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If you want to upgrade to Windows 8, get your order in quick!
David Jenkins - 20/1/13 at 11:41 AM

If anyone here has Windows XP, Vista or 7 and is considering an upgrade to Windows 8, get your order in quick as the special offer is about to run out.

Until the end of January you can download an upgrade to Win 8 Pro for £24.99 from Microsoft UK, or £49.99 if you want a DVD in a box. When the offer closes the price will go up x6, to around £150! The ordinary Win 8 (not Pro) will cost around £75.

Of course, there's a down-side - if you've currently got XP or Vista (as in my case) then you'll have to reinstall all your apps afterwards...

I've just done this on my laptop. Not too painful a process, but reinstalling apps is a pain. There's also a steep learning curve, but that's not too bad.

I'm mainly a Linux user, but keep my laptop as Windows for those occasions where only Windoze will do... however, I really hated Vista, which is why I jumped at this opportunity. Also, Microsoft seem to be pulling back on Vista support (but no evidence for that).

Only time will tell how this upgrade will work out...


splitrivet - 20/1/13 at 12:36 PM

Sorry David dont know why anyone would want Windows 8 its orrible, the wifes new laptop has it on, downloaded some software so it runs like 7.
Mind you if your running Vista a kick in the goolies is an improvement.
Cheers,
Bob


johnemms - 20/1/13 at 12:43 PM

Says I've got to pay to upgrade my MS Office ..
Think i'll stick with win 7 ...
Running Linux Mint on another PC realy good ..

http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_nadia_whatsnew.php


phelpsa - 20/1/13 at 12:52 PM

quote:
Originally posted by johnemms
Says I've got to pay to upgrade my MS Office ..
Think i'll stick with win 7 ...
Running Linux Mint on another PC realy good ..

http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_nadia_whatsnew.php


What office are you running? My 2010 transferred straight over.

I've moved to 8 on laptop and desktop and although the features aren't of any real advantage, i have noticed a reasonable performance increase.


David Jenkins - 20/1/13 at 12:53 PM

I can't argue with either comment - I use Linux Mint for most of my time, and I'm very happy with it.

Vista used to upset me every time I used it - I'd get blocked and messed about almost every time I tried to do something.

Strangely enough - I haven't found anything that really annoys me with Win 8 (yet) apart from the installation where it decided that it would use my WiFi connection - even though there was a faster wired ethernet connection available... but that happened in Vista too...


MakeEverything - 20/1/13 at 01:04 PM

For once, i have a computer that is running well, and without problems. I would put money on this changing if i tried to update, so im going to leave it alone for now.

Thanks for the heads up though. I did consider it.


snakebelly - 20/1/13 at 01:06 PM

IT is my daily business and i only upograded to Windows 7 8 months ago....draw your own conculsion, ill be sticking with 7 to the bitter end as 8 offers me nothing i dont already have, apart from (IMO) a really crappy UI


wilkingj - 20/1/13 at 01:23 PM

My son just bought a Laptop from Ebuyer with no O/S.
Good price (£250- free delivery), and good machine etc.

Went to load my XP on it so we could upgrade to Win8 as this is the cheapest offer on at the moment, Win7 is £70.
However, the Lappy is SO new, that we couldnt get XP to load. Its a problem with the drivers, ie XP doesnt have them.
In the end we had to buy Win7. So not a huge saving.

So be aware that very new PC's might not take Win XP, and then you cant do this upgrade.
ie check before parting wth your cash if going down this route!

Just my 2d's worth.


David Jenkins - 20/1/13 at 01:23 PM

I couldn't afford an upgrade to Windows 7 - otherwise I'd have done that instead...

I should add that my laptop isn't important to my daily life - if Win 8 screws up then my life goes on - if it was my main machine then I may have done things differently.

Anyway - back to the original post - IF you wanted an upgrade, buy now!

[Edited on 20/1/13 by David Jenkins]


britishtrident - 20/1/13 at 01:33 PM

The experience of using Windows 8 is like putting your brains through a mincing machine, the guy that was in charge of windows development got kicked out just after it was launched.


David Jenkins - 20/1/13 at 01:40 PM



Honestly - I don't find it that bad! Though maybe that just shows how awful Vista was!

This helped though - Hints


Slimy38 - 20/1/13 at 01:51 PM

I'm still working on every other Windows OS being decent. So 98 was good, ME was really bad, XP was really good, Vista sucked the big one, 7 is the current daddy, and now 8 is, well you get the idea.

I was really impressed with the amount of hardware that can run Windows 7. My current laptop doesn't meet the Vista minimum requirements, but it works fine with 7 and is pretty quick. I'm just missing the full 'aero' experience, but I'm not worried about that.


britishtrident - 20/1/13 at 02:01 PM

Windows 7 is rock solid, the only thing with win 7 is to avoid the poverty spec versions.


djtom - 20/1/13 at 02:14 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Slimy38
I'm still working on every other Windows OS being decent. So 98 was good, ME was really bad, XP was really good, Vista sucked the big one, 7 is the current daddy, and now 8 is, well you get the idea.



You missed Win 2000, which spoils the theory somewhat...!


dlatch - 20/1/13 at 02:44 PM

my laptop runs win 7 which i love does everything you could ask from it so won't be changing that anytime soon and as my desktop machine is running XP with no issues i will leave it alone but the future lack of security updates could be a worry so i may do my online shopping/banking on the laptop only in the future


Slimy38 - 20/1/13 at 03:01 PM

quote:
Originally posted by djtom
quote:
Originally posted by Slimy38
I'm still working on every other Windows OS being decent. So 98 was good, ME was really bad, XP was really good, Vista sucked the big one, 7 is the current daddy, and now 8 is, well you get the idea.



