Microsoft Says You Won’t Need A Clean Install To Move To Windows 8.1

Windows 8.1 is getting ever closer as Microsoft is expected to unveil the consumer preview at the BUILD developer event on June 26th next week. Microsoft has been releasing some more details on the upcoming OS in an interview with TechTarget. Erwin Visser, general manager of the Windows commercial division, explained that consumers should install Windows 8.1 through the build in update mechanism and will not need to perform a clean install.

“One of the things we are advising with Windows 8.1 is for customers to update their OSes through upgrade bits instead of wipes and loads. This means that we are confident the upgrade process of the OS is created with Windows 8.1, and it will be much more lightweight for customers to deploy Windows 8.1 at least”

After users install the Windows 8.1 preview they lose all applications, including both desktop and Metro software, when making the final switch to the final stable release version of Windows 8.1. This means if you just want to test Windows 8.1 then don’t get too used to it because you will lose everything in the transition to the final release version.

“Taking also into account the ability to drive apps and hardware, we believe for Windows 8 customers to upgrade to Windows 8.1, it will be a relatively lightweight process — much closer to downloading or deploying a service pack than an upgrade”

Windows 8.1 should be available from October and will be a free upgrade for all Windows 8 license holders.

Image courtesy of Microsoft