Just installed Windows 8.1 Update 1 - A Report

[glricht]

Thought others might be interested in what we encountered while doing our first Windows 8.1 Update 1 install.

We're an onsite-only business with a large number of residential customers. Been doing a ton of migrations from old PCs to Win 8 over the last few months. Initially, the new PCs were 8.0, but now most are coming with 8.1 already installed.

As many are aware, 8.1 Update 1 was placed on TechNet last week and will be made available to the general public next Tuesday (4/8) via the Windows Update (WU) process.

I wanted to get some hands-on experience with Update 1, so I downloaded it from TechNet and applied it to a Win 8.1 Pro on one of our test machines. (Aside: don't know what I'll do in the future when my TechNet subscription disappears.)

• The download is a zip file, one for x64 and one for x86. I downloaded both for completeness.
• The x64 zip is 800MB - am guessing the WU version will be similar in size
• The zip contained 6 individual KBxxxxxxx.MSU files plus a "readme.txt"
• The MSUs must be installed separately and in a specific order. The readme.txt contains the info. Must reboot between each MSU.
• Total install time was about an hour

Will be interested to see if the WU version will be one update or multiple updates.

Some observations:

• Right-clicking "This PC" still shows "Win 8.1 Pro", there is no indication that Update 1 has been applied!
• Checked the list of Windows updates, but only two of the updates are listed! (That's a little disconcerting.)
• The list of installed programs doesn't show Update 1 either, but that may change with the official WU install process.
• Update 1 does appear to be installed though. The Windows Store icon is on the desktop taskbar, there's a power-off and search icon in the upper-right of the Window 8 start screen, and moving the mouse to the top of the screen in a Win 8 app now shows the "red-X" in the upper-right corner.
• For now, if I need to know if Update 1 has been installed on a PC, I guess I'll check if the Win 8 start screen has a "turn off" button. Sure wish there was some more definitive way. Hopefully somebody can tell me I've overlooked something

p.s. Almost forgot, both the built-in Windows Defender security and Classic Shell were active during the update. After the update, both are still working just fine.

Hope this helps somebody.

 

[MikeLierman]

Im pretty positive Update 1 isn't meant to be a service pack sort of thing. 8.1 was essentially a service pack to 8. Update 1 is just a series of .msu update packages that fix a few things they forgot. Likely it will be rolled into 8.1 moving forward.

My biggest cheers for Update 1 is unifying the start screen apps with the desktop. Showing taskbar icons for app store apps and having a title bar on apps with a minimize and close. That's been needed for a while. I've had customers get so frustrated after opening a full screen app like Photos, couldn't find a way to close it, so they pull the plug on the computer.

 

[nlinecomputers]

SO this doesn't have a start menu as some news outlets reported that it would?

 

[MikeLierman]

Nlinecomputers: Update 1 was not planned to have the new startmenu. But I can assure you there are no changes to the start button and no menu is present in Update 1. (I have manually installed it on all of my machines.) All reports I have read said that the new hybrid startmenu will appear in a later update.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Nlinecomputers: Update 1 was not planned to have the new startmenu. But I can assure you there are no changes to the start button and no menu is present in Update 1. (I have manually installed it on all of my machines.) All reports I have read said that the new hybrid startmenu will appear in a later update.

Yes I know it doesn't. Should have used the /sarcasm tag.

 

[johnrobert]

So they pull the plug on the computer

I told one of my customers about no way to close other than alt/F4
And he didn’t believe me saying I know nothing, Microsoft would never do a thing like that.

 

[MikeLierman]

I've told then not to pull the plug. Lol. Told them about pressing ESC or Alt-F4. Must of them freak out and forget. -_-

 

[gunslinger]

Im pretty positive Update 1 isn't meant to be a service pack sort of thing. 8.1 was essentially a service pack to 8. Update 1 is just a series of .msu update packages that fix a few things they forgot. Likely it will be rolled into 8.1 moving forward.

My biggest cheers for Update 1 is unifying the start screen apps with the desktop. Showing taskbar icons for app store apps and having a title bar on apps with a minimize and close. That's been needed for a while. I've had customers get so frustrated after opening a full screen app like Photos, couldn't find a way to close it, so they pull the plug on the computer.

Funny. I could have swore that Microsoft had that whole menu thing down pretty well in Windows 7. I'm one of those people. When I first started playing with Win 8 in a VM I could not get out of apps and key combos didn't work. I ended up just force closing the VM. What a piece of garbage.

Who in their right mind designs a UI where you have to know secret key combinations in order to quit an app?

 

[Altster]

Who in their right mind designs a UI where you have to know secret key combinations in order to quit an app?

I believe you could refer to them as the "unemployed software design team for M$ 8.?"

 

[Bootman 650]

When will this update be available?

 

[gunslinger]

I believe you could refer to them as the "unemployed software design team for M$ 8.?"

True...lol

 

[PBComputer]

When will this update be available?

They are available now. You first need to run windows update to install all the latest patches. you can then download it from here

X64 http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42335
X32 http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42327

I have also just read if you are running 8.1 you must install update 1 for contunue recieving updates after May 2014 (making Windows 8.1 EOL May 2014 or it looks that way)

 

[Rocco]

Does update 1 require setting up all the user profiles like 8.1 did?

 

[PBComputer]

No it installs just like a normal update from wu. The links above are for offline installation, you can install direct from wu

 

[MikeLierman]

Does update 1 require setting up all the user profiles like 8.1 did?

The implementation of 8.1 was bad. It wasn't really even a service pack. It was basically an "in-place upgrade." It would reinstall Windows. Still not sure why they did this over the Windows Store as oppose to Windows Update. Yuck. Have customers walk in all the time that don't have 8.1.

 

[Rocco]

The implementation of 8.1 was bad. It wasn't really even a service pack. It was basically an "in-place upgrade." It would reinstall Windows. Still not sure why they did this over the Windows Store as oppose to Windows Update. Yuck. Have customers walk in all the time that don't have 8.1.

I was over at a friends house looking at his computer, he was showing me something, and the pop-up came up saying 8.1 was out. I had read some stuff about what was in the update, but nothing about implementing it. I thought it was just another freaking update, like every other Microsoft OS update. He was a little upset about it in the end, and frankly so was I.

 

[bertie40]

Incidentally, update 1 has been included in wsusoffline, although you probably already know this.

 

[tim fitzgerald]

In answer to your question, "How do you know if windows 8.1 update has been installed, If you look at the start page & you see a search Icon (magnifing glass) it was installed. I know that sounds lake I made it up but no really thats how microsoft told me how to check when I called them.

 

[Rocco]

What is your favorite update to 8.1 update 1? I think the one I love the most is the power off/reset button being added to the start screen. Press Windows key, there it is!

 

[Altster]

So they pull the plug on the computer

I told one of my customers about no way to close other than alt/F4
And he didn’t believe me saying I know nothing, Microsoft would never do a thing like that.

Now that's funny. I have (at many other web sites) been using the "AltF4" username for quite some time. In fact for many years!