You missed Win 2000, which spoils the theory somewhat...!


I also excluded Windows NT and 2003, but unless I'm very much mistaken those Windows versions weren't sold for 'home' use?

(Although there is an NT Workstation... perhaps the theory is pretty garbage! )


MakeEverything - 20/1/13 at 04:38 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Slimy38
quote:
Originally posted by djtom
quote:
Originally posted by Slimy38
I'm still working on every other Windows OS being decent. So 98 was good, ME was really bad, XP was really good, Vista sucked the big one, 7 is the current daddy, and now 8 is, well you get the idea.



You missed Win 2000, which spoils the theory somewhat...!


I also excluded Windows NT and 2003, but unless I'm very much mistaken those Windows versions weren't sold for 'home' use?

(Although there is an NT Workstation... perhaps the theory is pretty garbage! )


Werent 2000 and ME derivatives of one or the other? I had ME, and the startup screen was always Windows 2000 Media Edition. Both came out at or about the same time iirc. NT was ok as a business OS because of its (funnily enough) networking benefits but not for home use - i tried it.


Slimy38 - 20/1/13 at 06:11 PM

quote:
Originally posted by MakeEverything
Werent 2000 and ME derivatives of one or the other? I had ME, and the startup screen was always Windows 2000 Media Edition. Both came out at or about the same time iirc. NT was ok as a business OS because of its (funnily enough) networking benefits but not for home use - i tried it.


I also tried NT for a home PC, it's lack of any decently up to date version of Direct X scuppered any attempt at being useful. Very reliable for business though.

The 'ME' that I was referring to was the Millenium Edition, which I believe was based on the 9x versions (without DOS and any ability to run things properly!), whereas 2000 was NT based. Then we got XP that was the first attempt at a home version of NT, hence much more reliable.

Edit: I can't find any reference anywhere to a Windows 2000 media edition?

[Edited on 20/1/13 by Slimy38]


MikeRJ - 20/1/13 at 08:16 PM

My lovely wife bought me a 512GB SSD for Christmas, and felt it was probably time to upgrade the rest of my PC anyway and went for Windows 8 as it was so much cheaper than 7 (previously running XP). The "Modern" (previously called "Metro" ) front end is simply a very bad joke for non-touchscreen desktop use as far as I can see, but the rest of Winodws 8 seems pretty good. I bought Start8 to get me a proper Windows 7 style start menu, and I am very happy with it. Win 8 is supposed to be a little faster booting that Win 7, and with the SSD it is insanely fast. It boots to the login screen in about 5 seconds after the BIOS screen finishes, and from "sleep" it's ready to use in under 2 seconds.

The only significant issue is I've had is a couple of "white screens", a bit like a BSOD but a plain white screen with no information shown. After googling this seems to have happened to quite a few people, but no explanations or fixes as yet.

My wife also upgraded her laptop from Win 7 and has so far not seen any problems.

[Edited on 20/1/13 by MikeRJ]


David Jenkins - 20/1/13 at 09:11 PM

There's another front end (free) called Classic Shell, which gives you several start menus to play with.

I've got it, but not installed it yet - I'm trying to see if I can cope with the Win8 interface before I do. Managing OK so far, so may not bother.


Ninehigh - 25/1/13 at 09:27 PM

quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
The experience of using Windows 8 is like putting your brains through a mincing machine, the guy that was in charge of windows development got kicked out just after it was launched.


Not surprised. Mum's new laptop has it, took us BOTH 20 minutes to find out how to turn it off.. Only to find the next day it wasn't turned off just logged out. I can't get it to do squat


David Jenkins - 26/1/13 at 10:30 AM

I've just set mine up so that it shuts down cleanly when I push the big on-off button on the laptop... look in the power setup part of the control panel.


onenastyviper - 26/1/13 at 11:15 AM

Running Linux Mint on a 7 year old laptop formerly XP and struggled with AV, Flash, M$ updates etc.
Can now watch videos with no problems, some HD video as well.
The wierd thing is that now the wireless LAN performance has greatly improved as well - this was an immediate change, go figure?
Managed to get wireless printer drivers and installed within 5minutes and printed 30 seconds later.
OK, it is not quite the same as windows bu I am getting used to it and finding it easier every day.

I think I am just about done with M$ products.

No sermon on how Linux is better and M$ sucks but for me and my elderly machine, it is a great change.

If you are seriously considering an OS change, try a live CD of a flavour of Linux (Ubuntu, Mint or one of the others). They don't install anything and just run from the CD...OK they may not be super fast but remember that it is running from the CD or DVD. I believe that there are also versions and tools that will enable the transition from windows to linux.

One word of warning, like anything, if you are tempted into changing OS, remember to backup all your important documents just in case.


David Jenkins - 26/1/13 at 11:24 AM

I run Linux Mint on my main machine - I also have a spare HDD with Linux on it for putting in my laptop when I want!

As I've said before, I only use Windoze for those times when only Windoze will do - thankfully, not too often.

The only reason I moved to Win 8 was because I hated Vista so much. Now, I'm starting to like Win 8! I wouldn't change my main system to it though, not in a million years...