Just wanted to warn all WIN 8.1 users who do updates manually to update WIN 8.1 to Update 1 (a kind of service pack) or you won't get any security updates after the end of May since support for WIN 8.1 is being officially dropped for end users. Only WIN 8.1 Update 1 will be supported. Users with automatic update should not be effected. WIN 8.0 is not affected by these changes and has normal support.

Just be warned that at the moment Update 1 can corrupt your installation and then you can possibly need a new 8.0 license since an update to 8.1 invalidates the license key for WIN 8.0 and gives you a new license key from the Microsoft App Store for WIN 8.1 - which means if the update is not good then you are probably screwed since you need to reinstall WIN 8.0 of which license is invalid then - I know this seems unbelivable but there are plenty of forums discussing this problem at the moment. It will probably be resolved with time. The best thing to do is do a backup copy of the system before you update.

Until you post some sources that check out, I call paranoia.

1. A brief search by me revealed cases where users borked installation themselves. Admittedly, brief search.
2. Even if the need to reinstall without a key situation exists, I have always found MS to honor actual purchases of OS from them, meaning you call support and they talk it through with you and then flip a switch on their end to validate your version.

Please source doomsday "warnings" rather than panic a bunch of people.

Cheers.

Well it depends on Microsoft really - for example in my country Microsoft does not offer support for end consumers although it does sell WIN 8. So offically if it does not work its your own problem.

And most users of which you are talking about did the only thing they could do in the Microsoft App Store (for WIN 8.1) and that is press install update its all automatic after that. So much for that.

"Update: 17.04.14

In an official blog post Microsoft has announced it will be changing the deployment timescale for Windows 8.1 Update 1 for business users. It is scrapping the 30 day window we criticised in this post and extending eligibility for security updates to a more reasonable 120 days."

Quote taken from this article, which is pretty informative.http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2014/04/15/microsoft-abandons-windows-8-1-take-immediate-action-or-be-cut-off-like-windows-xp/

The article is also 2 weeks old.

I'm sorry to hear about lousy MS support in your country.

Ok thanks for that. Will erase that part about the business users.