Installed Windows 8.1 with Media Center on Surface experience.

[Klownicle]

Installed Windows 8.1 with Media Center on Surface Pro experience.

I have successfully upgraded to Windows 8.1 on my Surface Pro and I thought I would post my experience with it. So first off, normally we would have to wait to get Windows 8.1 in a downloaded format but I decided to use the RTM ISO to install it now. I backed up my system using a USB hub with external drive and a bootable USB stick with Macrium Reflect Free edition on it. No other backup tool will work on the Surface Pro as far as I was able to figure out. This is because of our SecureBoot/UEFI options inside the "bios". You need to have any formatted USB stick as FAT32/64bit/GPT in my testing, and even then you need it to be a signed image. Ie; Windows Installation/Windows PE x64 Type. In the end this was all supported by Macrium not my original choice of software as that would have been Acronis. Acronis doesn't have any supported boot media yet, and I wasn't able to get the 64bit Linux boot cds to work as someone else did on my USB external disc drive. Once you have your OS backed up if you choose to do so here are some considerations.

Windows 8.1 can activate with your installed key on your original 8.0 installation, you can get this product by using nirsoft's product key tool. This should be common knowledge by now but what made my circumstances different was I had added Windows Media Center on my pc. So I first needed my Windows Media Center upgrade key which I retrieved using nursoft's tool, then I created a recovery USB media device from the built in Windows Recovery partition. Once I did this I and had a good backup of my OS as I wasn't sure how things would go... I reinstalled windows using my recovery USB key. With the new fresh factory reset surface I grabbed my nirsoft tool to get my original 8.0 key and proceeded to install 8.1 from my FAT32/GPT formatted USB bootable Windows 8.1 USB install key (I choose to do this from windows instead at this rime). I used a available 8.1 install key to get 8.1 installed, Google for this key. You may be able to use your 8.0 key to install the OS but I don't think you can and didn't try. I had SecureBoot turned off at this time so I'm not sure if that made any difference, I don't think it did. Its very important that your OS USB install key be formatted FAT32, as most of the ISO to USB tools make them ntfs. I used Rufus's tool to make a USB device that was compatible with UEFI.

Once 8.1 was successfully installed I noticed the video driver and a few other drivers weren't installed. I went to Google and searched for the latest driver pack by Microsoft (August) in my case, and was able to get that resolved. I turned on SecureBoot and then used my 8.0 key with "slmgr -ilk" after running "slmgr -upk". Once installed I ran "slmgr -ato" to activate and everything activated. I then used add features with my Windows Media Center 8.0 upgrade key and I then was able to install that. After all is said and done, I'm now running 8.1 on my surface pro.

I realize some of this is self explained but I thought I could provide my OEM surface pro ISO upgrade experience and maybe it will help someone else that had upgraded to WMC edition.

NOTES;
USB Keys must be FAT32 on the Surface Pro, as UEFI doesn't support NTFS. And there is not legacy boot available for this tablet.
Windows 8.1 doesn't have all the drivers for the Surface Pro, talk about odd... maybe this was something I did but I don't think so.

 

[machistmo]

I thought they were letting Media Center die?

 

[Klownicle]

I thought they were letting Media Center die?

I use it for a networked Ceton tuner to stream TV on my tablet. Its not dying, its just a addon. Will it go away in the future who knows. Also another tidbit, it appears the Digital Cable Advisor doesn't work on 8.1? Thankfully, it still allowed me to watch live TV without running it after everything else was said and done.

 

[Defiant]

I have successfully upgraded to Windows 8.1 on my Surface Pro and I thought I would post my experience with it. So first off, normally we would have to wait to get Windows 8.1 in a downloaded format but I decided to use the RTM ISO to install it now. I backed up my system using a USB hub with external drive and a bootable USB stick with Macrium Reflect Free edition on it. No other backup tool will work on the Surface Pro as far as I was able to figure out. This is because of our SecureBoot/UEFI options inside the "bios". You need to have any formatted USB stick as FAT32/64bit/GPT in my testing, and even then you need it to be a signed image. Ie; Windows Installation/Windows PE x64 Type. In the end this was all supported by Macrium not my original choice of software as that would have been Acronis. Acronis doesn't have any supported boot media yet, and I wasn't able to get the 64bit Linux boot cds to work as someone else did on my USB external disc drive. Once you have your OS backed up if you choose to do so here are some considerations.

