISO . The only way is to install from a recovery image which normally resides on a differnet partition .Again you will have to re-install all apps even when you upgrade to RTM or the GA.
WINDOWS 8.1 RTM
Windows 8.1 RTM (release to manufactures) is the version available to hardware manufactures (OEM).In late August it was available to OEMs and in September to developers with MSDN , IT professionals with TechNet and students with DreamSpark accounts .If you a fortunate to have any of these accounts then you can get hold of a legitimate version of the RTM version . But because of sharing site and clients like BitTorrent, this version has actually find itself being automatically distributed to other consumers.
Well, if you happen to have gotten yours via this method then i recommend you do a little bit of savvy before installing. Make sure the SHA-1 hash code matches that of Microsoft's . You do this by running the command line file checksum integrity verifier(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/841290) on the installer and compare to hash available here (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/downloads/#searchTerm=Windows%208.1&ProductFamilyId=0&Languages=en&PageSize=10&PageIndex=2&FileId=0). For instance ,according to MSDN, the SHA-1 hash code for the U.S. English 64-bit Windows 8.1 is BC2F7FF5C91C9F0F8676E39E703085C65072139B. So you run the FCIV utility downloaded above and navigate to the downloaded installer . You can have look at the image down below for understanding .
The installation is the same . On windows 8 , you just double click to mount then you proceed from there. On any other windows version you can use the DVD installation method or the BOOT-FROM-PEN DRIVE to install or you can mount with PowerIso and proceed with double clicking for installation.
WINDOWS 8.1 GENERAL AVAILABILITY (GA)
Windows 8.1 GA is the retail version that will be available on October 18 , in PRO and Enterprise editions. If you don't have any of the above
I advise you wait for the official release to upgrade . Those not on windows 8 can pre-order .