We walk you through the process of upgrading to the latest edition of Windows

Artical 1

The Windows 8.1 update is here, bringing improvements to the Windows 8 interface and new under-the-bonnet features.

All Windows 8 users can upgrade - even if you're running RT, or the 8.1 preview that was released in June - and it only takes a few clicks to install. Depending on the speed of your internet connection, the upgrade will probably take between 30 and 60 minutes to complete. Here's how to install it.



1. Open the Windows Store. You should see a rather conspicuous button, as above. If you're not seeing this button, make sure you've installed all available updates. Note that if you're using the 8.1 Preview, you may need to reinstall your applications after installing the final code via the Windows Store. If you want to avoid this, check out this unofficial way to perform an in-place upgrade.


2. Once you've clicked on the huge Store icon, you'll be taken to a download page. Among other things, this tells you the size of the update for your PC: if you're running a 64-bit desktop edition of Windows, this will probably be upwards of 3.5GB. Updates for Windows RT come in at a little over 2GB. Hit the Download button to kick things off.

3. You can switch away from the Windows Store and carry on using your PC while the update is downloaded and prepared for installation. If you switch back to the Store from time to time you'll see it trundling through various stages of the process.

4. Some time later, Windows will report that it needs to restart to continue the installation. A 15-minute countdown will pop up, giving you a chance to save your work and close down your applications cleanly. When you're ready, restart your PC - or wait for it to restart on its own.


5. Windows will now trundle through several stages of the upgrade process, including setting up device drivers, "getting ready", "applying PC settings" and then, rather airily, "setting up a few more things". On one of our test systems, this last part took a good 15 minutes: we'd guess this might be to do with the large number of applications installed. You might have a quicker experience with a less heavily laden PC.

Artical 2

How to install windows 8.1 on your Desctop

• Step 1: Place your windows 8.1 DVD in the DVD ROM or plug in your Windows 8.1 bootable USB flash drive and restart your PC . We have used a bootable USB flash drive to install windows 8.1 in this guide .
• Step 2: When your PC reboots , Enter your PC’s Bios settings and set your installation media as the first boot priority . Now save your bios settings and restart your PC . Alternatively press F11 to bring up the boot media selector and select the bootable USB flash drive .

• Step 3: When your PC restarts you will be prompted to press any key to boot from your installation media . Press any key to continue .
• Step 4:  You will see the following loading screen with a rotating progress bar . Wait for a few seconds till the necessary files are loaded .

• Step 5: Next you will see the following screen , where you will have to select the language , time and currency format and keyboard layout . choose your required settings and click on next .

• Step 6: On the next screen click on install now , after which you need to wait for a few minutes for the setup process to start .

• Step 7: Now you will be prompted to enter your Windows 8.1 product key , you can either use your windows 8 activation key or the product key that came with windows 8.1 . Enter your product key correctly and click on next .

• Step 8: Read the license terms thoroughly before you continue to install windows 8.1 on your PC . When its done click on next to proceed with the windows 8.1 installation .

• Step 9: On the next screen choose the type of your installation , since we are doing a clean install select the second option , which is custom : install windows only ( Advanced ) .

• Step 10: Next you will be required to select a drive to install windows 8.1 , you can either format a drive and install windows 8.1 on it ,  or directly install windows 8.1 within the existing space in a drive . If you are going to use windows 8.1 as your primary OS then format your existing windows 7 drive , select it and click next to start installing windows 8.1 on it .

• Step 11: Now wait for the installation process to complete , this might take more than 10 minutes in most cases . in case you are using a SSD this process will be much faster .

• Step 12: When the installation process complete , your PC will be reboot automatically and boot into windows 8.1 and you will see various progress bars . after a few minutes your PC will reboot again .
• Step 13: Now windows 8.1 is almost installed on your PC , the last thing you need to do is personalize a few settings and you will be able to use windows 8.1 .  Also you need to sign in into your Microsoft account to be able to take advantage of the windows app store .

• Step 14: After you are done with all the settings , you will see the ” getting ready screen ” . just a few minutes more and you will see the familiar windows 8.1 start screen and your PC is all ready for the windows 8.1 experience .