Blog

Uncategorised

Upgrading from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1

peter64m

Previous article /installing-windows-8-on-hyper-v

My goal is to have Windows 10 on a virtual machine. I have a running and activated installation of Windows 8, but I can’t get to Windows 10 from here.

Manually Install Edge

Skip this step if you plan to download the Windows 8.1 installer on a different machine.

Most of the Microsoft pages needed for the following step do not seem to render in Internet Explorer. I manually download the Edge installer on another machine. However, the download page appears to be OK in IE: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge then installed on the window 8 VM.

Download Window 8.1 ISO

The Windows 8.1 upgrade was originally a Windows 8 Store App. The Store is no longer supported. The update is completed using an ISO downloaded from Microsoft. In my case, I copy the ISO to the Hyper-V host and connect it to the guest CD drive. If you are installing on hardware, you will have to burn the image onto a DVD. Instructions: Update to Windows 8.1 from Windows 8. The download page is here: Download Windows 8.1 Disc Image (ISO File) Unless you know otherwise, choose the standard Window8.1 edition.

Upgrade

This process differs somewhat from the instructions in the link above. Apart from downloading the ISO, it appears to be describing the obsolete ‘Store’ procedure.

I probably could have installed Windows 8.1 directly.

  • Run Setup.exe from the DVD
  • Choose if you want to install updates
  • Enter Product key. Use the key from your Windows 8 Installation media. (I don’t know what happens if you are upgrading an OEM installation. Hopefully the BIOS embedded key is accessed)
  • Accept the License terms
  • Choose what to keep: Personal files or nothing
  • Start the installation

Files are copied and the machine reboots.

On reboot, all the usual setting are entered, the machine installs some updates and reboots again. Login, and you are good to go

Computing

Installing Windows 8 on Hyper-V

peter64m

I have had a XEN/QEMU VM running Windows 10 for some time. The goal was to have a windows machine available remotely to me all the time. I wasn’t very successful. It was sharing a Celeron Powered NUC with only a single Virtual processor and 2GB of RAM assigned to it. Performance was never satisfactory, and at some point it lost its activated status. It was unusable and ignored for a couple of years.

I have recently wanted to get a new Windows 10 VM running to test application software and deployment for my work. reusing this surplus Windows license seemed like the way to go.

The Windows installation was a Windows 10 upgrade from a Windows 8 retail pack. If I want to use it again on different hardware, I figure that my only chance is to install Windows 8, then go through the process of upgrading to Window 8.1, then finally, 10.

So, on to installing Windows 8

  • Copied the installation disk to an ISO image
  • Created a new Virtual machine with Hyper-V Manager
  • Start the installation using the ISO and the original Product Key from the Windows 8 package

Getting Windows to Activate

Entering the key from the media package during installation did not appear to have successfully activated Windows. Manually entering the key in the settings app. was also unsuccessful. The following video solved my problem. I have tried similar solutions, unsuccessfully, on other machines in the past. I think in those cases I was trying to use an OEM license on new hardware

Updating Windows Update

After getting Windows 8 activated and running, the next goal was to get the updates installed. Unfortunately, Windows update wouldn’t play nice. No updates and Error: 0x80072efe. A bit of searching and a couple of futile changes to the Hyper-V settings, it appeared to be a case of Windows Update needing to be updated before it could connect to the server. I recall having this problem with an earlier version of Windows when installing it long after end of support. A bit more searching gave me the Update to Microsoft Update client (KB2937636): https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/topic/update-to-microsoft-update-client-80891e31-29ed-510d-819b-a4c4ee4aa1b7, the Windows Update Standalone Installer.

After running for some time searching the machine for updates, it offers to install 1 update. After installing and restarting, Windows Update will update itself again. After that is appears to work as normal. 141 Important updates.