Windows 8.1 Preview, rolled out on the fine Wednesday morning of June 26, 2013 has served its purpose, and then some. This public test version of Microsoft’s latest operating system was one of the highlights of this year’s BUILD developer conference.
But it requires time and money to maintain it and keep this build updated — resources that Microsoft can put to better use. And now with the final version of the OS out, the company recommends users that are still running the preview version to let it go and move onto the retail bits.
The company talked about this in a new blog post, reminding users that both Windows 8.1 Preview and Windows RT 8.1 Preview will expire in less than a month from now, January 15 to be exact:
“Now that Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 have been generally available for a while, it’s time to get all your remaining devices that are still running Windows 8.1 Preview or Windows RT 8.1 Preview to the final GA release before the Preview release expires.”
While updating to Windows 8.1 is simple and straightforward by launching the store, people that have installed a volume license copy for evaluation cannot do a direct update — they will have to install a fresh, clean version of Windows 8.1, and Microsoft provides instructions in the post above.
Windows 8.1 is available free of charge for current Windows 8 users, while a new core license for this new operating system starts at the usual price of $119.99.
