Windows 8.1 Update 1: Having issues with it on your Alienware?

Hail to everyone fellow alienwarers,
Today microzoft officially released the update 1,which came to my ears is just an aestethic mod with some new features,fixes,and fancy goods. But to be sure,I may ask you,are there any compatibility issues with the AW system and programs like there were with 8.1? Also,did someone tried it out already??

 

For desktop users there are more changes to default behaviour. After the Window 8.1 Update your computer will boot to the Desktop instead of the start screen, closing an app takes you to the previously used app and closing all apps takes you to the desktop. Pictures, music and video files all open with desktop applications rather than the Modern app.
What you don't get

You won't get the new Start menu that was announced at the Build conference at the start of April. That, says Microsoft, will come in a future further update. Yes, you will have to update the update at a later time.

i will try it today..

 

I haven't heard anything yet, but I sure hope it does not destroy all of my UI tweaks the way that going from Windows 8 to 8.1 did. I basically had a pile of crap default UI and had to start over again from scratch on tons of stuff I had done to make Windows 8 not so disgusting to look at. Some of the stuff (i.e. Aero Glass 8) was not supported and I had to wait for the developer to redo everything on his end. Such a pain for everyone involved, LOL.

Edit: Looks like Aero Glass 8 will have support. There's nothing I can see that is compelling unless you use Windows 8 Microsoft's way. Most of the enhancements are geared toward Modern UI fanboys and the stuff that is useful makes Windows 8.1 SP1 more of a desktop centric UI. If you're like me and basically used the desktop UI exclusively and avoid the Modern UI manure this won't be anything to get excited about. Here's a video highlighting the stuff in the update.

<iframe width='640' height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/3oIn7cSJbZ8" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

 

OK, so I just downloaded it and hope nothing blows up. Hopefully, everything will still work. It did not going from Windows 8 to 8.1, and if this stuff (in video) is messed up, I'm not going to be a happy camper.

[parsehtml]<iframe width='640' height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/qrmGq9uVdSE" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen=""></iframe>[/parsehtml]Edit #1: Windows 8.1 Update 1 failed... Windows tried to apply it several times, rebooted and tried again, but could not. Attempt #2 is pending. Oddly enough, Windows Update also attempted to install an update for an HP printer model that I do not own, have never owned, and that failed, too. (I hate HP and don't have any HP printers, so this is really strange.)

 

I have same problem up got to 98% then failed. Maybe there servers are overloaded!

Edit: Waited about 20 after second attempt and it finally worked.

 

Not a success for me. Update seemed to go ok, then it rebooted to install the updates. Went to 30%, screen went black. Stuck at boot now, cannot get anywhere. No F8 on startup or recovery options available.

 

That's truly unfortunate, have you tried putting the installation disc in and trying a restore?

 

you need to be on windows 8.1 for it to work..... + all last update.

i was on windows 8.1 so i installed the 5 file in order ... and it worked . reboot for 3 of the patches ... after install i lost my StartisBack start menu replacement, i re-installed it and everything works as usual and gaming still works nothing bad to report.

 

I'm on 8.1 already, all available updates were applied, and it has still failed like 5 times in the last 2 days. If I look in my Windows Update history it says that Update 1 is installed, but it's not. It shows up as available in new Windows Updates, it downloads fully and the installation fails... roughly 30% every time. It retries once or twice, reboots and tries again, then rolls back without any information about why.

Not sure what the deal is, but this kind of thing seems like it's getting more and more common with Micro$oft. I've had so many problems with Windows Update screwing up my OS installations in the past couple of years it's not even funny. I have it completely disabled on my Windows 7 systems because I'm tired of fixing their messes.

I'm going to try to apply it again, but it's not that important in the grand scheme of things. Most of the features in Update 1 are totally unimportant to me because they're mostly Modern UI fixes and I use the desktop almost exclusive. The vast majority of the apps are worthless fluff.

 

Updated to the latest update. No problem whatsoever on my part. Nothing different too that I could notice immediately, except that apps now has a "X" for closing.

 

It was frustrating to say the least, with all recovery options having to boot Win 8 first.

