I have Windows 8 Professional w/WMC, all legit, all activated, all working and most importantly - all backed up. I decide to upgrade to Windows 8.1 - I do and everything looks great. (Naive flag set to "enable"). Later on I come across some .WK1 (Lotus 123) files from 1996 that I want to open. Sure, I could install the open source "gnumeric" and be done with it. But no, it has to be more fun to run XP and Lotus 123 in a virtual machine, right? <Shenanigans Start> I create a virtual XP machine in VMWare Workstation 10.0. For some reason, there is no network connection. I figure it's the XP .iso I used. I have four of them, so I try another. Same problem. How can this be? All of my other VM's work fine. Or do they? I haven't run them since the upgrade. Guess what? - none of my VM's can establish a network connection. So now I guess the Windows 8.1 upgrade did something to VMWare. Okay, I have nothing critical in any of my VM's, so I delete VMWare and do a fresh install. Now when I attempt to create a VM, I get a message stating my fourth generation Intel i7 CPU doesn't support virtualization. WTF!?! Then I install Oracle's VirtualBox. Never tried it until now, but I know many favor it. Same friggin' error, my CPU doesn't support a virtual machine. What the Hell, did my CPU fail? Next step is to take a little break. Try to unwind. Analyze the problem. But it just doesn't make any sense. VM's created in Windows 8.0 run, but can't connect to the network. New VM's can't be created at all. I am stumped. I am pissed. I don't want to revert to Win 8.0. I don't know what made me think of it, but I got to wondering about my UEFI(BIOS). Turns out I had the original, version A01. Current version is A04, released just days ago. Seems like a lot of updates for a computer I got last May, but I may as well do it. Son-Of-A-Bitch, that was it! VMWare and VirtualBox now create virtual machines with everything working, including the network. <Shenanigans End> Yes, it all took seven hours, And yes, I hated it at times. But you sure feel good when it all gets going again, don't you? So that is my tale. And I'm willing to bet I am not the only one. So if you have tale to share, I'd love to hear it. (But only if it has a happy ending!) P.S. - and you can be damn sure that now my toy is in working order again, I have a new backup image.