Windows 8.1 Upgrade Mandatory

[Snoop]

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9241230/Microsoft_mandates_Windows_8.1_upgrade

Support will end for 8.0 after 2 years.
Personally, I am a little shocked by this.
8.0 to 8.1 is not a service pack and I believe the update is closer to a recovery install of the OS (correct me if I am wrong). From what I have read the update primarily focuses on Metro of which I never used except when I first started testing. I spent a month or so vetting out Windows 8, finding a start menu replacement and getting all of my work stuff switched over. Apparently now, I will need to do this again within a year or so.


What I am still wondering is how this update can be rolled out at a small business with 10+ computers all operating on domain accounts, no MS account, with GPO and a start menu replacement. I ask because I am responsible for two different business's with this type of setup(and now feel like I made a big mistake and should have used Win 7 even with the higher cost). Since the update is being pushed out via the Windows store, does each user need a MS account or can you setup some parent account to get the update?

 

[imagoon]

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/products/lifecycle

Windows 8 = January 2018 mainstream / January 2023 extended.


Also "8.1" is basically a service pack not unlike XP SP3

 

[Snoop]

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/products/lifecycle

8.0 = January 2018 mainstream / January 2023 extended.

This is from the Microsoft Blog dated July 30 2013:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/products/lifecycle


"Windows 8 customers will have two years to move to Windows 8.1 after the General Availability of the Windows 8.1 update to continue to remain supported under Windows 8 lifecycle," Visser said

 

[imagoon]

This is from the Microsoft Blog dated July 30 2013:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/products/lifecycle


"Windows 8 customers will have two years to move to Windows 8.1 after the General Availability of the Windows 8.1 update to continue to remain supported under Windows 8 lifecycle," Visser said

Yes, like all previous service packs.

Example:

http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?LN=en-gb&C2=1173

"Windows XP" went end of life and support August 2005. Service pack 3 is April 2014.

 

[Mushkins]

8.1 is definitely going to break those start bar replacements. I would uninstall them completely before doing the upgrade just to be sure, and then reinstall the inevitable 8.1 compatible versions afterwards.

I can guarantee there's going to be a domain deployable installation version for IT professionals available via TechNet, just like there is for every other service pack ever. Just deploy it like you would any other domain-wide update.

 

[imagoon]

8.1 is definitely going to break those start bar replacements. I would uninstall them completely before doing the upgrade just to be sure, and then reinstall the inevitable 8.1 compatible versions afterwards.

I can guarantee there's going to be a domain deployable installation version for IT professionals available via TechNet, just like there is for every other service pack ever. Just deploy it like you would any other domain-wide update.

I wouldn't be surprised in the least if there is a WSUS package and System Center package on release either.

 

[BrightCandle]

I am not really surprised. Microsoft's entire strategy since Windows 8 was to push the changes onto you with no option to go classic mode at all. The fact they now think you must have the upgraded version so badly that they will rip support out form underneath you, and tie the latest version of DX to it to force everyone onto it is consistent. If ever there was a business acting like it had a monopoly it would be Microsoft with Windows. Of course it actually doesn't, its market share is slowly shrinking and other big fish came and ate its future lunch quite a few years ago, its funny in the end Unix won and nobody realised!

Microsoft has done plenty of bad things and its behaviour around Windows 8 has hit it in the pocket, but not enough yet for it to fix the illness that seems to have taken them over. No matter when they go bust our problem will be solved, am I right?!

 

[Snoop]

8.1 is definitely going to break those start bar replacements. I would uninstall them completely before doing the upgrade just to be sure, and then reinstall the inevitable 8.1 compatible versions afterwards.

I can guarantee there's going to be a domain deployable installation version for IT professionals available via TechNet, just like there is for every other service pack ever. Just deploy it like you would any other domain-wide update.

I am sure you are correct. I just wonder if this will be available to a business or IT person with limited resources and no technet account.

 

[Mushkins]

I am sure you are correct. I just wonder if this will be available to a business or IT person with limited resources and no technet account.

The others are, I dont see why it wouldn't be. Technet is pretty open, the MSDN-type programs with full software licenses are the ones that are behind paywalls. At worst you might need a Microsoft account, which is free.

I am not really surprised. Microsoft's entire strategy since Windows 8 was to push the changes onto you with no option to go classic mode at all. The fact they now think you must have the upgraded version so badly that they will rip support out form underneath you, and tie the latest version of DX to it to force everyone onto it is consistent. If ever there was a business acting like it had a monopoly it would be Microsoft with Windows. Of course it actually doesn't, its market share is slowly shrinking and other big fish came and ate its future lunch quite a few years ago, its funny in the end Unix won and nobody realised!

Microsoft has done plenty of bad things and its behaviour around Windows 8 has hit it in the pocket, but not enough yet for it to fix the illness that seems to have taken them over. No matter when they go bust our problem will be solved, am I right?!

