I recently upgraded my #Asus #ME400 to Windows 8.1.
Two things have been very obvious.
1) The graphics drivers included don’t work on Intel GMA hardware in my Asus ME400.
2) Microsoft are determined to drive you through their eco system and log what you do.
When you install Windows 8.0 you are asked to create and account and log in with a Windows account associated with a Hotmail or the like account.
In the regular installation its fairly easy to find a way around this and use a local account. In 8.1 it is a LOT less obvious.
To log in with a local account you need to pretend you want to create an MSN/Live account and then select a button which says something like “don’t bother use a local account”. This is intentionally hidden by Microsoft and the most unintuitive design possible. They have done very well to force people to log in with a MS account.
Once you do login, and assuming you do it with a MS account, it is possible to “unlink” it from your local account and use a local login instead. You can do this via the accounts section in you machine. Very annoying..
Not as annoying as the “if you don’t use an MS account to login in you can’t use…” things that now pop up.
Previously ALL apps and software could be accessed using app specific accounts login. Now some of them wont allow you to use them unless you have a MS login at start up.
SkyDrive is the only one i have found so far. Very very very annoying, as they don’t allow the desktop app installation in windows 8.1