Windows 8.1 Preview and Windows RT 8.1 Preview expire on January 15th

While the majority of us are already on the final build of Windows 8.1, Microsoft would like to remind those of you who are still - for some reason - using the Preview builds of Windows 8.1 or Windows RT 8.1 that these builds will expire on January 15th of 2014.

"Did you know that Windows 8.1 preview and Windows RT 8.1 preview expire on January 15th? 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," Microsoft stated in an official blog post.

You can update to the final release of Windows 8.1 or Windows RT 8.1 by simply typing this in the Run box or in Internet Explorer (or just click it): ms-windows-store:WindowsUpgrade

This process will require that you reinstall all of your applications - desktop software and apps.

For those of you who installed a volume license build of Windows 8.1 Preview, Microsoft recommends that you install a fresh copy of Windows 8.1 Pro or Windows 8.1 Enterprise for continued use. "If you have to upgrade an existing machine, you can do so using volume license media. This can be done by manually running SETUP.EXE from the media, or can be automated by running “setup.exe /auto:data”. As with any Preview update, only data and accounts will be migrated; all apps will need to be reinstalled," Microsoft explained.

The Windows 8.1 Preview was fun while it lasted and here to the next preview version of Windows!

Windows 8: Enable .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0) i.e. (NetFx3) feature in Online & Offline mode!

I have been using Windows 8 for last few months. When Windows 8 CP released I installed CP & subsequently RP too. When I wanted to install some 3rd party application in my Windows 8 VM, I realized that these applications require .NET Framework 2.0 or 3.0 in few cases. Apparently my virtual machine does not have internet connection. Obviously the first step for us is to check the Program and Features to enable any available additional features in an Operating System. This is what you see in your Control Panel –> Program and Features. Click on Turn Windows features on or off.
Here you can see .NET Framework as a feature and by default the feature is disabled. You can enable this particular right away using this GUI Tool but in order to do that you need to be connected to internet i.e. Online Mode. Other way is using DISM Command and this can be done in an Offline Mode using Windows 8 installation media. Let’s see these 2 methods.
Method 1: When you are Online, connected to Internet.
In order to install the following window click on the .NET Framework 3.5 (included .NET 2.0 and 3.0) select it & click OK

Now, it will download the entire package from the internet & install the .NET Framework feature.
Method 2: When you are Offline and not connected to Internet
If you open CMD.EXE with Administrative Privileges i.e. at elevated level & run the this DISM command dism /online /get-features you will see that from the State that .NET Framework is not part of the Operating System.


So the first thing you need to do is to copy the required package to local machine before you run the command to install .NET Framework. To do that use Windows 8 ISO/DVD/USB Media. You need to copy SXS folder to local machine located at D:\sources\sxs (In this case D: your drive letter on which you have loaded Windows 8 Media)

You can also use the following command to copy this folder locally. xcopy d:\sxs\*.* c:\sxs /s
Once completed, in order to install this feature you can run the following command dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFx3 /All /Source:C:\sxs /LimitAccess  and hit Enter

After completing the installation of .NET Framework 3.5 you can see that the feature is enabled in the Control Panel –> Program and Features

Update from Windows 8.1 Preview to Windows 8.1

The preview is no longer available for download, and the license for it expires January 15, 2014. If you have not yet installed the final version of Windows 8.1 or Windows RT 8.1, you should do so now.

If you are still running Windows 8.1 Preview, you'll see the following notification every time you sign in. After January 15, 2014, your PC will also restart every 2 hours and you will lose any unsaved data.