Uh... what? As was already pointed out, this is how it's been done since forever. You're expected to keep your system reasonably up to date with security patches. Official support gets cut for people unwilling to stay on the latest service pack, that's a completely reasonable business practice done with pretty much all software and hardware. If your router is acting up and a known fix to your issue is "update your firmware to the latest manufacturer supplied version," its on you if you choose not to, any official support channel is going to say "ok, good luck" if you refuse for no good reason. You're not being forced to install it at gunpoint, they're just not obligated to provide you with support if you don't. Your car warranty gets cut short if you don't keep up your routine maintenance too, that's life. Especially with software, many times those security patches build on other security patches. If the service pack it depends on *is not installed*, they *cant* give you the latest updates that depend on the changes it made.

You're bitching because you essentially don't want to run windows update to install critical patches, I don't get it. You don't like the UI, so you bitch about the UI, and then they make some improvements to the UI and... you bitch and refuse to install them?

 

[Snoop]

Completely off this topic, but can anyone explain how my original post has been duplicated on other forums? I didnt post these:
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/46774-Windows-8-1-Upgrade-Mandatory?p=779896#post779896
http://www.naijafinder.com/threads/786512-Windows-8-1-Upgrade-Mandatory#axzz2aeETGKf2

Is it some kind of bot which grabs topics from other forums?

 

[Mushkins]

Completely off this topic, but can anyone explain how my original post has been duplicated on other forums? I didnt post these:
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/46774-Windows-8-1-Upgrade-Mandatory?p=779896#post779896
http://www.naijafinder.com/threads/786512-Windows-8-1-Upgrade-Mandatory#axzz2aeETGKf2

Is it some kind of bot which grabs topics from other forums?

That naijafinder is definitely a fake forum with bots/crawlers duplicating posts from other forums. Probably to sucker add revenue from people going there with google searches, I doubt there are any real users.

The mydigitallife post is interesting though, my best guess would be that guys account is compromised in some way by a similar outfit. The rest of those posts look like legit responses. Not sure what they hope to gain by duping the post on another real forum.

 

[BrightCandle]

Windows 8.1 isn't really a service pack though. It changes quite a lot of the functionality, it is a minor OS update but nevertheless is one that could introduce incompatibility with software for Windows 8. They have even given it a different product number and incremented in such a way to tell us its a breaking change. I don't think calling a service pack is actually accurate in this case, MS is marketing it as its latest operating system and the forced upgrade is thus a new behaviour.

 

[Mushkins]

Windows 8.1 isn't really a service pack though. It changes quite a lot of the functionality, it is a minor OS update but nevertheless is one that could introduce incompatibility with software for Windows 8. They have even given it a different product number and incremented in such a way to tell us its a breaking change. I don't think calling a service pack is actually accurate in this case, MS is marketing it as its latest operating system and the forced upgrade is thus a new behaviour.

I'm not sure what to say, other than that's just not true. It's a major OS update being advertised and presented as such.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/380713/windows-8-1-release-date-new-features-screenshots/2

Most of the media is focusing on the UI tweaks, but there's considerable under-the-hood security and administrative features being added and tweaked as well. The distribution method matches service packs, the marketing matches service packs, the whole thing... matches service packs.

The only changes being made that will "break" functionality are for people who installed things that directly modify the OS shell, which is absolutely unsupported to begin with. You could make the same kinds of changes in Windows 7, and XP, and 98 as well, but there was no guarantee service packs or regular windows updates wouldn't break them. It's up to those individual app authors to make sure their stuff is compatible, it's not Microsofts responsibility to tip toe around them. The other usability changes are all specific to Microsoft developed apps and the core OS functionality. Unless your apps are hooking into those things, they won't just be randomly breaking x86 instructions all willy-nilly. Again, this is the same situation as any other OS update for any OS, small or large: maintaining compatibility and updating their products is up to the app developers.

With previous service packs, the OEM recovery disks weren't just labeled "Windows X", they were also labeled with which service pack they contained if any, and the product tags at Best Buy, Staples, Dell, and all the rest specified the OS as "Windows X with SP#", just like the new tags and the new disks are gonna be labeled "Windows 8.1." If anything, they're cutting through the marketing drivel and using actual well-established versioning naming conventions right in the product name.

There's honestly nothing surprising at all about 8.1 being a mandatory update. The initial reports of it being optional were the surprise if anything. MS has done a lot of shady, frustrating, and consumer unfriendly stuff over the years but this just isn't one of them.

 

[imagoon]

Windows 8.1 isn't really a service pack though. It changes quite a lot of the functionality, it is a minor OS update but nevertheless is one that could introduce incompatibility with software for Windows 8. They have even given it a different product number and incremented in such a way to tell us its a breaking change. I don't think calling a service pack is actually accurate in this case, MS is marketing it as its latest operating system and the forced upgrade is thus a new behaviour.

Windows XP SP3 did exactly this. This is a service pack and is typical MS. They would rename it otherwise. Like 2008 / 2008R2

 

[KentState]

I'm in favor of software corporations having a narrow focus on the products they produce and support. It is silly for MS to keep armies of engineers and developers on staff to support 8-10 year old software.

