Update from Windows 8.1 Preview to Windows 8.1

hank you for using Windows 8.1 Preview. The final versions of Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 are now available online and in the Windows Store.

The preview is no longer available for download. You must install the final version of Windows 8.1 or Windows RT 8.1 before January 2014 when the license for the preview will expire. If you've been using the preview, you should update to the final edition as soon as possible to avoid an interruption in using your PC.

Updating to Windows 8.1 or Windows RT 8.1

Important: Based on our investigations of a situation customers have encountered updating to Windows RT 8.1, we can confirm that as of now this is a Windows update issue only affecting Surface RT customers. While only less than 1 in 1,000 (or less than 0.1%) Surface RT customers who have installed Windows RT 8.1 have been impacted, improving their experience and ensuring their systems are fully operable as quickly as possible is our number one priority. We have posted recovery instructions for affected Surface RT customers. We continue to work towards making the Windows RT 8.1 update available in the Windows Store again and apologize for any inconvenience. Further updates will be provided as they become available.

Your options for updating to Windows 8.1 depend on how you installed Windows 8.1 Preview or Windows RT 8.1 Preview.

I installed the preview from the Windows Store or I installed the preview using media while Windows 8 was running

I installed the preview by booting from ISO media

Returning your PC to its previous operating system

In some cases you might want to go back to your previous operating system before updating or upgrading to Windows 8.1. You have different options depending on what version of Windows your PC was running before you installed the preview.

Warning

• When running Windows 8.1 Preview, if you used the Add Feature function to change editions, you might need to reinstall or reactivate using your same edition product key. To find out more about changing product keys, see KB2750773.