Update - Stymied doing in-place upgrade from W8Pro to W8.1Pro

[spoolin01]

Have been unable to figure out how to do an in-place upgrade from W8Pro to W8.1Pro, so I don't lose the Acer bloatware during this complete refresh. Have only been able to do clean install of 8.1Pro, wiping out the W8Pro installation. Yet I've gotten there at least twice before doing such a refresh. Just don't recall the exact path I followed, and no luck getting it right this time.

Here's the process:
- OOBE restoration of 2012 Acer UEFI laptop to original OEM W8 Home, from recovery partition.
- using link present on activation page of Settings app, upgraded to W8 Pro, using key purchased back when from MS. It all happens seamlessly in background.
- using en_windows_8.1_with_update_x64_dvd_6051480.iso I DL'd in 2019 and that matches hash with 8.1Pro ISO presently downloadable from MS, I made a UEFI bootable thumb drive with Rufus. If I boot to the thumb drive, I get to the option to choose between upgrade and clean install, but the upgrade path leads to that message that I have to do it from within booted Windows instead. When I do that, the upgrade option is no longer present, only a clean install with or without files saved (but not apps - I found this out the hard way and had to go back to a Clonezilla image to restore the recovery partition). Same result with the same ISO on a legacy BIOS thumb drive, or a DVD - no upgrade option either booting from the install media, or running it within W8Pro.

I really don't recall the upgrade pathway I followed twice before on this machine, but I'm reminded that the upgrade used to be offered differently through MS - through the store or maybe a media creation tool - but those options are no longer available, and however I did it, I didn't save the installer.

Anyone have any insight into this? Should I try going straight to 8.1Pro from W8Home, with the purchased W8Pro key? I also took a VL version of 8.1Pro and started it from within Windows8Pro, and the upgrade option now appeared, along with the other two (save files or save nothing) that I'd been seeing, but I haven't taken that any farther. Assuming it actually did the app-saving upgrade, would the VL version activate with the W8Pro key that's in force there now?

Update: I found an installer on archive.org someone put together in 2017, claiming to be made from MS installers with a few MS updates. I checked it with a couple of AV programs, then was able to successfully update to W8.1Pro without losing the non-MS apps, or settings or files. I would have preferred a hash-verifiable installer, but this is what I could find.

 

[Bree]

the upgrade path leads to that message that I have to do it from within booted Windows instead. When I do that, the upgrade option is no longer present, only a clean install with or without files saved (but not apps - I found this out the hard way and had to go back to a Clonezilla image to restore the recovery partition). Same result with the same ISO on a legacy BIOS thumb drive, or a DVD - no upgrade option either booting from the install media, or running it within W8Pro.

To upgrade keeping your installed apps and files you need to run the Setup you'll find on the root of the mounted ISO from within Windows. But you'll only see the option to keep your installed apps and files if the language of the ISO matches that of your installed Windows. The most common error is trying to upgrade English (en-us) with English International (en-gb) or vice versa. You can download an 8.1 ISO from Microsoft with a choice of languages here.

Download Windows 8.1 Disc Image (ISO File)

 

[spoolin01]

That was the first ISO I tried. It matches the hash of the one I last DL'd in 2019, BTW. Anyway, I mounted it and ran setup, but the option to keep apps, not just files, was not available. Pretty sure I DL'd the right language. The ISO identifier ID'd it as being the "en" version I listed above in the first post. As mentioned, I'd done this refresh before, from restoring the OOBE Win8 Home version, through the Pro upgrade, to the 8.1 update, so I'm not really sure what I did differently this time, that it wouldn't work, especially as I'd DL'd the same version/hash of 8.1 back in 2019 and that is likely what I used last time.