Like many Surface RT owners in the UK, I was extremely excited to install the Windows RT 8.1 Preview that was announced today. Unfortunately, the update provided doesn’t seem to support English (UK) as a language option on my Surface RT.
First I attempted to add English (US) and replace my existing language, however that did not work and I still got the error.
So, hacking away like I usually do, I decided to try forcing the installation of KB2849636 from the Command Prompt:
expand -f:* Windows8-RT-KB2849636-arm.msu . pkgmgr Windows8-RT-KB2849636-arm.xml
After a reboot my tablet sat on ‘Preparing to configure Windows’ for a long time, and after the jump I was able to see the preview from the Windows Store.
Unfortunately I haven’t been able to install it yet, and I’m told to try again later. It seems to sit in this state and doesn’t progress any further…
Update 1
Still no joy in getting the preview installed, but there are a few other people looking into the problem.
Check this question on the Microsoft Community for more information.
Update 2
It looks more and more like there is an issue around the installation that can only be fixed by installing an English (US) operating system. I have decided to wait and see what happens. I’ve heard that Microsoft will be releasing a fix for this in July.
In my opinion, this has been extremely poorly handled by Microsoft.
Update 3
There is another question on the Microsoft Community which has some replies from the moderators:
Windows RT usersPlease do not change your base language just to install the Preview. If you do this and then update to the preview version, you will permanently change your base language on these devices. This happens because we create a new restore image based on your selected 8.1 base language during install.
Also, as we noted on the download page, if you’ve installed a language pack on Windows RT, we ask you not to install Windows RT 8.1 Preview at this time. A fix will be available soon for updating through the store with a language pack installed, so please check back.
Charles [MSFT]