I burned an installation disk, but none of the options did anything for me.

Decided to just do a clean install of Windows. First got a "drive locked" error on all drive, so I had to format them all. Luckily, my data is preserved on my nas / cloud storage so not a really big deal. However, I am still stuck with one "unknown device" in device manager and switching to IGP is not possible.

Might want to locate the recovery USB I created with AlienRespawn. Would be an improvement over the clean install, but I never completely tested it. Had some difficulties with the size of the SSD I need the OS on being smaller than my normaal HDD.

 

Yeah, Windows 8/8.1 is such a pile of crap. I just tried again. This (in spoiler) is what I saw before trying... Honestly, I don't know why I even bother messing with it any more, because is so inferior to Windows 7. It has nothing extraordinary to offer and is so full of worthless gimmicks that it's not even funny. I basically only have it to be able to provide support to folks that use it and for Fire Strike benchmarks, since it's the only benchmark that works better with Windows 8. People used to complain about HP, Acer, Dell, Sony and others putting bloatware on a factory OS installation, but Micro$lop has them all beat hands down with the bloatware trash Windows 8 crapps from the Windows Store.

Spoiler

I think I have seen this close to a dozen times in the past 2 days now...

After this last installation attempt failed again things are worse. Now I have SkyDrive, which I absolutely do not want and intentionally avoided installing it. It didn't ask me, it just did it... stinking Micro$lop Gestapo tactics. All of my user folders (Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos) are no longer associated with my user account, I don't have "permission" to open them (I'll fix that easily enough, but my goodness... I shouldn't need to and they shouldn't even be messing with that). And, now I am getting .Net Framework crashes. AWCC has crashed twice and shutting down Windoze hangs with a message that .Net is preventing my system from shutting down.

As I am ready to upload the images in the spoiler, I see this turd update has also even messed up my program/file associations. My normal image editing app is no longer associated with photo file formats and something is screwed up with the built in garbage Metro Photos app provided by Microturd. I never use this piece of garbage app, but apparently they know what's best for me and think I need to. Nice job by the morons from Redmond! MSVCR90.dll wasn't missing before Windows Update decided to help me out by either deleting it or un-registering it for me.

​

I saw a couple of articles where these losers are bragging about how much they have done with Windows 8 in so few months. I think they need to focus on actually doing something right and stop slopping their way through things in such a haphazard manner. Sorry to rant, but I've just had a gut full of Micro$oft's incompetence.

I guess I will try System Restore and if that does not work I will restore my drive image for Windows 8.1 and disable Windows Update the same as I have for Windows 7.

Edit #1: OK, more fun and games from Micro$haft... all of my System Restore points from before this update are gone now and it looks like Windows doesn't know that it's "Pro with Media Center" any more. Where's a drone armed with WMD's when you really need one? LOL. I'm about ready to just say screw the whole thing and use the drive space for something more useful than this turd called Windows 8. I think maybe I should start dual booting Windows 7 with XP. Now that Micro$haft is no longer supporting (screwing up) XP with updates, that should be their most stable OS yet.



Edit #2: Well, shoot. Can't find any way to uninstall that pile of dukey SkyDrive slopware that got installed by the update. I even looked in the "Turn Windows Features off" and nothing there.

 

Dam Bro Fox, that sounds the worst. Nothing I hate more than bloatware being forced upon me. Reminds me of trying to tell Norton Antivirus mafia to screw off on an older Laptop I had. Same with HP products sneaking in stupid Bing bars in printer software. I'll never purchase a sleazy HP product again. One must go through hell to remove them these days - it's disgusting.
Micro$haft (you had me loling) has decided to delete my manually created restore points as it feels on more than one occasion too. Honestly the person responsible for that in that dev team needs a kick in the sack and a career change.

 

Mine shows up fine as Windows 8.1 Pro.

Regarding Skydrive, it's no longer called Skydrive, they changed it to OneDrive. To disable it, open up local group policy editor, go to "Computer Configuration" -> "Administrative Templates" -> "Windows Components" -> "OneDrive".

There are 3 settings, you want to disable "Save documents to OneDrive by default", and disable the other two, "Prevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage" and "Prevent OneDrive files from syncing over metered connections".

