Upgrade to Windows 8 for $40!

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Dale_tem

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Dale
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Interesting price announced from Microsoft.

The price will last till Jan 2013, and can be used with could, vista or windows 7.

Cannot wait for Windows 8 and what the uptake and effect it will have on software and apps.
 
Really? I think it's very tablet oriented. I've got it installed on a VM and for the desktop user it's a step backwards IMHO (getting rid of the start button was the worst thing they could have done for a power user as it gives direct access to the search entry).
 
It isn't gone for the power user ;) You can turn it off, I think you can access it somewhere still so that power users can access metro apps. Iirc it is turned off for the business edition(s).

It hasn't been in the preview as they ate focussing on metro.
 
Yes... focusing on making me move my mouse so far to do anything it's a bore. I have 2 x 24" monitors... I don't want to be moving my mouse across both of them to bring up the candy.... I'd rather use OS-X as an interface (and that's saying something ;))
 
You get a start button on each monitor which will be a huge improvement.
 
Dale_d3100 said:
You get a start button on each monitor which will be a huge improvement.
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No you don't you get charms on each monitor which may well be a huge PITA (I haven't tried it as the VM is on a different machine to my main machine and I use RDP to connect to it). Win-Q will allow you to search apps, but it is 100% clear the main focus of Win8 is the single app/multi-app overview experience.
 
I tried out the beta version of windows 8 on my spare PC & to be honest i dont like the front end of it, think i will be sticking with win 7 until they pull the plug & i have to move to win 8..
 
ive not tried the preview yet, i can see us skipping it at work though. not all of our systems have been migrated from xp to 7.

might wait and see what the final is like personally when it hits msdn.
 
Key Dates

You must purchase a qualifying Windows 7 PC between 2 June 2012 and 31 January 2013 to be eligible for this offer. The last day to register and order your Windows 8 upgrade is 28 February 2013.
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sounds like its only for people who buy a new pc within these dates which i think is not very fair at all. they should give everyone with a valid win7 disk & serial the option of upgrade as well...
 
£14.99 if you buy a new pc just now, £30-40 if you want to upgrade from an older copy or from the beta copy of Win8 is the way I read it.

I installed the beta last night, so far not overly impressed although the install process was quick and easy with nothing lost except my AV software. The initial metro screen is kind of pointless unless you sign up to the MS store or whatever it's called but one of the icons takes you to the old style desktop so that's ok. You can put the start button back easily too, google is your friend for that.
 
Windows 98 - good
Windows ME - bad
Windows XP - good
Windows Vista - bad
Windows 7 - good
Windows 8 - ?

Anyone notice a pattern?

Windows 8 will be fine for phones and tablets - not so good for desktops - I have tried beta copies and didn't like it.
 
crow field said:
Windows 98 - good
Windows ME - bad
Windows XP - good
Windows Vista - bad
Windows 7 - good
Windows 8 - ?

Anyone notice a pattern?

Windows 8 will be fine for phones and tablets - not so good for desktops - I have tried beta copies and didn't like it.
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forgot 2000..

vista wasnt bad either, poor vendor drivers and poor system specs from the cheap end of the market gave it that rep.
 
neil_g said:
wasnt there 3.1 as well as 3.11? i forget.. still got 3.11 on about 40 floppy disks somewhere :LOL:
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Yup. 3, 3.1 and 3.11 IIRC ...
 
Liking Win8 a lot less now :(

Browsing away and suddenly - Big Blue Screen - Your pc has encountered a problem and needs to restart...

Reboot
fail
raboot
fail
reboot into self diagnostics, runs for a few mins, self repair, runs for a few minutes, sorry can't repair your pc would you like to Refresh your pc? none of your files will be lost.. OK then
Refresh runs for a few minutes, boots into Windows and... 60% of my programs have been deleted along with drivers for half my devices :bang:
 
Oops....
 
neil_g said:
forgot 2000..

vista wasnt bad either, poor vendor drivers and poor system specs from the cheap end of the market gave it that rep.
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for the end user though that meant it was a poor experience. not necessarily MS's fault but still... end users only see what they see

on the whole though 7 is better, Vista had some really stupid foibles and on two seperate machines it died on me without cause or apparent reason after about a year.

