Windows 8.1 (again)

[#1]

Advice needed please for an elderly novice.
If/when I download the upcoming Win 8.1, can someone tell me whether it would enable a straightforward transfer of all currently loaded programs etc. in
win/8, or shall I have the same problems as recently, when win 8 on my fairly new laptop blew up completely and I had to do a complete reset to ex-factory
condition. 

[#2]

Hi
Its an in place upgrade. You will not lose any data or settings
Tony

[#3]

Thanks very much, that's an enormous relief 

[#4]

You could probably fly to Redmond faster than compete the upgrade but it's should be fairly straight forward and all remains intact.
podman

[#5]

*Solved* - it was the Steel Series mouse/keyboard software that was the issue, once uninstalled Windows 8.1 update worked!

[#6]

With my fantastic connection my update took about six hours to download !
The only potential problem which was not immediately obvious was that it had uninstalled the AV I was using (Avast) and had not activated Win Defender. Still, that was easily sorted once it was noticed. What won't be quite so easy is resetting all the minor adjustments I had made during the previous months as I can't really recall how I got where I was