Windows 8.1 can activate with your installed key on your original 8.0 installation, you can get this product by using nirsoft's product key tool. This should be common knowledge by now but what made my circumstances different was I had added Windows Media Center on my pc. So I first needed my Windows Media Center upgrade key which I retrieved using nursoft's tool, then I created a recovery USB media device from the built in Windows Recovery partition. Once I did this I and had a good backup of my OS as I wasn't sure how things would go... I reinstalled windows using my recovery USB key. With the new fresh factory reset surface I grabbed my nirsoft tool to get my original 8.0 key and proceeded to install 8.1 from my FAT32/GPT formatted USB bootable Windows 8.1 USB install key (I choose to do this from windows instead at this rime). I used a available 8.1 install key to get 8.1 installed, Google for this key. You may be able to use your 8.0 key to install the OS but I don't think you can and didn't try. I had SecureBoot turned off at this time so I'm not sure if that made any difference, I don't think it did. Its very important that your OS USB install key be formatted FAT32, as most of the ISO to USB tools make them ntfs. I used Rufus's tool to make a USB device that was compatible with UEFI.

Once 8.1 was successfully installed I noticed the video driver and a few other drivers weren't installed. I went to Google and searched for the latest driver pack by Microsoft (August) in my case, and was able to get that resolved. I turned on SecureBoot and then used my 8.0 key with "slmgr -ilk" after running "slmgr -upk". Once installed I ran "slmgr -ato" to activate and everything activated. I then used add features with my Windows Media Center 8.0 upgrade key and I then was able to install that. After all is said and done, I'm now running 8.1 on my surface pro.

I realize some of this is self explained but I thought I could provide my OEM surface pro ISO upgrade experience and maybe it will help someone else that had upgraded to WMC edition.

NOTES;
USB Keys must be FAT32 on the Surface Pro, as UEFI doesn't support NTFS. And there is not legacy boot available for this tablet.
Windows 8.1 doesn't have all the drivers for the Surface Pro, talk about odd... maybe this was something I did but I don't think so.

Thanks for this.
I have a question for you: when you performed the upgrade from the USB stick, were you presented with two options:
1) To upgrade
2) To basically install 8.1 on top of 8.0 without keeping any of the files/settings?

I ask because I did attempt an upgrade from a DVD. I had an external DVD connected, with the RTM in it, and booted from it.
I put the key in (the one you can Google for), and then was presented with those two options.
However, when I chose to upgrade, I got some kind of a message I can't currently remember, telling me to reboot the machine and run the upgrade again, but of course...it keeps saying that.

Just wondering what you saw.

Thanks buddy.

 

[pallentx]

Yeah, I use media center at home with a network cable card tuner. I have been a fan of Media Center since it first came out. Its the best PVR I've tried. Having the XBOX as a media center extender works great too. It does seem that MS is letting die. Media Center in 8 is exactly like 7 - so no development has been done. Maybe they're working on a kick-ass replacement. Hopefully is not like the way the replaced the Zune software with Xbox Music.

 

[Klownicle]

Thanks for this.
I have a question for you: when you performed the upgrade from the USB stick, were you presented with two options:
1) To upgrade
2) To basically install 8.1 on top of 8.0 without keeping any of the files/settings?

I ask because I did attempt an upgrade from a DVD. I had an external DVD connected, with the RTM in it, and booted from it.
I put the key in (the one you can Google for), and then was presented with those two options.
However, when I chose to upgrade, I got some kind of a message I can't currently remember, telling me to reboot the machine and run the upgrade again, but of course...it keeps saying that.

Just wondering what you saw.

Thanks buddy.

I'm pretty sure, both upgrade and install were present as I currently have a "Windows Old" folder annoying enough. Which is odd considering I could have sworn I wiped out the partitions, I might have just forgotten to.

 

[Klownicle]

Yeah, I use media center at home with a network cable card tuner. I have been a fan of Media Center since it first came out. Its the best PVR I've tried. Having the XBOX as a media center extender works great too. It does seem that MS is letting die. Media Center in 8 is exactly like 7 - so no development has been done. Maybe they're working on a kick-ass replacement. Hopefully is not like the way the replaced the Zune software with Xbox Music.

The kick ass replacement is called "Xbox One". :-/ And its terrible "TV" features, their idea of a design was to use pass-through with a gui on top. Useless, can't even control the TV without an archaic ir blaster!