I found on OneDrive FAQ that it cannot be uninstalled. Duh...

OneDrive: FAQ - Microsoft Windows Help

There are some suggestions here that deals it. You can either do it through Group Policy (need to have Win 8.1 Pro), if not, do it through registry.

Replace OneDrive with Dropbox in Windows 8.1 - Super User

 

Nope, it's literally called SkyDrive on this end now. The folder on my drive and the application itself used the name SkyDrive, not OneDrive. I got all of the emails about them renaming it, but something just went way wrong with the entire update process. But, that's all history now. I said screw the whole Update 1 thing and wrote my old image to disk and then disabled Windows Update with Group Policy Editor. I won't be bothered by it again, since the only reason I am even allowing this pathetic abortion of an OS to remain is for Fire Strike benchmarks. For literally everything else, Windows 7 rules.

I was not joking about XP replacing Windows 8... the more I use it, the more agitated I get with it. There's no excuse for them making something this lousy. If all of the software I use worked flawlessly with Linux, I'd ditch Windows entirely, but it does not and I don't expect Linux to ever be a full-fledged Windows replacement, so here are today. I used to admire Micro$shaft, but since Gates stopped being in control of everything they have become an object of disgust and disappointment to me, and I no longer admire the empire. I admire him and all he has done for the tech world, but the people he left in control are incompetent imbeciles.

Based on their aesthetic choices that show up in WindersHate, they should be working for Martha Stewart or Better Homes and Gardens rather than Micro$shaft. I mean c'mon... a Metallica or Gears of War theme would be nice, and a heckuvalot better than a Hello Kitty motif. When I touch a Windows 8 system that I haven't completely torn up with my tweaks it feels like a watercolor paint bomb went off inside the PC with all the idiotic white and pastel colors without Aero transparency.

I use free Cloud space for junk anywhere I can find it being offered, but I hate having their bloatware integrated in my OS. When I want to upload something, I'll do it manually through a browser. To me the idea of having it sync is retarded. For me the bright idea is to put stuff there for later retrieval and free up space on my system, not have a duplicate copy of everything in the cloud. I have Windows 7 and 8 and 8.1 OS installation media ISO files and other large file stuff like that stored on my web folders, then it's easy to share them and any other files with other peeps whenever I want to.

 

Mr. Fox, you're killing me, LOL. "hello kitty motif" "feels like a watercolor paint bomb went off inside the PC with all idiotic white and pastel colors"

It's hilarious because it's true. Micro$haft..

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

I'm not getting the point of SkyDrive stucked to your OS like a parasite.. I mean, I don't like it, I don't want it, you can disable all its features so it will not run anymore,but yet you cant uninstall it? Why? What's the point of this?? It sounds like the tale of the Kinect and the XboX one,again something made in microsoft

 

I disabled skydrive integration via group policy editor on 8.1

 

So... we will have to wait to the next change of minds at Micro$haft (or is it Nano$haft?) before they attempt any Windows 9...

( Don't we heard of this somewhere else? Are we lost in a new one-dimensional black holed version of "Forward to the Past"? or is just a more idiotic non-sense Vista like "Déjà vu?"?)

So sad...

 

I have to ask... if most people in the thread don't like windows 8, then why are you using it? It seems like yall are hitting your head against the wall for nothing... or maybe you just like it...

 

Okay mine installed via windows update without a single issue.

To be honest it hasn't made the greatest of difference to my life as I never use any of the WIndows store apps I always use desktop. On my Surface 2 its made even less of a noticeable difference lol

 

I'm sure you have heard of "the Book of the 1001 Nights" story of Aladdyn and the evil one offering to exchange old ("magic") lamps for a shiny new lamp...?

Seems that people never learn...

 

i have it because first i needed to learn a bout it ... for my job.. and second because ms force windows 8 for DX11.2 and probably 12 ...

 

I guess I am lucky... I like metro but I can do everything I need from it... but then again I am only using autocad 2013 and adobe stuff and a couple other things like some games... I have been really lucky that I haven't had windows break anything... just so much hate for microsoft in the post that it has come down to calling them names...

