[jmcnevin]

I'm not sure why MS decided that the release of a free upgrade of their product that's trying to address pain points with Metro would be great opportunity to shove the Windows Store down users' throats. I can't even open Windows Store on my media center PC (hooked up to a 720p television) without increasing my screen resolution past native. That's just irritating.

Do you realize that your Windows 8 license key will not allow you to download and do a clean install of 8.1? You need to download 8.0, install 64 or so important updates, and only then are you deemed worthy of being eligible to download 8.1 through the Windows Store. Who thought this up?

I went the clean install route after my upgrade from 8.1 preview stalled out on the "Almost There" screen for 15 minutes. I rebooted, and all references to my installed applications were gone.

All in all, the 8.1 upgrade wasn't a pleasant experience.