My laptop run windows 8.
I decided to download the windows 8.1.
After the set up a message appears says that windows 8.1 cannot
install and my windows will be 8.
Any ideas

Thanks in advance.

Was the Windows 8.1 upgrade available for you to download from the Store?

Your computer must be completely updated before the 8.1 upgrade is available in the Store. If you tried to upgrade another way, it won't work if your updates aren't current.

Also, can you give us the message word-for-word?

It says that 8.1 is now available to upgrade and if I want to do it.
I confirm yes and startred to upgrade.
After an hour I restard my p.c (when finished)and then set up.
When it was done a message appears that windows 8.1 could not install and it will
return in windows 8.
Some numbers where in the message with 88 something, I cannot recall.

You might find this link useful - Your Windows 8.1 install couldn’t be completed error

In my case Windows 8.1 update download was complete,when the message appears
and yes the Windows 8.1 upgrade was available to download from the Store.

I'm just jealous that your 8.1 download only took an hour! This 3+ GB file took almost 24 hours for me... I'm very grateful for my wireless broadband because otherwise I'd still be on dial-up, but I HATE being throttled after only 65 MB.

I do have a question though - you said YOU restarted your PC. Was there a message on the screen telling you to restart?

Yes,it said that to complete the upgrade you must restart your p.c
I'll try again,thanks anyway.

When you try again, please make not of the exact message and any error numbers there might be. But, maybe it will install just fine this time!

Nop,the message is this:
Sorry,we couldn't complete to update windows 8.1.
We restored your previous version of windows to this p.c

0x800706BE-0x20003

According to this
http://qnundrum.com/answer.php?q=981116
the failure of the 8.1 update may be due to a problem on Microsoft's side.
There doesn't seem to be anything the user can do except try again.

There may be a problem updating the tweaked version of Windows 8 that's running on your laptop (assuming you're using the Windows 8 that shipped with the laptop and not a retail version of Windows 8).

Having "updated" from Windows 8 to 8.1 on one of my computers, I wouldn't recommend the update.
Just keep your Windows security updates up to date.

Wait a couple of months and try again with 8.1 if you really want the update.
But it brought no improvements to my computer, and may have slowed it down.
It's not a necessary update, and unless you want to "prettify" the Start screen there's not much it will do for you.

Whether this is relevant or not, who knows but I have a Toshiba laptop with Win 7. I won't play games on it but could.

Then last month I bought a new "Gamers Desktop" at great expense and it came with Win 8.1. Everyone said I would hate Win 8.1 but I haven't. After the initial quandary about "what is this?" after the XP desktop ... I found it quite intuitive. I learned quickly how to have my usual desktop. How to find how to ......

I have installed various games to see whether they work ... most do. Some really older games don't but I rarely replay games anyhow.

So. Go for it. Amazingly this new PC has:

i7-3820 Processor 3.6GHz
32 GB RAM
2 GB AMD Radeon HD7870 graphics card
2TB HDD

My only problem is that my fingers are slower on the keys than they used to be. Thus the need for saves for timed sequences.

Holy cow! That is a gaming monster! Very nice.

We have had a mixed bag of experiences with Windows 8 here. Mine has been largely positive and I haven't had any issues at all using it on either the desktop with keyboard and mouse or on a Surface RT tablet. Personally, I really like it, especially for all the improvements to things like the Task Manager and Search. It's definitely the most stable OS I've used.

But others have had less than stellar experiences with it.

I already had a 25" LCD monitor so didn't go for a touch screen. Bought a wifi keyboard and mouse. The ONLY irritation is that I have (since 1995) used Outlook Express as my email. Win 8.1 won't allow that. My ISP gave the directions to set up a proper email IMAP connection for email but I find that is not very efficient. I have a variety of Hotmail accounts but I don't want to be forced to use them for regular email. Windows wants to know too much, I'd prefer to use my regular ISP that I have had for about 10 years. Win7 still allows the old ISP settings but ......

I only play adventure games .... the extra RAM is good for cruising the Net, I guess. Besides I can skite to all and sundry. I was told eons ago that extra RAM was useful and, I guess, it does make a difference to opening various sites at the same time or is that just my imagination?

It's more likely your ISP has increased the speed of your Internet connection over time. The only thing I can think of that would use 32 GB is running multiple virtual machines at the same time. Apparently video editing can also use a lot of RAM. Games won't need more than 8 GB. You might see a difference between 2 GB and 32 GB when browsing the Internet, but not between 8 GB and 32 GB.

I don't mean to hijack your thread, Mystic Falls, but you could try Windows Live Mail. if you're like me and don't want web-based email.
I use Win 7 so I'm not sure if you can get away with this, but I have a 2009 version of Win Live Mail and I do not sign into Windows Live Essentials so I have no bells, no whistles, just as close a program to OE as I can get...though they did make some peculiar changes I haven't figured out a reason for yet.
A second Drafts folder under a section called Storage Folders?
A second Sent Items folder ditto?
Oh, well, it's reasonably close to OE and not web-based, which is enough reason to get it, IMO.

Whatever you do, do not download Yahoo Mail!
Like Yahoo Groups which are heading rapidly for the bone yard thanks to Yahoo's new management, Yahoo Mail is a horrible mess you do not want to contend with.


Gil.

I agree.

Yes, I am using Windows Live Mail. The problem is that Win 8.1 won't allow the POP settings so you have to use the IMAP settings which my ISP supplied.

Windows Live Mail allows the POP settings with Win 7 though. I have a desktop (with Win 8.1) and a laptop (Win 7) connected via wireless router/wifi. One annoyance is that if I am on my laptop and decide to check email, all the email I have on the desktop In Box immediately disappears from the desktop into the laptop In Box. I am learning not to open email on the laptop as I prefer to answer email on the desktop. A few times I have just sent the email I need to reply to through to the printer (sitting on the desk). A waste of paper but trying to send unanswered email back from the laptop to the desktop is a pain. I will get used to it, eventually.

No other problems and I think Win 8.1 is better than Win 7.

You can also have your old email back. I use Live Mail which you can download as part of Windows Live Essentials. It's pretty much Outlook Express with a bunch of improvements. It works just fine with Windows 8 too.