I upgraded from Win 8.1 preview to Win 8.1, the upgrade part went fine.

Now I have lost Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat, my Lacerte tax programs will not load, oh but I can play minesweeper!

I use this computer for business not tile swapping, Windows 7 was plenty good enough.

how do I get everything back?

I am an accountant, not a programmer and I thought upgrade were suppose to help.

I have seen some of the technical responses and I need simple English for my simple mind.

Thank-you

No, this is BY Design! Upgrading from the preview REMOVES ALL Desktop programs!

You need to insert the DVDs of the tools or download and install them again.

Update from Windows 8.1 Preview to Windows 8.1
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/update-from-preview

Updating to Windows 8.1 or Windows RT 8.1


You can download the update for free from the Windows Store.You'll be able to keep your personal files, but you'll need to reinstall your apps. Make sure you have any original installation media that might be required for apps that were not installed from the Windows Store.

I also had an absolutely awful upgrade experience to Windows 8.1. I was using Window 8.1 beta prior. I lost all my apps and even some documents. If interested I blogged about it here:http://blog.vimware.com/2013/11/windows-81-upgrade-long-difficult-with.html

If it was by design, then it was the dumbest decision ever made.

You are missing my point.  I am simply saying that all I needed to see was a warning "You are about to lose all your apps and can potentially lose some documents.  Are you sure you want to continue??"

The preview was never made to be used in a productive environment. You were warned about it.

Hi,

As Andre.Ziegler said, its also important to note that while computers running Windows 8.1 Preview can be updated to the final Windows 8.1 release, this update process will only migrate the data on the device. All applications (from the Windows Store or desktop applications) will need to be reinstalled as part of this process.

Windows 8.1 Preview: An Enterprise Call to Action

http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/springboard/archive/2013/06/27/windows-8-1-preview-an-enterprise-call-to-action.aspx

Thank you for understanding.

Regards,

Planning ahead tends to work well when it comes to complex things like computers.

And beyond the obvious miscue, clearly stated by Microsoft, what possessed you not to make backups before upgrading your operating system?

Running a pre-release operating system and/or upgrading an operating system and risking all your files and applications without a backup is very much along the lines of "hold my beer and watch this!"  I'm sorry if that seems blunt but it's simple truth.

May I respectfully suggest that this has been a good life lesson.  And now, before you get too depressed, have a look in the files and subfolders in the C:\Windows.old folder.  You might find good things there.  But be warned:  Some of the contents of that folder are going to go away on their own soon - believe it.  BACK IT UP NOW!!

From now on, think ahead, read instructions, and make backups.  If you're not sure of something, before leaping into the darkness ask questions of those who know.  Clearly you figured out how to ask here in the forum after the fact.  Next time perhaps you'll learn something important before it's too late.

Best of luck moving forward.

 

I've just done the same except I planned my install and backed everything up...

Licensed purchased and followed instructinons as per Microsofts site, link below :

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/upgrade-product-key-only

Everything went wrong....  I thought this was way to easy from Micrososft, complete utter shit, never test their install instructions....  STICK TO LINUX Mike (Oh and ps most of their support peeps don't know what the fuck they on about)