Windows 95 was also exceptionally good. Simple, but good. Win98 was just Win95 with IE welded onto it, USB support and a dodgy new driver model chucked in, which collectively made it a bit s$$t.
 
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I'm guessing this 'preview' needs work, after the third time of going tits up I've gone back to Win 7.

Unless there are big things in the works, from what I've seen so far of Win8 it isn't much of an upgrade except in cosmetic terms. Microsoft trying to take us in a new and 'hip' direction by calling all my old programs "apps" and wanting me to connect to their app store all the time just annoys.

Allowing you to go back to the old style desktop is good but removing the Start button is plain daft because you have no easy access to your progr..sorry apps.
 
Understand that Win8 may unlock some more performance from the AMD Bulldog chip due to it not switching off some of the cores.
 
Steep said:
Liking Win8 a lot less now :(

Browsing away and suddenly - Big Blue Screen - Your pc has encountered a problem and needs to restart...

Reboot
fail
raboot
fail
reboot into self diagnostics, runs for a few mins, self repair, runs for a few minutes, sorry can't repair your pc would you like to Refresh your pc? none of your files will be lost.. OK then
Refresh runs for a few minutes, boots into Windows and... 60% of my programs have been deleted along with drivers for half my devices :bang:
Click to expand...

Sorry Hugh but that made me chuckle, thanks for trying it out, think I'll stay away from it until at least the first service pack has been delivered - sound familiar??

David
 
Do you try to come across as a supercilious tit Neil or does it come naturally to you?


Your welcome David :) the finished product may have advantages but from what I've seen so far it won't be a big enough step forward to be a worthwhile upgrade from Win7.
 
i tried to be supercilious once but i think it was still in beta as it kept crashing. reverted to disdain v3.5 (after a full format and reinstall) until it was in full release. now im waiting on a service pack release before i change over.
 
I refer you to my previous post but change the question to confirmed opinion.
 
meh. im sure i'll live. (i could of course just be exercising my sarcasm) ;)

my point still stands, its a preview its going to be buggy when the RTM is a month away (i wonder how many hardware vendors have proven drivers written yet and how long itll be before machine vendors start shipping preinstalled) and the full release is expected in october if i remember rightly.

this is why i very rarely get interested until i have an MSDN full release to try and i know there are the drivers available to support the system (virtual doesnt count, youd expect MS to nail those off the bat).
 
neil_g said:
makes me chuckle people expect previews/betas/release clients to work flawlessly.
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If it's a release preview, it should work - an RP is an essentially finished product that just hasn't been released to manufacturer (RTM) yet.
 
trencheel303 said:
If it's a release preview, it should work - an RP is an essentially finished product that just hasn't been released to manufacturer (RTM) yet.
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Assuming their RP is the same as our Release Candidate, it means "we think it should work, but are giving you this to try and root out any final few bugs that may be in there as our test suite doesn't cover 100% of use cases (and no test suite can...)"
 
neil_g said:
makes me chuckle people expect previews/betas/release clients to work flawlessly.
Click to expand...

tbh i don't expect any microsoft opperating system to be anything other than full of bugs and glitches until several months (possibly years) after full release - I won't be upgrading until all that crap has beern worked through and fixed
 
big soft moose said:
tbh i don't expect any microsoft opperating system to be anything other than full of bugs and glitches until several months (possibly years) after full release - I won't be upgrading until all that crap has beern worked through and fixed
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7 was pretty good right off the bat, never had any bother with the rc or rtm before full.

Never really had any issue with vista either.
 
big soft moose said:
I won't be upgrading until all that crap has beern worked through and fixed
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:LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: ya gunna have a very long wait then, i doubt ya ever getting to install it... LOL.

tbh i dont mind all the bugs & crap that goes with beta versions i always try them out a.s.a.p, if it goes T*TS up it only takes a couple of hours or so to format & go back to what ya had on before.
 
Previews/RCs are what Virtual Machines were invented for....
 
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