Install Windows 8.1 Preview on an Australian Surface RT

If you have tried to install the Windows 8.1 Preview on an EN-AU Surface RT, you will have encountered this error:

The update is not applicable to your computer

Follow these steps to set your Surface to EN-US so that you can install the Preview. This has been tested on 2x Australian Surface RT’s but it should work on other languages too.

Create a recovery drive just to be safe

1. Search for the recovery section of Control Panel
2. Select Create a recovery drive
3. Ensure copy the recovery partition from the PC to the recovery drive is ticked

Create a recovery drive

### Change the language to English (United States)

1. Go to the Clock, Language and Region section of the Control Panel
2. Under Language, select Add a language
3. Select Add a language again
4. Select English and click Open
5. Select English (United States) and select Add
6. Select English (United States) and select Move up to move it above English (Australia) in the list
7. Select Options beside English (United States)
8. Select Download and install language pack

Change location to United States

1. Go to the Clock, Language and Region section of the Control Panel
2. Under Region, select Change location
3. On the Location tab, change Home location to United States
4. On the Administrative tab select Change system locale…
5. Change Current System locale to English (United States)
6. Don’t restart just yet

Change InstallLanguage in the registry

1. Open regedit
2. Navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\NIs\Language
3. Change InstallLanguage to 0409
4. Now restart

Change InstallLanguage to 0409

Install the Windows 8.1 Preview Update now

1. Go to http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows-8/preview-download
2. Select Get the update
3. Install the downloaded file (KB2849636)
4. Restart
5. Follow the prompt to the store and install the Preview