The manufacturer had an antivirus program called Avast! preinstalled.
I left it installed just to see what it would be like before using an alternative. I had a feeling the anti-virus was to blame, but I managed to install every other program successfully, all apart from the program the PC was purchased for; DBP.
I think, whilst Windows updated itself during one of the reboots; it fixed the problem behind the scenes.
I hate upgrading my operating system, I have only forced myself to perform this act 3 times in the past 15 years. For each upgrade days must be spent migrating development software and filing systems, sometimes not quite leading to a better experience.
So far I am impressed with everything in Windows 8.1 apart from the start menu. There are some features which have been improved since windows 7 which is my favourite; if all goes well I will probably call 8.1 my favourite. I think version 9 will be the best, I hear it will combine all of the favorite features of XP, 7 and 8.1 (but not 8.0) and will look forward to it.
Something I opted for is a SSD (solid state) hard drive; something I strongly recommend for all fellow programmers. Even with a low budget, expect your operating system to start up in about 5 to 10 seconds; and expect all file operations to speed up at least 2 fold; with no noise.
