Pros/cons upgrading to Windows 8 from 7

st999

I like windows 8 but I like windows 8.1 even better

st999

The license key for Windows 8 is apparently hidden in the BIOS

Is it?

Mine is on a piece of paper in 20 point Times Roman printed from the email Microsoft sent me.

Jivesinger

locky123 wrote: »

The license key for Windows 8 is apparently hidden in the BIOS.

st999 wrote: »

Is it?

Yes... on a PC with Windows 8/8.1 pre-installed. And you won't find a sticker on the case with a product key written down on these PCs either, so you would need a piece of software to read it from the BIOS.

If you buy a retail copy of Windows 8/8.1, then you'd get a product key on a email or in the box or whatever.

st999

I got mine for, if I remember correctly, £14.99 and got media centre free then I upgraded to 8.1 for free.

Worth every penny.

mart44

I paid £24.99 the Windows 8 upgrade as soon as it was released and took up the offer of the free Media Centre. The free 8.1 upgrade as well.

I took advantage of Microsoft's pre-release price with Windows 7 and bought 2 full-installation disks for £44.97 each from Amazon.

That was the best prices I could find at the time. On the basis that I'm likely to upgrade to the latest Microsoft OS at sometime or another, I find it pays to take a chance and go for them early.

As it has turned out, I haven't been disappointed with Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 (used with a keyboard and mouse).

The Windows 8 interface took some getting used to but having spent time with it, I wouldn't go back to the Windows 7 style menus. Quite handy to have shortcuts to the most regularly used programs laid out on the tiled Start Screen. I like the way the lesser used shortcuts are separate but easily accessible in the 'Apps by category' screen. Much easier to find anything with them all being spread out the way they are. A good search function on that screen too.

grumpycrab

Off topic but Win8Pro UPGRADE (from XP, Vista, 7) for £45 @amazon for a short period.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008GRKGXK/?!!!!!ho01f-21&ectrans=1&channel=6570&cid=taa01

locky123

Backed up Win 7, used Recovery discs to install Win 8. Installed latest windows updates and now downloading 8.1 which is taking a long time.

First impressions of 8 is it will take some time to get used to finding my way round.

Any recommended online user guides?

Oblivion

locky123 wrote: »

Any recommended online user guides?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows/how-to

Jivesinger

grumpycrab wrote: »

Off topic but Win8Pro UPGRADE (from XP, Vista, 7) for £45 @amazon for a short period.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008GRKGXK/?!!!!!ho01f-21&ectrans=1&channel=6570&cid=taa01

Seems to be nearly £60 now - you weren't kidding when you said 'a short period'!

Uxb

AlecEiffel wrote: »

8 is a great OS. Fast and stable. Whether you prefer it to 7 is your call - no doubt a million people will be along in a mo to say how bad 8 is cos it's different. Its personal choice. 8.1 is free should you decide to go for 8 (do some windows updates and it will appear in the store).

I suppose you also though Windows Vista was "great OS" as well.
Oh, actually come to think about it - you said as much as.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/63507980#Comment_63507980
Post No 62.

I'd like to see the car manufacturers bring out a model with the positions of the clutch, accelerator and brake all swapped round.
Then when people end up killing themselves and others at a huge rate just say that all the criticism is misplaced and the whiners 'just don't like something new'......

There are endless accident reports on aircraft resulting exactly from these sort of "changes" by the manufacturer between models, or where the pilot very familiar with one aircraft type swapped to another with a different layout and at a moment of stress reverted back in their mind to the controls of the previous aircraft...and so crashed.

What seems to be missing in all these discussions is that an OS is not meant to be an end itself. It is meant to facilitate people running programs etc - users shouldn't have to spend time learning the OS again before they can do things.
To an extent this might be all right in a home environment where indeed users may get interest and enjoyment out of learning how a new OS functions, but in a corporate environment where this is just creating lost time and lost productivity the reaction is likely to be one of total fury.