Why will sl in general on either sl viewer or firestorm not be supported by windows 8.1?

[lonelymomma]

I recently bought a new laptop. intel core i7 top of the line laptop, much better then the one ive always used and did fine with sl. I down load firestorm and my screen is glitching  and blinking and I crash shortly after.  Same thing happened when I downloaded Sl viewer.......is SL just not supported by windows 8.1?

[Lindal Kidd]

I don't know about 8.1, but SL works fine with Windows 8, and I suspect it will work fine with 8.1 if you first go to the web site of the manufacturer of your video card and download and install the latest video drivers.

Note:  SL may or may not work with your computer if you have integrated graphics (Intel HD 4000 or HDanything).  It should work fine with either an AMD/ATI Radeon graphics card or an Nvidia GeForce card, but tends to do best with the Nvidia cards.

[KarenMichelle Lane]

The SL Viewer & Windows 8.1

YAY - It works fine...

Nothing to it really, As you can see in the About Help I've pasted below SL sees Windows 8.1 and operates in Windows 8 Compatibility Mode. Just as advertised. I tested on one of my personal work PCs and a high end PC as well. This is the work PC About Help data.

Second Life 3.6.9 (282535) Oct 18 2013 04:31:50 (Second Life Release) Release Notes

You are at 219.4, 216.0, 23.1 in Firmament Paradise located at sim10187.agni.lindenlab.com (216.82.49.53:13002) SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Firmament%20Paradise/219/216/23 (global coordinates 271,323.0, 335,576.0, 23.1) Second Life Server 13.10.15.282406 Release Notes

CPU: Intel® Core2 CPU          6400  @ 2.13GHz (2133.94 MHz) Memory: 3327 MB OS Version: Microsoft Windows 8 32-bit  (Build 9200) compatibility mode. real ver: 6.3 (Build 9600) Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation Graphics Card: GeForce 9600 GT/PCIe/SSE2

Windows Graphics Driver Version: 9.18.0013.2723 OpenGL Version: 3.3.0

libcurl Version: libcurl/7.21.1 OpenSSL/0.9.8q zlib/1.2.5 c-ares/1.7.1 J2C Decoder Version: KDU v7.0 Audio Driver Version: FMOD Ex 4.44.12 Qt Webkit Version: 4.7.1 (version number hard-coded) Voice Server Version: Not Connected Built with MSVC version 1600 Packets Lost: 21/6,545 (0.3%)

The 1st login will cause the saved Name / Password to reset because of some differences between Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 networking. Other than these small differences feel free to upgrade to Windows 8.1. It looks fine.

for new Windows 8 & 8.1 SLers.

Dear OP,

All Windows 8 & 8.1 Users

1) Manually apply ALL the Required and Important patches for Windows 8 from Microsoft. A new Win 8 PC needs 4-5 iterations of this to get them all. The easiest way to do this is to:

    a) Enter Desktop Mode
    b) Launch Internet Explorer
    c) Right-click on the options area of the Browser and turn on Menu & Status Bar [and any other of the old standards you like]
    d) Tools / Windows Update.
    e) Select the CUSTOM button so you can monitor and select the downloaded options to install e) Repeat until all are DL'd and installed

Note: Don't install the Bing Desktop. Also, don;t install any Windows Live components unless you have an email account with Microsoft.

2) Identify the Video / Graphics system in your PC and get the Windows 8 drivers direct from the Video System manufacturer.

    http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
    http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
    http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect/graphics

3) If you just performed the items 1) & 2) above, please reinstall SL again using the official version from Linden Lab. [be sure to do a clean install

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/How-to-uninstall-and-reinstall-Second-Life/ta-p/1375231

Here is the Windows 8 Manual System File cleanup procedure since it's not in the procedure above.

Windows 8 & Windows 8.1

    1) Open C:\Users\\AppData\Local and delete the contents of the SecondLife folder.
    2) Open C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming and delete the contents of the SecondLife folder.
    3) Uninstall Second Life using the Programs and Features tool in the Windows Control Panel.
    4) Download and install the latest release of the Second Life Viewer from http://secondlife.com/support/downloads/.

Note: is the Windows 8 User Account Login Name

If you can't see the files or folders described above:
    1) Using File Explorer navigate to -> Libraries / Computer / ( C: ) / Users /
    2) Press the Continue button to get permission to obtain permanent permission edit this directory.
    3) From the View drop-down menu option select Options & Change Folder & Search Options
    4) Select the View Tab
    5) Under the Hidden Files and Folders options click on the - O Show hidden files, folders & Drives radio button
    6) Push the Apply Button then the OK button.

You should be up and running in no time.

P.S. I recommend these steps on all Windows 8 PC's and Laptops, specifically designed for Windows 8 with high-end Graphics Sub-Systems or Graphics Cards.

P.S.S. - On Upgraded PC's & Laptops - If your computer was not designed specifically for Windows 7 or Windows 8 these steps may still help. There are many "Designed for Vista" PC's that don't upgrade well to Windows 8. If your PC was designed for Windows XP, Windows 8 is usually NOT a viable option, practically speaking.