Microsoft announced pricing for Windows 8.1 starting at $119

Now that Microsoft has announced the pricing for Windows 8.1, you can expect starting price at $120 for Windows 8.1 if you are upgrading from any other previous version of Windows or $199 for Windows 8.1 Pro version. Same applies to Windows 8.1 Pro, this price is for upgrading from any previous Windows or if you plan to run Windows 8.1 on a VM machine.

If you are already running Windows 8 on your current system, Windows 8.1 will be a free upgrade to your current version of Windows 8 you have.

For those that happen to downloaded Windows 8.1 RTM from MSDN or TechNet, and already have your product key from Windows 8. You can still continue to use your existing Windows 8 key, but you will have to use the product key from your subscription to get Window 8.1 RTM to load. Once it has installed. Go to your activation and chose to put your key, at this point you will use the Windows 8 key. After all, Microsoft is providing Windows 8.1 as a free upgrade so why not use your key.

Microsoft has done some great improvements with Windows 8.1, as I have been using it on the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 with 4G LTE. I wiped everything and did a fresh install to test out if everything would work. Once I installed some drivers from Lenovo everything has been very smooth on the ThinkPad Tablet 2. I will do some quick videos showing some of the new features you can find with Windows 8.1.

Windows 8.1 RTM: Upgrading from Windows 8.1 Preview? Don't forget to run diskcleaner

 

For those that have been lucky enough to get your hands on Windows 8.1 RTM, and went the upgrade path from Windows 8.1 Preview, don't forget to run the disk cleanup and clear "Previous Windows installation". This can free up some extra GB, and with just having128GB SSD on the Surface Pro, the extra 6.69GB is well welcomed on my Surface Pro.

Just head over to your desktop and open up file explorer, navigate over to your C:\ drive and right click it. Chose properties and click on "Disk Cleanup". Let it do its thing, you should then get the Disk Cleanup box. Check off what you want cleaned up and enjoy your extra space.

 

 

In my case, after running disk cleanup I now have 93GB free space. For now, I will take as much as I can, would like to see 256GB SSD become a standard for the Surface Pro.

 

Also I have picked up a 64GB microSD card to store pictures, music, documents and sync my Skydrive.