I would never go back to 8

8.1 works fine for me.

I have 8.1 on 2 other new builds. I would not worry if it was new build installing Sonar and plugins. I like Windows 8. I am worrying about the update process itself. It is different when you install from scratch and when you have a lot of software installed and you updating, hoping it would still work. But I want to update my drivers, and even my motherboard (Asus) posts updates only for Win 8.1. My other computer updated fine, with no issues at first, but then USBs failed and I could not log in because I could not use keyboard and mouse.
 
Have all drivers? Well- they may not have all official drivers, such as Yamaha Motif XS. It says- Windows 8, so you i install on 8.1 and hope it works. But it is different when it already installed and may panic when 8.1 kicks in, because of all the files directories and such... I am just so tempted... If it was Win 7 to 8- I would not update, but 8 to 8.1 sounds like a must. Most of my soft synth companies would say, "Sure, it works with Win 8." I would say, "How about 8.1?", and they would say, "We dont know. It probably works..."  

I didn't update to 8.1 because 8.0 is working great for me.

There were a lot of horror stories about win 7 vs win 8 too, especially the lack of a start button and menus, but I actually rarely ever used the start menu as I found using desktop shortcuts and file explorer to be quicker, and windows 8 boots up extremely fast when installed to an SSD.

I still cant be asked to download 8.1, and don't know if it can be installed without having to reinstall the whole OS, which I don't want to do.

I lost USB support, too, but a Google search helped me find the problem.  A USB Asus driver.  I still have a weird bug when my Computer wakes from sleep my USB audio box doesn't work.  I have to unplug it, and plug it back in.  I have a Presonus, and a Focusrite, and they both do the same.  That makes me think it's not a driver issue, a Win 8.1 issue.  The only reason why I like Windows 8 or 8.1 is how fast it boots.  My Windows 7 and my brothers Win7 computer take forever to boot.

Thank you for your replies. I was updating on the day one, so there was no articles or information on line about USB driver. In fact- I was probably a reason it was created because I was posting about it on every forum, including Microsoft, and called Asus several times. I figured out that it was not just USB driver, it was USB 3.0 boost. Did you have AI Suit installed? It has USB 3.0 boost and I had it activated. So 8.1 worked on the same hardware. All 3 computers have Asus motherboard, 2 are Z87, 1 is Z77- my music computer.  

I upgraded to 8.1. It wasn't a new install.

See what you did.... ;)
 

8.1 running fine and dandy here

I'll try upgrading to 8.1 soon then since I don't have anything to lose by doing so yet, I also have an Asus board so will check for 8.1 drivers beforehand, and also I'll have to make sure there are drivers for my soundcard.

Actually I wont be risking it:

'DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!

I have a Fatal1ty Titanium and I just upgraded to 8.1. The system doesn't recognize the card anymore. If you uninstall and reinstall the drivers, you'll get sound until you restart, but you can't launch any of the Creative Consoles because they don't recognize the card is there.

I tried everything - drivesweeper to get rid of the old drivers, using the PAX drivers - nothing worked. I'm recovering from backup now to go back to Plain old vanilla 8.

I would not upgrade to 8.1 until Creative releases new drivers. The old ones do not work with 8.1. And if you're going to risk it, get a full disk image before you upgrade so you can recover quickly if it all goes to hell.'.

I know I should have gotten the Asus STX instead, creative suck :(