Right now Win 7 is officially due to be obsolete.. ok.. nothing lives forever...

What microsoft don't tell us is that a fresh install of win 8.1 is nearly impossible...!!!

I've recently attempted this on two laptops as I'm keen to avoid win 10 for as long as possible.

Here's the problem...
Win 8.1 ISO installs to hard drive and authorizes with what appears to be no problems,
until you try to update win defender security & spyware definitions.
The update hangs doing nothing.
Then you try to do the system updates,
knowing there will be dozens as the fresh new win 8.1 install version is so out of date.

Again nothing happens because win 8.1 updater is broken.
Hunting microsoft site for manual install patches provides apparent solution,
and if lucky you may get one security update for Win Defender.
But still windows update won't work...

Basically, Windows update needs to be updated but can't be updated by windows update because it's so out of date...

..and none of the manual download & install microsoft patches fix it either...!!!

So at this point you are supposed to think, bugger it time to grit teeth and install win 10...
Nice one microsoft, you crafty bastards...

However, a lucky google search result points to an independant 3rd party solution

"WSUS Offline Update"

"www.wsusoffline.net - Update Microsoft Windows and Office without an Internet connection"

It works.. it's very slow.. and it might hang and need rebooting a couple of times during update.. but it works...

Problem solved, a working fresh updated install of Win 8.1 - no thanks to microsoft..

Win 10 can eff off to another day...