So I had to reinstall windows on my HTPC at the weekend. I was cursing Microsoft because they decided at some point they would prevent people with Windows 8 upgrade keys from fresh installing either Windows 8 or 8.1 from an RTM version. I know it worked at some point as I upgraded to 8.1 from the VLK media.
However fear not as I have discovered they have changed their minds again. You still can't use a retail disk or ISO, however you can download the media direct without having to provide a key, and then use that to perform a fresh install with any Windows 8/8.1 key. Thank you Microsoft, you have saved hours of pointless patching. Even better the download includes 8.1 Update 1 (As it should).
However fear not as I have discovered they have changed their minds again. You still can't use a retail disk or ISO, however you can download the media direct without having to provide a key, and then use that to perform a fresh install with any Windows 8/8.1 key. Thank you Microsoft, you have saved hours of pointless patching. Even better the download includes 8.1 Update 1 (As it should).
You can download the media as an ISO or to USB here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media
