Moving from Windows 8 to 8.1. Possible problems and solutions.

   If you decided to move from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 you have to read written below because you probably meet one of those problems.  This article based on experience of clean installation of Windows 8.1 on partition where before was Windows 8.
    Why clean install instead of roll out update ?  First of all because Microsoft limits possibilities to upgrade 8 to 8.1. All talked that it will be a free of charge update appears to be rumors for many users who have Volume licenses and use  KMS for activation. Those who got Windows 8 with their hardware - notebooks or desktops also limited to single language update. So MS make everything to make users buy new version.
      Bear in mind that not all Windows 8 drivers works under Windows 8.1.
So check you hardware drivers first. For example  Asus Xonar STX card (I have one)  will not get official drivers from Asus for Windows 8.1 because it based on chip that MS not include in Windows 8.1 official support - so you forced to buy an update Xonar card with same specification but only slightly different chip. Its not worth 300 USD ! So thanks to Uni Xonar developers who did a fantastic job updating drivers for all Xonar and some other C-media based sound cards and make it possible to work my Xonar STX under Windows 8.1 !

     I will not describe in detail how to install Windows - nothing special.  Only have to admit that it useless to save your settings using Migration Wizard from Windows 8  if you will get Windows 8.1 with different locale. It will not be able to transfer setting , but it will transfer files if you need though.
     Personally, I prefer to backup Users folder and then transfer files and setting into new OS by hand in file manager to control everything that will be moved.

1. Local or Live account ?    

    After setup finish installation process you will be asked for Live account. If you remember in Win8 you will be able to choose - Local or online account. Here  you can do the trick - if you need local account instead - just unplug network cable. Without network it will be able to create local accounts.
   If you continue to online account - will enter login and password, it will try to transfer some setting that are stored on SkyDrive  from your previous Windows 8.  You got favorites from  IE, location of task bar  (if you change  from bottom to top or side), wallpaper (if you made your custom Theme it will be transferred, but in my case only part of all Wallpapers has been transferred through cloud). And your account picture. Thats all ! Everthing else you will need to configure yourself but it will be possible only after activation.

2. Moving your Users folder.


If you not plan to to this you can skip this part.  It is only for users who boot from SSD and would like to move users folder to another drive or partition. This time thanks goes to Kari from http://www.eightforums.com/. He made detailed step-by-step  tutorial how to make this move using only internal OS procedures without patching and hacking or something like that!

Here it is ! 

After this you got your User folders moved completely including AppData to another location and without any possible problems in future. 

3. Metro UI Apps problems 


 After you finish installing hardware and will take time to arrange your apps in Metro UI you noticed that your apps from Windows 8 did not transferred.So to do this you will have to open Store and with right click of mouse you will on top of the screen button "Your apps". 

There you will see Apps installed on other computers (including your previous).
You can start installing them from this page.

If you got error during installing apps -
this means you have permission problem in apps folder.
Solution: Go to User`s folder and enter hidden folder AppData\Local (e.g.  D:\Users\\AppData\Local). You find there a folder "Packages" , right click on it and select Properties. Then click on tab Security. Click "Edit" button in the middle. You will be able to change permissions.


Click on Users line and check that "Modify" and "Full Control" are checked.
Press "Apply" and ok. Now your apps should installing fine ! 
      Next possible problem with apps is when your start the app, splash screen appears  and then returns to main tiles.
      Problem is that your app have different locale of the app then your system.  You can change your system local or you can uninstall the app and re-install it searching the Store. 

I hope this post was usefull ! Enjoy Windows 8.1 and have a nice day ! :)




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