Chapter 3. Buying and installing Windows 8.1

f you plan to upgrade an existing version of Windows, read Buying Windows 8.1 in this chapter, and then skip to Chapter 4.

You might want to try out Windows 8.1 before installing it. If you want to get a quick idea about what it’s like to use Windows 8.1, use VirtualBox to run Windows 8.1 within a virtual machine, as described in Chapter 20. Be careful not to use your product key to activate your virtual machine, however. If you want to see how Windows 8.1 performs with your hardware, but you don’t want to change your existing operating system, you can dual-boot your PC by following the steps in Dual-booting Windows 8.1 near the end of this ...

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