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Old April 9th 18, 03:03 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Big Al[_5_]
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Posts: 1,588
Default upgrading to Windows 8.1

On 04/08/2018 07:28 PM, malone wrote:

I have been given a five-year old laptop with Window 8 and want to
upgrade it to Windows 8.1.

I went to the Windows store and clicked "download" on the "Upgrade to
Windows 8.1" page. After a short period it came back with "Something
happened and the installation of Windows 8.1 can't be completed."

"Something happened.."!! Well, we all know that Microsoft error messages
can be enigmatic, if not totally useless. But Microsoft appears to have
reached a new low with "Something happened"!

Can anyone suggest how I can discover a more useful reason for this
failure? Or another way of upgrading to Windows 8.1?


If you have a Win 8 key and some day do a full reload, IIRC by default
you can't load 8.1 directly since your key is for 8.
http://old.windowsvalley.com/install...t-product-key/
This article explains a small mod to the ISO to allow you to bypass the
demand for the license key at install time. I did it for a Windows 8.1
ISO so that I would not have to go through the process of loading 8 then
doing the upgrade. Leaves a lot less trash in directories.

I didn't use WinRar or the Windows ADK, I found Power ISO would allow
direct editing of the ei.cfg on the ISO and maintain the bootable
functionality of it.
So now I have a bootable 8.1 USB.

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