Windows 8.1 Preview for RT

[EDDS]

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/download-preview

Just a heads up, this will require 10GB of free space to install the preview.

https://twitter.com/MobileTechWorld/status/348935371532427265/photo/1

This is going to be tricky free'ing up the space on my 32GB Surface RT, I've got 8.6GB free atm and that's after I've gone through and deleted a load of stuff.

 

[stmav]

I got an email Friday to sign up for the 8.1 testing. Didn't see it until this morning, and when I clicked on the link it said the program was full. I was looking forward to giving it a run on my RT.

 

[HeyCori]

While I can free up 10GB if I need to, I don't see why the beta wouldn't just overwrite the current install.

 

[EDDS]

I got an email Friday to sign up for the 8.1 testing. Didn't see it until this morning, and when I clicked on the link it said the program was full. I was looking forward to giving it a run on my RT.

Are you sure the email was legit? It's being called a public preview so anyone should be able to try it w/o having to sign up.

 

[jhoff80]

While I can free up 10GB if I need to, I don't see why the beta wouldn't just overwrite the current install.

Everything that I've read makes it sound like it's going to be a 'upgrade' install, as if you were installing Windows 8 over Windows 7. So you're going to end up with a Windows.old folder for example, that contains the old stuff, etc.

Also, if you're trying to clear space to make room: the latest (June) updates changed the Servicing Stack so that Disk Cleanup can free more space. If you type "cleanmgr.exe" at the start screen and run as administrator, it should show you that you're going to clear up around 1.5GB in Windows Update Cleanup (at a minimum, depending on when the last time you've done this type of cleanup is). The one thing to keep in mind though is that while it's cleaning this up (only the first time after June's update), it'll take about two hours.

 

[HeyCori]

Are you sure the email was legit? It's being called a public preview so anyone should be able to try it w/o having to sign up.

Yeah, last I heard 8.1 is going to be released in the Windows Store for everyone to download.

 

[jhoff80]

The email might be about a early released beta, sometimes people might get info from signing up for various programs at connect.microsoft.com or things like that... but yeah the preview will be available to the public.

 

[HeyCori]

Everything that I've read makes it sound like it's going to be a 'upgrade' install, as if you were installing Windows 8 over Windows 7. So you're going to end up with a Windows.old folder for example, that contains the old stuff, etc.

Also, if you're trying to clear space to make room: the latest (June) updates changed the Servicing Stack so that Disk Cleanup can free more space. If you type "cleanmgr.exe" at the start screen and run as administrator, it should show you that you're going to clear up around 1.5GB in Windows Update Cleanup (at a minimum, depending on when the last time you've done this type of cleanup is). The one thing to keep in mind though is that while it's cleaning this up (only the first time after June's update), it'll take about two hours.

I have almost 9 gigs free now. It would just be a matter of uninstalling some of those games I don't play, lol. If there is a windows.old folder then I'll probably just delete it. Unless 8.1 is fundamentally broken, I don't see myself going back to regular 8. The changes in 8.1 are just too numerous and useful to warrant downgrading.

 

[EDDS]

@jhoff80 thanks for the tip, I am up to date on updates and had not done a clean up before, I only had 600mb worth of space to free up, but that's better than nothing

I've noticed that my pictures app seems to be taking up 600mb as well (must be cache from skydrive) so I might temporarily uninstall that.

 

[inteller]

.aaaaaaand THIS is why I got a 64GB Surface.

won't be installing this though, because I read that all apps will have to be reinstalled. Silly it is coming through the store though, needs to come through Windows Update. Maybe the final release will.

 

[pedenske]

Hell if the music app is updated it would be reason enough for me to download the preview early even at the expense of having to reinstall some of my apps again.

 

[dkp23]

So it is official? To install the 8.1 preview, i would have to install all my apps again and everything is wiped?

I set-up all the VHD stuff to get all my music/video on my sdcard indexed in the windows folders, would i have to do all that again? I hope not, that was a nightmare

 

[jhoff80]

won't be installing this though, because I read that all apps will have to be reinstalled. Silly it is coming through the store though, needs to come through Windows Update. Maybe the final release will.

Just to clarify, apps won't have to be reinstalled for the Preview release, but they will need to be reinstalled when the final 8.1 release is out.

It's actually only partly coming through the Store though. You get a small update in Windows Update under "Optional Updates" that then triggers the Preview release to show up in the Windows Store.

I suspect that the final release will be in Windows Update as you say though.

 

[rhodri22]

Awesome. But if they're saying that you need 10GB free is this going to be a dual boot scenario, in which case it's going to hold that 10GB for the entire time you have it installed?

 

[hotphil]

If you're short on space and going to end up reinstalling some/all apps anyway, would it make sense to do a factory reset, apply the "update" then delete whatever windows.old folder may get created? Just a thought.

This page mentions only 4GB needed, but not clear if that's RT or "old" Windows Microsoft Talks About How Windows 8.1 Preview Will Work

 

[jhoff80]

If you're short on space and going to end up reinstalling some/all apps anyway, would it make sense to do a factory reset, apply the "update" then delete whatever windows.old folder may get created?

Well, that way, you'd end up reinstalling your apps twice. Once immediately after installing the preview, and a second time after installing the final version.

 

[despertador]

Hmm, will they let me install the invitation-only preview on 2 of my devices?

 

[mms-pc]

I think what it mentioned should be the complete installation, it would make sense of use up 10GB of space, if we remove existing RT OS from RT tablet and install this complete package, the remaining space should be slightly less than 16 GB in a 32GB RT device. For most RT tablet users, later we should receive a package to install, which should be similar to ordinary service pack, and it should take up around couple hundreds of MB, and we don't need to remove every existing apps and settings.

 

[travis_valkyrie]

If you're running out of space, you could transfer the recovery data to a USB stick and free up 3GB of internal space.

 

[DBDev]

Hope they change it! I would love to use the preview, buy I don't want to use that much space