Windows 8 - only 2 weeks left to upgrade for £25

Jivesinger

Windows 8 has had ...erm... mixed reviews. After installing it on more than one PC, my personal impression is that it's a largely good product under the skin, albeit with some occasional flakiness, but the user interface needs a little work.

However it's worth pointing out that the current upgrade price of £25 (from XP/ Vista/ Windows 7) expires at the end of January; just over 2 weeks' time. From a new Windows 7 PC (bought since June) you can get a discount code and it's only £15.

What happens after the end of Jan? Well I'm not sure, but £25 is a lot cheaper than the normal price of previous Windows upgrades, once the initial offers have subsided.

So, if you're considering upgrading to Windows 8, now may be the time to bag a Windows 8 upgrade licence. As I understand it, you don't have to *use* it straight away, so you might gamble on Microsoft issuing a Service Pack that takes away some of the glitches before you actually install it...

Lum

Cue a whole bunch of people piling onto this thread to tell us all how bad Windows 8 is and that they're going to stick with Windows ME until the end of time because it's totally secure, never crashes and the UI is perfect.

railbuff

I used this offer some time ago (21/11/12) to upgrade to Win 8 and the download went smooth. at the same time i ordered the Win 8 backup DVD for £8.99 which never arrived, so got onto MS after i found a live person to speak too and it was no problem we will order an new one for you, Great I got the email confirmation of the new order and waited and waited and still no DVD, so this time i thought i would email their CEO from the email listed at !!!!!!!!!!!!!. at fist emailed their UK CEO and waited with no reply, soi i sent a copy of this email to their USA CEO and this is when i got some action. I got a call from their USA office apologising and saying they would send me a copy by courier (UPS) and give me a full refund for my trouble and still keep my key active. their was slight delay in this as it was over the christmas period, but i could see where it was through tracking system. this arrived on the 28th Dec.

kwikbreaks

From the comments I've seen I think I'll just hang on to Windows 7 and the £25.

I only bought an MS operating system upgrade once and that was to convert the abysmal Vista to Win 7 on a laptop. As I've since got rid of that machine having reinstated it to Vista first I have a spare Windows 7 install which I'll probably use if I buy a Windows 8 machine.

I do still have a netbook and an Eee Box which came with XP but I doubt they'd have the grunt for Win 7. I've put Linux Mint on the Eee Box.

Deneb

railbuff wrote: »

I used this offer some time ago (21/11/12) to upgrade to Win 8 and the download went smooth. at the same time i ordered the Win 8 backup DVD for £8.99 which never arrived, ...

Surely easier and cheaper to have burnt your download onto a DVD yourself?

Fifer

Does anyone know if the W8 upgrade (which I understand is really a full version and doesn't require an original key to install) "attaches" itself in any way to the copy of W7 you choose to upgrade?

I ask because I have a copy of W7 which came with my HP desktop (presumably an OEM licemce which can only legitimately be used with that machine) and a full W7 licence which I bought for a HTPC I built but no longer really use. I want to upgrade the HP OEM W7 as that's the machine I currenty use, but don't want the W8 licence to effectively become OEM too, if that makes sense?

Splott

The Windows 8 version is determined by its license key, not that of the previous OS. So if the version you're getting is the upgrade version, that is what it will remain. You will still only be able to install it on one machine only.

Lum

There doesn't seem to be anything to prevent you from downgrading the HP machine back to Win7 and then using your upgrade licence on a different machine later.

If you want to be absolutely certain, you could wipe win7 off your machine before installing and then use this trick to activate your new Win8 install.

I have successfully shuffled licenses around in this manner however. I had an XP machine that I upgraded to 7 using a full non-upgrade Windows 7 licence, and then upgraded it to Windows 8. Then I realised that as an upgrade I could have just upgraded it straight from XP, therefore my Windows 7 licence is available and not being used, so I used that 7 licence on another machine (that previously had no Microsoft OS) and upgraded that to 8 too.

At the end of the day I have licences for XP and 7 and two upgrade licences for 8, so I'm compliant.

railbuff

Fifer wrote: »

Does anyone know if the W8 upgrade (which I understand is really a full version and doesn't require an original key to install) "attaches" itself in any way to the copy of W7 you choose to upgrade?

I ask because I have a copy of W7 which came with my HP desktop (presumably an OEM licemce which can only legitimately be used with that machine) and a full W7 licence which I bought for a HTPC I built but no longer really use. I want to upgrade the HP OEM W7 as that's the machine I currenty use, but don't want the W8 licence to effectively become OEM too, if that makes sense?

When you buy the Win 8 Upgrade from windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows/buy for £24.99 you will be given a download and a licence key for the Win 8

railbuff

Deneb wrote: »

Surely easier and cheaper to have burnt your download onto a DVD yourself?

No because the download is an automated download, so you are not given an actual zip or exe file, but with OS id rather have offical DVDs

Lum

You are given the opportunity to download and burn an ISO from the upgrade assistant. I think you have to pick the "keep nothing" option.