Surface RT 8.1 Preview

[R0bR]

Installed 8.1 when it became available. First try got all the way to signing in and the screen froze then got the blue screen and unhappy face then the install reverted back to 8 in about 5 mins. I logged in and net to the store and clicked the preview link and gave it another run, looks like the download was already cached from the first attempt and it just got everything prepped. After a few reboots I was back at the login page but this time no problems, got right in and all my settings were there as were all my apps.

So far everything looked good except my 4 tile hack wasn't there so I added the registry entry for it and reboot but nothing only to realize they actually made it an option. After enabling the 4 tiles my start screen looked just like it did before which was awesome. So far everything is working, some apps are a bit quirky when scrolling as it gets a bit jumpy but the most improvement other then the overall increase in responsiveness is that sign in to Xbox Live games is much faster.

At first I figured the Start icon would be useless but it's actually a good addition, a long press on it gives you the pop menu that was only available by mouse hover before. Now getting to Control Panel and the other tools is much faster with touch from the desktop. IE 11 so far is pretty good and the predictive text selections and keyboard shortcuts makes typing on the touch screen so much faster. Getting used to the new layout with the tabs and favorites at the bottom but so far liking it. One disappointment so far is that I wanted that moving dragon background for the start screen that they demonstrated, I guess that will come with the final release.

 

[ArnoldC]

I live in Ireland & I get the error "This update is not suitable for your computer"

Nice one Microsoft! It tells me absolutely nothing, except that you screwed it up!

Tully

No, they didn't screw it up. The countries supported by the update are clearly stated on their website. I am in the Philippines with a Surface RT purchased from Australia, and I managed to make it work. Cool down man, I can help you how to get it done. Having said that, it strongly advise you wait for the final release instead. Honestly.

Cheers.

 

[mace2442]

It didn't work that well on my RT so i will be going back to 8.0 if I can find a EN-US 8.0 image.
If bitlocker isn't enabled it's no problem to revert if you got the image

IE11:s new open in new tab handeling is a lot worse than IE10 in my eyes

 

[nicholas1983]

I posted this link in another thread, on these forums, before stumbling upon this one. I am in the UK and I just can't wait till the full release.

Why am I unable to install the 8.1 on Windows RT with English - Microsoft Community

I am downloading the update at the moment, so fingers crossed all goes well. I had a bit of trouble changing the language. After changing the registry entry I had to go back to the language in Control Panel and set EN-US as the main language again and then deleted EN-UK. After a restart it configured settings when it was booting up, so I knew the language change was being made permanent.

 

[Omni]

My favorite so far is that the SD card is recognized like a regular drive to which you can include in the library without a 14 step process of creating virtual drives, etc. It just works!

This is the first I've read about that! Great addition.

 

[Tully]

A sensible error message?

How about " Stupid, you don't have US English Installed".

Tully

 

[tropolite]

The install went without a hitch and I've had a chance to play with it a bit. All my pre-installed apps are working fine, and IE11 seems snappier. I can't tell yet if the volume is changed (one concern I had about the beta was losing the improvement MS had made in the sound); I did have to go into the control panel and re-enable the bass boost enhancement.
Also, I spotted the Windows.old folder but I'm afraid to delete it yet. Anybody gutsier than me delete it yet?

Hey compnovo
You can clean that windows.old folder without an issue. As you cannot rollback the preview you don't need to keep Windows.old
There's a proper way of cleaning up the folder, just right-click on C:, hit Disk Clean-up and let it do it's thing. Once it's gone through checking the disk the next window pops up and you can select from a number of temp folders files etc. You'll also see a Windows Update Cleanup, this will clean up Windows.old.

 

[ArnoldC]

You have to click/touch the check box to select it otherwise it won't be deleted.

 

[ArnoldC]

I didn't realize the messaging app is gone. Even the People app was updated not to be able to send messages.

 

[compnovo]

Hey compnovo
You can clean that windows.old folder without an issue. As you cannot rollback the preview you don't need to keep Windows.old
There's a proper way of cleaning up the folder, just right-click on C:, hit Disk Clean-up and let it do it's thing. Once it's gone through checking the disk the next window pops up and you can select from a number of temp folders files etc. You'll also see a Windows Update Cleanup, this will clean up Windows.old.

Thanks topolite and ArnoldC, that's precisely what I did. I initially tried to do a simple delete and the system wouldn't allow it so I used the "desktop" approach and it worked. I came to the same conclusion as you topolite, there's no going back so why keep the folder.

On an unrelated topic, the only glitch I've discovered so far, if you can call it that, is with Netflix. When I touch the screen to pause there is a brief artifact on the screen. I don't think it's the graphics drivers because I don't get the same behavior with Multimedia 8.

 

[ArnoldC]

My RT won't start anymore.

Yesterday, was the first time I ever encountered such situation, wherein it won't start up from a shutdown. For whatever reason, I gave it another go and it started up normally.

Last night, I shut it down. It turned to be a bad idea because now, it won't start up again.

If it happened to me, it may happen to others. I suggest do not shutdown the Surface RT if you're on 8.1 Preview.

Edit:

I was able to start it up. The recovery steps in the support site still works. That is press and hold power for 5 seconds, then press and release.

Whew.

 

[compnovo]

My RT won't start anymore.

Yesterday, was the first time I ever encountered such situation, wherein it won't start up from a shutdown. For whatever reason, I gave it another go and it started up normally.

Last night, I shut it down. It turned to be a bad idea because now, it won't start up again.

If it happened to me, it may happen to others. I suggest do not shutdown the Surface RT if you're on 8.1 Preview.

Edit:

I was able to start it up. The recovery steps in the support site still works. That is press and hold power for 5 seconds, then press and release.

Whew.

Glad to hear you got it working again. Do you think the problem may be related to the hack you used to get the preview installed? I took a chance and shut mine down, and it restarted normally.