 

I'm not anymore. I used it for the better part of a year, and didn't enjoy the experience. It required too much tweaking and going out of my own way for a power machine.

I do have Windows 8.1 on an ultrabook, but even then I just tolerate it.

 

I already posted my answer(s), but I can't speak for anyone else. I am assuming some made the common mistake of ordering a new Alienware with Windows 8 instead of Windows 7. I hate the Windows 8 UI, but I have fixed just about everything I hate about it through third-party software and registry hacks, so UI ugliness aside, that's not a primary reason.

Holistically, I have a growing sense of contempt for the command and control approach to things that we see coming from Micro$haft... a very Mac-like approach that goes against the grain and makes my hairs stand on end. Their new way of doing things demonstrates what looks like an assumed role as our tech nanny (a soft expression for their Gestapo approach as a self-appointed as techno-god) that presumes to know what is best for everyone, and they are the driving force behind filth like Secure Boot and Secure Flash.

For me it really boils down to three simple reasons I have it installed:

(1) I like to stay current, even when I don't like what is current;
(2) I need to support people that are using it, so I need to be familiar with it; and,
(3) Benching... more specifically, Fire Strike benchmark likes Windows 8. Pretty much all of the other benchmarks do better with Windows 7, but Fire Strike scores are higher with Windows 8 for some reason. HWBOT.org also disqualifies some benchmarks run under Windows 8 because it produces inconsistent results that cause system performance appear to be higher than what it actually is. The reason I don't replace Windows 7 entirely with Windows 8 is the fact that it does something very naughty to cripple CPU performance. It's not obvious in normal use, but it's very obvious with CPU benchmarks. It takes a big hit in performance.

OK, on the subject of Windows 8.1 Update 1 installation failures. It looks like this is fairly widespread and affecting many users with symptoms similar to what a few of us have already encountered. Here are a couple of links on the subject.

KB2919355 (Windows 8.1 Update) Fails (800f0092 and 80073712) on Windows 8.1 Pro w Media Center

Microsoft removes Windows 8.1 Update from WSUS update servers

So that more Alienware owners get a chance to see it, I am going to move this to the main Alienware forum and change the thread title.

Edit: More examples...

Windows 8.1 update 1 (kb2919355) failure with error code 800700B7

Windows 8.1 update fails to installs

 

Yeah, the symptoms you encountered seemed like things that wouldn't be specific to any particular manufacturer. It's unfortunate that for every good thing I see Microsoft doing lately, they screw up a dozen other things.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

Howdy Everyone,

It's pretty weird, as I have had zero problems directly with Windows 8 on my M17xR4. I did have some severe driver issues with Enduro and the Killer NIC under Windows 8, but I have had no problems with the Microsoft updates. I have had the same install of Windows 8 since Oct 2012, and updated to 8.1 and now to 8.1 Update 1. I am curious if there is some combination of 3rd party tweaks that could be causing issues with the updates? I don't have any non-MS tweaks applied to my install. One of the biggest complaints I have with Windows 8, actually kind of reminds me of Windows Me. Microsoft went to some great lengths to "dumb" down Windows with this release, and many settings and features that we have come to understand with Windows behave radically different under Windows 8. A prime example is when your system fails to boot. Instead of just halting and presenting a marginally useful blue screen, it instead reboots and tries to solve the issue itself. I had about 50/50 success rate with this back in Oct of 2012 (installing the wrong drivers with Enduro on puts Win 8 in a reboot loop from hell). I found out that the best way to recover this is to boot from your Win 8 installation media, so that you can get into the recovery environment easier. Windows Me is famous for going too far at hiding its 9x roots, to the point of making the whole OS unstable. If you pressed ESC at the Windows Me splash screen, it would usually result in a bluescreen LOL.

Rich S.

 

It definitely could be the third-party tweaks and all of my registry hacks to make it palatable, but I am not willing to give them up and live with the pile of crap Windows 8 is by default without them... just ain't gonna happen.

