no, unless those companies release a version of their software that supports ARM. Use Win 8.1 x86 or x84 instead.
interestingly, when I did a recovery from 8.1 preview to 8.0 it was activated when back to 8.0. It may be different with 8.1 RTM. his last resort will be to call MS with his Surface RT back to 8.0, start slui 4 and get the activation key over the phone, as it should be activated irrespective of the history.
The Product Key is in the UEFI/BIOS. If you recover with the Windows Version the device came with you do not need any key as it is already activated after the installation.
Maybe I'm missing something here ,but wouldn't be easier for the many if one of the intelligent ones here installs windows 8.1 rtm for the Rt and then make a recovery image and help out the ones who aren't so brilliant. Didn't we do this for when we installed the 8.1 preview and the dumb ones like myself who forgot to make a recovery image of windows 8 from there rt. I think if we have a recovery image of the 8.1 rtm and install wont it activate it self without having to dig for your key. Also a question for the ones who have installed the 8.1 rtm on there machine can you set up a local account instead of the Microsoft account? Thanks
the point that ms-7 and arseny92 made is that there is a security risk. The image may include machine ID information that can expose the source. I assume once the recovery disk from a different machine is installed the process will use the machine ID from the actual device it's installed on. Just a wild guess here...
It would be safer to make an ISO with integrated drivers available. The process is the same, just boot from USB, enter the default key and press Next a bunch of times! The hard part would be to recover the key from the Stock Surface RT. I'm offering to make the ISO as well as pre-localized versions, and I'd also include a tutorial to extract the key from the Stock Surface RT.
An ISO with integrated drivers has already been made, Camazza. It was released on Monday. See post #42 in this thread. Anyways... So, I'm preparing to install 8.1 and tried to create a USB recovery drive. I started the "Create a recovery drive" wizard, left the "Copy the recovery partition from the PC to the recovery drive" checkbox checked and proceeded. After less than a minute of copying, it stopped and said that there was a problem (no details). I tried again and it did the same. I thought that there might be a problem with the recovery partition on my tablet, so I looked up how to get details on it and a Microsoft article that says that it applies to both Windows 8 and Windows RT tells me to run "recimg.exe /showcurrent" from a command prompt. I do that and it can't find recimg.exe. I do a search on the C: drive and recimg.exe is nowhere to be found on the system. It appears that it's a standard Windows 8 (and RT) utility, and an important one, as it seems to handle much of the recovery partitioning/imaging, so I'm baffled as to why it's not on my system. Anyone have any ideas? For the record, I'm still using the same copy of 8.0 that came pre-installed on the tablet, so it's not like I upgraded to 8.1 Preview or recovered my system before. I'm starting to wonder if the tablet isn't as "new" as the seller claimed. Regardless, it'd be nice to figure out how to get my USB recovery drive created. I might just go ahead and install 8.1 without it, but it'd be nice to back things up first, just to be responsible and safe.
I was in a similar position (no recovery after upgrade to 8.1 Preview) and downloaded a 8.0 recovery that somebody made available on XDA (think I posted a link earlier?). Did not have any issues recovering my RT back to 8.0 with it from the 8.1 Preview. Anyway, lots of people out there that can help out when you need it. I would try a refresh next and try to create the recovery disk again. The recovery disk will not have any of your settings or apps anyway. Make sure you back them up to skydrive, I mean your MS account.
Yeah, I guess that using someone else's recovery will have to do. Actually, I don't see a need to even actually use it, since the 8.1 installation will probably go fine, then I can just create an 8.1 recovery image and partition, hopefully. I just thought that I'd check first to make sure that I wasn't missing something with my current system. I'd still like to know why recimg.exe is missing, but if 8.1 installs it and any other missing files, then that's fine. Thanks. BTW, for anyone else, the link to the EN-US 8.0 recovery image is... oh, right, I still can't post links (which is really annoying as someone just trying to help others)... OK, just google "XDA RT Recovery" and it should be the first link.
Well, that would certainly explain it. Thanks. Microsoft needs to fix their article, then, since it specifically says that it applies to Windows RT (in addition to Windows 8) and the very first thing that they instruct you to do is run recimg.exe. I see now that they must have meant that the second half of the article (the USB recovery section) applies to Windows RT, but they don't do anything to let the reader know that. Don't laugh... You could've told me that recimg.exe doesn't come with RT, but you didn't
You can set up a local account you just have to place wrong/incorrect email address (not a random one just any incorrect non email line) maybe a couple of times then it will give you the option to continue without
Quick question: I downloaded the file with the drivers already included in iso. In the text doc there is two keys to do the install . Which one do we use to install on the surface Rt. And then after install that's when we change to activate. Thanks for the help.
I believe that either will work, but I used the "CoreARM" one. If anyone is interested, I wrote up an installation guide over at XDA: forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=45653481#post45653481 (This site doesn't allow me to make hyperlinks yet)
thanks for info on key. have another question if you don't mind. after all is installed and activated, can you make a recovery image on usb like win 8 ,then delete recovery partition to regain approx. 3.5 gb ? Thanks again for your help
Yes, you can. I believe that it'll then be an 8.1 recovery image, though, so, if you'd rather have an 8.0 recovery image (to roll everything back to how it was when you bought the Surface), create the recovery drive before you install 8.1. Oddly, in my case, there was a problem with my recovery partition in 8.0, so that I couldn't create a recovery drive without the wizard failing, but I was able to after upgrading to 8.1.
I have already made a windows 8 recovery drive. And after install of 8.1 I will then make a recovery of that. I'm taking no chances . Learned my lesson when I install 8.1 preview and forgot to make a recovery. Just getting all things in order before I install this weekend. Thank you all for the help.