14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft rolled out Windows 8.1 Preview on June 26 during the BUILD developer conference in San Francisco, but now that the full version of the operating system is already up for grabs, users are strongly recommended to deploy it.
Redmond released a blog post to remind users that Windows 8.1 Preview and Windows RT 8.1 Preview will expire on January 15, which makes it mandatory for all users to switch to either the full version of Windows 8.1 or to any other Windows build.
“Now that Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 have been generally available for a while, it’s time to get all your remaining devices that are still running Windows 8.1 Preview or Windows RT 8.1 Preview to the final GA release before the Preview release expires,” the company said.
Microsoft then goes on to explain that updating to Windows 8.1 is quite simple, as you only need to launch the store and look for the update in the spotlight section.
Those who installed a volume license version for evaluation, on the other hand, are strongly recommended to install a clean copy of Windows 8.1 Pro and avoid performing an update.
“If you installed a volume license version of Windows 8.1 Preview for evaluation purposes, we would recommend that you install a fresh version of Windows 8.1 Pro or Windows 8.1 Enterprise for ongoing use. If you have to upgrade an existing machine, you can do so using volume license media,” Microsoft added.
“This can be done by manually running SETUP.EXE from the media, or can be automated by running ‘setup.exe /auto:data’. As with any Preview update, only data and accounts will be migrated; all apps will need to be reinstalled.”
As you know, Windows 8.1 is offered free of charge to Windows 8 adopters, while everybody else needs to pay at least $119.99 (€90) for a core license.