I tend to think possibly not because it looks like perhaps hundreds, if not thousands, of other Windows 8.1 users are having the same issues. Of course, if most of them hate Windows 8's UI and have third-party tweaks to fix the mess called Metro, that could also be very widespread. It is abundantly clear that there are perhaps millions of Windows 8/8.1 users that don't like it and that's why the tweaks are wildly successful. Whatever it is, it's Micro$shaft's fault for releasing Update 1 before it was ready for prime time... can't be considered ready with this many reported failures within 48 hours.

I just loaded a clean drive image and tried one last time before throwing in the towel on this, and the end result is the same. All the updates, including the new one show as "successful" and this new one is listed twice, yet it fails during the installation process, is not installed and shows as being available for download. Have a peek at the screen shot.

 

Interesting, cos i installed the 8.1 update and it installed but now it's showing another 8.1 update which is 2mb.

EDIT: now it is not showing any new updates after the 2mb update.

I am wondering if it is because some people are using the Dell provided version of 8.1 or an OEM version of 8.1 cos I am using an OEM version and it installed after 2 updates and it doesn't give me the issues as others have expressed.

 

Try restoring default System temp folder directory (%SystemRoot%\TEMP) before installing KB2919355, the second one is KB2934018 126MB released on ‎April ‎8, not included MSDN ISOs , Ballmer's legacy...
Uninstall + system restore KB2919355 then manually install it from here (KB2934018 included) Download Windows 8.1 Update for x64-based Systems (KB2919355) from Official Microsoft Download Center KB2919355 -> KB2932046 -> KB2937592 -> KB2938439 -> KB2934018

 

Not likely. I suspect its Micro$haft's incompetence. They didn't build Windows 8 correctly to begin with, so there's no reason to have any faith that they know how to fix it. There are way too many people all over the world having issues to try to pin this on Dell. I am running a generic flavor purchased directly from Micro$haft and clean installed using ISO/USB. It could be the fact that many, maybe even 75% or higher, of Windows 8 users have at least Start8 or Classic Start Menu installed because they hate Windows 8 in its default form. I'll look for the article, but I remember reading that there are more Start8 and free equivalent apps in use than there are recorded sales of Windows 8.

This was already attempted previously. I will try it one more time because I did not try it after restoring my OS from image. The first attempt to install this update basically ruined my OS.

 

Verify, cmd ( admin)

Code:

reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion" | findstr BuildLabEx

 

Same as previous attempts... Windows Updates has already deleted all of my previous System Restore points so there is nothing available to restore. %SystemRoot%\TEMP was already set as the Environment Variable.

 

Uninstalled under installed updates ? if so clean install...

 

did many people start with 8 then went to 8.1 and then again to 8.1.1? i went straight from 8.1 to 8.1.1 and it isn't asking me to install any more related 8.1 updates.

 

Oh damn, I just Install it without even read this thread...... It is the update that cost almost 900mb update size ??

Lucky me, mine success installing it at the first try...... let me check if I miss the restore point too.....

 

Thanks a tons for the suggestions... I really do appreciate it.

This is extremely frustrating and really reinforces my contempt for Windows 8. My "conqueror" ways decided not to give up. So, in an attempt to show my beast who is the boss, I did a clean install of 8.1 using ISO.

Activated Windows, but installed nothing else whatsoever. I am even using "Microsoft Basic Display Adapter" (no third-party drivers), no tweaks of any kind. Installed all available Windows Updates. Nothing is installed except for Windows, Windows Updates and native drivers, but Windows 8.1 Update 1 continues to fail. Under Windows Update History, Windows 8.1 Update for x64-based Systems (KB2919355) is listed multiple times showing "Successful" as the status. However, it is NOT installed and it continues to appear as an available update when I run Windows Update.

At this point I don't know what to do other than wait for Microsoft to get their act together and make things right. This is downright pathetic. Until then I suppose I will just restore the image of the severely tweaked version of Windows 8.1 that I don't find utterly disgusting. The slur "Micro$shaft" seems even more fitting at this point.

 

well, if you can get a hold of an 8.1 DVD would it be easier cos an 8 key would still be valid under 8.1 right? i know it sounds stupid to go to all the effort to get an 8.1 ISO but it's just a thought cos it seems that there's something broken in the update process from 8 to 8.1 that's causing the 8.1.1 update to fail for some.

