{"id":15609,"date":"2013-10-18T10:34:10","date_gmt":"2013-10-18T09:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=15609"},"modified":"2013-10-18T10:34:10","modified_gmt":"2013-10-18T09:34:10","slug":"day-1-of-general-availability-windows-8-1-is-not-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=15609","title":{"rendered":"Day 1 of General Availability – Windows 8.1 Is Not Here"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bit of link baiting never hurt anyone :)  While I suspect that Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 upgrades flew of the \u201cshelves\u201d in the Microsoft Store over the last 22 hours, it seems that the retail presence is \u2026 well \u2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This morning at PC World, Carrickmines, Dublin, Ireland.<\/em><\/p>\n

I decided that I\u2019d start of at the PC World branch in south Dublin that opens at 9am.  This store is just 5 miles from the Microsoft European Operations Centre, also one of the locations where Windows\/Office\/Azure\/etc are developed, and the office of Microsoft Ireland.  Last year, for Windows 8, the two stores (also \u201cChainB\u201d) in this park had a Microsoft presence here.  I thought it would be a good place to start.<\/p>\n

I drove in at about 09:15 and I was greeted by the above signage.  <\/p>\n

\n

Windows 8 is here.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Odds are Microsoft paid for that signage in some way.  That\u2019s how these things are done in retail \u2013 it seems mad to me that a store will not advertise its own stock without being paid by the manufacturer but that\u2019s how it is.  But at the very least, couldn\u2019t they have painted a \u201c.1\u201d on this sign?!?!?!<\/p>\n

OK, maybe it was a weather or timing thing.  I walked inside.  This is one of the better laid out electronics stores in the country so I had high hopes.  Lots and lots of \u2026 Windows 8 machines, most of which were launched at IFA<\/a> over a year ago in 2012.  There was not a single Windows 8.1 device in the store.  OK, let\u2019s have a look at the boxed Windows product \u2026 and it was all Windows 8.1.<\/p>\n

Note: There are no SKUs for a Windows 8.1 \u201cupgrade\u201d.  That means you have two choices to get from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1:<\/p>\n