No, you don’t require an internet connection to install Windows on a new drive.
No, you don’t require an internet connection to install Windows on a new drive.
No, you don’t require an internet connection to install Windows 8.1 on a new drive.
You need internet access to be turned on. It seems it will take about three days before notifications show up.
^ It's unclear if this works the same on Windows 8.1 as on previous versions, but if you misconfigure the installation date during setup and correct it, Windows may immediately prompt for activation and claim it's not genuine.