 

Maybe you accidentally missed what I said. I did a clean install from Windows 8.1 ISO. I did not go through the idiotic update/upgrade process that Micro$haft expects people to. However, it is not the Win8>Win8.1 upgrade (an extremely stupid process) that is causing it since I did not do that. I agree with you... something is broken, but it's not clear what since it happens to both clean installed and updated systems. Yes, Windows 8 key works fine and activates for me just fine. It's very odd, to say least. Since I have nothing "extra" installed we can't place blame on anyone except Micro$haft for releasing more garbage.

As I mentioned, I don't even have NVIDIA drivers installed. I thought maybe something unusual might be causing it, so I have made a point of not installing anything that does not come directly from Micro$haft. The only thing I have not tried is enabling UEFI in the BIOS (I am using pure legacy, not legacy option rom) and switching to Intel HD Graphics. I am going try both of those things before I finally give up permanently.

Sick of seeing this... KB2919355 is the only update that failed and no other updates are available for download.

 

ah fair enough, my bad.

 

No worries, I appreciate any suggestions. It's a really odd problem.

It's not like it is all that important since Windows 7 remains my primary OS, but I don't like "not winning" (not finding a solution) at something.

Here... look at this screen shot. Same thing before I tried doing a clean install.

 

very strange indeed.

 

KB2919442 Download Update for Windows 8.1 for x64-based Systems (KB2919442) from Official Microsoft Download Center 'was' required before you install KB2919355.

Win8.1 iso clean install, manually upgrading.
KB2883200 -> before installing check under installed updates
KB2884846
KB2887595
KB2903939
KB2911106
KB2919442
KB2919355 update 1
KB2932046
KB2937592
KB2938439 -> Build 9600.17031
KB2934018 -> Build 9600.17041

Win8.1 Pro Build 9600.17041

 

I'd be surprised if that works

Sent from my One using Tapatalk

 

Win8.1 with update 1, clean install


KB2919355 is KB2934018 which failed twice 50% download, due to firewall issues.

 

KB2919442 was installed already. I made sure it was because I read that it needed to be installed before Update 1.

 

That sucks.

Sent from my One using Tapatalk

 

That is really strange... If it was a third-party tweak conflict, the clean install should have fixed that. The two other possibilities that spring to mind are "hardware" issues or something with the dual-boot configuration. I had an issue with Windows Vista (ironically) that manifested as a BSOD after a failed Windows update. The BSOD persisted even trying to boot into safe mode. I then attempted to install Windows XP Pro into another folder so that I could get a working system, and Windows XP Setup would BSOD too. I actually called up MS for support, as the BSOD message was very consistent and reported the same code in both OS's. The MS techs had no clue, and gave me no help. At that point I was so frustrated I almost broke down and purchased a Mac Pro (back during the time when the price delta between Windows PCs and Macs was at an all-time low) to be done with it. At some point, I found myself in Microcenter and decided to speak to their "techs," I had little hope that they would be able to help, but the tech I spoke with mentioned something about master boot records among the other nonsense mentioned, and it got me thinking..... When I went home, I booted off of the Windows VIsta DVD and got into recovery mode (no GUI), and rebuilt the MBR. Viola! That solved it. The BSOD code was pointing at the hard drive, and I had done everything to keep my data (no backups at that point), so I never formatted or messed with the partitions. The crash that occurred during the failed Windows Vista corrupted a few bits of the MBR, but not enough for Chkdsk to notice a problem. I spent almost 2 weeks on this, only to find out that a simple chkdsk /mbr was the solution So it was a "hardware" issue that was fixed by software.....

 

I've run into issues like that in the past, but in this case it's only a specific Windows Update that is repeatedly failing. I suppose it is possible that Micro$haft tried to sneak in another requirement that requires compliance with their advancing roadmap to UEFI Secure Boot/Secure Flash nastiness. But, I suspect it's just something they overlooked by rushing the release of this update before it was ready for prime time. This problem is affecting too many people with ordinary computers for it to be clearly understood. It's probably something really simple, too.