a bit weird dude, i upgraded one of my systems win 8 pro wmc 64 bits, and had three options, keep nothing, setting, settings and apps If I remember correctly. I did run it from within win 8, the thing took a long azz while lol but all finished properly.
It most likely depends on which key one installed, retail or gVLk. I don't even get the user files option. Tried different flavors of ei.cfg in /sources, no change. Booting from USB Win8.1 x86 install offers the upgrade option, but then says something like 'need to upgrade from within booted Windows 8'. I wonder if with the 'keep user files' option, if only MS Win apps get removed and replaced w. Win 8.1 apps, or if ALL installed apps get deactivated? My Win8 pro is NOT touched w/ any patch or crack (hm well only w/ Office 2013 KMS).
I have all 3 options, but even with "Keep Windows Settings, Personal Files, and Apps" the installation still fails. I think it is due to driver issues. So what I am doing right now is uninstalling all my third party drivers, trying the upgrade install again, and if it fails then I will just a do a fresh install. As always, I am guessing that fresh install will be the best way
I had no problems keeping all. Works great. Took about 1 hour. I upgraded from 9477, used the Pro key provided, then activated it with my windows 8 key, then I put in my Media Center key I use for that e-mail address, activated without any problems
this might help some: EDIT: YES !! I always outsource my ProgramFiles to an apps & data partition via a simple reg edit - restoring back to default C: made all options appear in Setup options right after restarting the Setup installer, even w/o rebooting Code: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion] "CommonFilesDir"="C:\\Program Files\\Common Files" "ProgramFilesDir"="C:\\Program Files" So for those that deviated default env paths, just restore'em EDIT2: FYI, I get all three options "Choose what to keep" options regardless of retail or gVLk key entered in the Setup screen ..