Until last evening I've been using Windows 8. MS has regularly prompted me to install Windows 8.1, I'd declined because of unflattering reviews. In a display of unmitigated gall Windows 8.1 installed itself! I now find numerous online reports of this happening to other users.

I'd be prepared to struggle on but my husband has discovered his PowerPoint folders have disappeared. This is causing considerable domestic angst. I've searched everywhere I can think of for a way to uninstall 8.1 and revert to Windows 8 and, hopefully, recover his work. Rather than being a simple uninstall it appears, to me, to be well-nigh impossible. System Restore is not an option.

I'd be grovellingly grateful for help.

Just something quick to check. Have the files gone to OneDrive? When the Desktop is showing, do you have an icon that looks like a cloud sitting near the clock? If so, double-click on it and look through the folders that appear.

Thanks for the suggestion, there is nothing in Cloud.

My husband re-did his PowerPoint stuff so that crisis has passed. Just have to learn to live with 8.1 now.

I hope you don't get any more problems. About the lost files, it's always best to keep backups of important files on a USB external drive or other storage. Losses can occur not only when upgrading the OS but also for other reasons such as hard disk failure or total failure of the OS. Keeping backups on an external drive (disconnected when not in use) also protects them from malware.

Regarding the upgrade, operating systems mature as time goes by. The developers learn about shortfalls one way or another and they issue updates to fix them. This happened with Windows XP and Windows 7. Service Packs containing improvements were issued some time after the operating system's initial release dates. Same with Windows 8.0. Another point is that Microsoft are stopping support for Windows 8.0 in October next year. This is probably the reason why Windows 8.0 users are now not able to opt out of the upgrade to Windows 8.1.

When reading around the Internet, It might seem that upgrade problems are more likely to happen than not. However, I think cases of people experiencing difficulties would probably be far outnumbered by the millions of people who don't get any trouble. Those who don't get problems are not likely to want to write about a trouble-free upgrade experience in forums, blogs and Internet articles. We mostly only get to hear about cases where things go wrong.

Thank you for the very sound advice.

We have resolved to be more vigilant about back-ups. This starts today with the external hard drive that we failed to keep up to date.