 

[Chiropteran]

It is a service pack, despite what the media is saying.

News organizations exaggerate to bring in viewers.

 

[corkyg]

Time to seriously think about moving to Linux or even Apple.

 

[Mem]

Time to seriously think about moving to Linux or even Apple.

You could not pay me to use Apple,as to Linux I use that anyway and have done so for many years just like my Windows.

End of the day its not a major issue for the average Win8 owner to upgrade to 8.1 down the road,we are always updating/upgrading,changing hardware etc in one way or another.

 

[imagoon]

Time to seriously think about moving to Linux or even Apple.

Because Apple never forces updates or abandons hardware like PowerPC or makes changes that disable apps that worked on previous dot revs of OS X.

Or Linux with drivers and kernel updates.

 

[ultimatebob]

Windows XP SP3 did exactly this. This is a service pack and is typical MS. They would rename it otherwise. Like 2008 / 2008R2

I thought that XP Service Pack 2 was the one where they made the big changes, like the new firewall and license key checking and whatnot. I remember businesses being pissed about that, since they had to do new system images.

Besides... Is this really a big deal for businesses? Most of them are still trying to get themselves upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7, and they don't give a damn about Windows 8 or 8.1.

 

[Mushkins]

I thought that XP Service Pack 2 was the one where they made the big changes, like the new firewall and license key checking and whatnot. I remember businesses being pissed about that, since they had to do new system images.

Oh no, new images, boo hoo In my experience the guys who make the images in a big business environment honestly have the time to spare to take an afternoon and have someone make a new image unless there's some sort of critical engineering or security related outage or a major project. It doesn't take *that* long to make a new image, they'll live New system images are a good thing. They streamline the deployment process and save the company money in the grand scheme of things. There's nothing worse than applying a 9 month old image and then leaving the PC sitting in a cube playing catch-up to 9 months of windows updates.

Besides... Is this really a big deal for businesses? Most of them are still trying to get themselves upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7, and they don't give a damn about Windows 8 or 8.1.

For big business, no. If they even choose to migrate to Windows 8 from whatever they're running, it's going to be assumed that 8.1 is already part of the base image when they move over. Either way, dealing with updates on that scale is all part of big business IT, it's just like every other mid-production cycle windows service pack they've ever deployed. They'll work with every department to test the crap out of it, have all the change controls and back out plans approved, and deploy it like any other major system update like they do all year long. Document the unavoidable minor bugs and their fixes, and send that info down to the desktop techs to stay late/come in early after the deployment to walk around and tweak anything they cant do via GPO or login scripts while glad-handing the users to make them feel better about something being different.

Where it really hurts is small business, who don't have that level of IT infrastructure, support and planning. They either have an outside managed services company that mostly does reactive break/fix and requested project work, or they have one guy they're trying to make cover every aspect of IT. Thats assuming they have anyone at all. These outfits dont have big buck deals with MS for enterprise Windows 7 licensing, they need a computer for the flower shop so they go to Best Buy and buy one or order one from Dell. And what do they get? The only thing available: Windows 8.

 

[FalseChristian]

I've heard that programs run a little faster on Windows 8.1 and, now, you can boot directly
to the desktop. Also, it's supposed to be far more secure than previous iterations of
Windows.

I'm using Windows 7 Home Premium and I absolutely love it. It's never crashed and I can still
run old games like Quake HD (Dark Places mod), Doom I/II with the graphic-enhancing JDoom
and, with DosBox v.74 I can still program in Qbasic.

I ain't 'upgrading' to Windows 8.1 until I absolutely have no choice just like with Windows XP.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Time to seriously think about moving to Linux or even Apple.

Linux still fails the user friendly test.

 

[Dufus]

Please stop referring to being like a Service Pack.

• Does windows update download and integrate it into the current OS. No.
• Does the Windows version information show a service pack installed. No
• Does a service pack change the major and minor windows version numbers of the OS. No
• Does 8.1 use the same minor windows version number as the current windows 8. No.

Operating system versions

Operating system    Version number
Windows 8                 6.2
Windows Server 2012       6.2
Windows 7                 6.1
Windows Server 2008 R2    6.1
Windows Server 2008       6.0
Windows Vista             6.0
Windows Server 2003 R2    5.2
Windows Server 2003       5.2
Windows XP 64-Bit Edition 5.2
Windows XP                5.1
Windows 2000              5.0

Windows 8.1 is version 6.3.

This is an upgrade even though it may be lacking in new features and is probably going to cause problems for many people.

I'm in favor of software corporations having a narrow focus on the products they produce and support. It is silly for MS to keep armies of engineers and developers on staff to support 8-10 year old software.

Well, if they didn't write software with security issues and bugs then they wouldn't have to give further support. It's not like they are adding new features as they become available.

 

[Rhonda the Sly]

If it includes a patch roll-up alongside the new stuff, it's basically a service pack.

Really though, who cares what it's called? It's patches, features, and required to get full support for the OS.