Windows 8 pricing details announced as preorders begin Microsoft revealed full pricing details for Windows 8 on Friday as Redmond and its retail partners began accepting preorders for the new OS, which will begin shipping on October 26. Starting on Friday, customers can preorder an upgrade edition of Windows 8 Pro for $69.99 in the US or £49.99 in the UK. That's for the full …
Win7 will inform you that an important update needs to be installed.
When you reboot you'll see the Win8 tiles and a note to say that Microsoft will dispatch the invoice within 7 days.
You'll want to revert back to what you had before but you can't.
It's,all in the small print, page 106, you did after all tick the I Agree box.
Sure, most people who buy a copy of Windows 8 without a machine will already have an older version of Windows for their existing machine. That's been the case for many Windows releases past. So what has changed? I think this really shows the fear of a repeat of Vista.
The *only* way to get a retail Windows 8 on your existing machine is to upgrade. And that means you can't also have the license for that old version that you upgraded. IMO Microsoft are hoping that people will be forced to switch rather than e.g. dual booting or running one version in a virtual machine, and will be prevented from switching back.
Could backfire, too. I for one might have paid for a license just for testing software etc, but the value is severely reduced if I can't move it from one machine to another once in a while and I'm not currently willing to give up a Windows 7 license. Probably not an XP license either.
And the upgrade one can? That'd be.. novel for Microsoft. Or is it that it inherits the licence of the previous version?
(The upgrade fee for the OS on the machines here is nil, the same as the fee for the equivalent 'system builder' version.)
For those wanting to upgrade from XP Pro -> 7 Pro there now seems to be two choices:
1. Pay for 7 Upgrade... this costs about £110 iirc.
2. Pay for 8 Upgrade... this costs £49.99 (as per the article, max), and exercise the downgrade rights to... Win 7 Pro.
What a hard choice!
P.S. What annoys me about Win 7 editions is that Pro doesn't have Bitlocker (Enterprise & Ultimate does), fortunately Win 8 Pro at last has all the features you need in business (Bitlocker, join domain, etc).
To let Microsoft know that you love using their software just as long as it doesnt cost any money. theyll get the hint and stop charging £300 for an OS where 90% of the code was written in previous versions you already paid £300 a piece for over the last decade.
Now some clinical asshole in the design department has shat out Windows 8 and we all have to pay another £300 again just to keep the fat cats fed. I'm sure the money goes straight to the people who wrote the code and isnt at all siphoned off into some executive slush fund.
Those probably aren't all of the versions and all of the prices.
If it's anything like previous versions, those prices will be for "ordinary" users and if you need some of the specialist functions (being able to write to external media, for example), then you'll need to fork out of the Ultimate or "Super-Pro" or something edition at £300 a time.
I'm going to guess that the Ultimate edition will be the one that lets you change the default interface from the pretty boxes to something usable.
Don't use Windows any more, so not something I'd thought about, but I used to have to do the following IIRC
Install Win95 (full install!)
Install Win98 (Upgrade only disc)
Install Win2K (Bollocksed copy that couldn't boot the computer, had to start the install from within Windows)
It was a royal pain in the arse. Then XP came out, and it was much, much easier to get hold of a full install copy, despite WGA (anyone else find they seemed willing to activate anything?).
It's weird, in the years since I've stopped using Windows I've actually paid their licensing (whenever I've bought a PC with it installed) more than when I was actually using it (which was, with the odd exception, not at all)!
Still got my legit Win 3.11 install floppies somewhere
Wonder how many people are going to 'upgrade' to 8 by choice, and how many will do so simply because that's what was on the PC when they bought it. Just hoping I won't have to support it, though most of our customers have already had a look at it and said 'no way'.
IIRC there were a number of blags available for the Win98 upgrade disks. I think you could do a full install but it would ask you for the key from whatever it was you were upgrading from.
I am pretty sure that it allowed you to use an office key or the updgrade disk's own key.
Buy a computer that does not have Windows pre-installed.
Any of the machines in the server/microserver class come without anything on them.
Example - HP Microserver, dual core low power Athlon, up to 8G ECC RAM, 4 Hard disk caddies, size of a large shoebox - base config ~ 100 £ (after rebates or sale discounts) up to ~ 300 once you stuff it with RAM to the gills and add a nice fanless low power Nvidia to it. Voila - here is your perfect desktop for anything but die-hard gaming. It will consume less power and you can leave it always on too. Comes without any Winhoze. Ditto for Dell, etc analogues.
Same for office class servers. Most of them are silent nowdays so they do nicely as a desktop. You can have a Xeon (off a fire sale) for under 300 if you look around and it will have no Windows on it either.
The only place where it is difficult to avoid Windows tax is laptops. A couple of years ago it was possible to get a barebones laptop from places like overclockers. Unfortunately they have stopped selling them now.
"The only place where it is difficult to avoid Windows tax is laptops. A couple of years ago it was possible to get a barebones laptop from places like overclockers. Unfortunately they have stopped selling them now."
Funny you should say that. I *just* ordered a custom built laptop last week from a place in the US that offers to install no OS, Windows or Linux. I chose the no-OS option. They were not the only US or UK supplier I found for custom laptops with the option for no OS installed.
If you think that's a bit much for an OS, what would you consider a fair price? For a full OS license, not an upgrade. Apple only sells upgrades (the only way to get a legal 'full license' for MacOS X is to get it with an Apple computer). AmigaOS 4 is 125 Euro or so; eComStation (aka OS/2) is $259; RiscOS Select is 155 quid; I can't find prices for Tru64, HP-UX, or IBM's AIX, but I get the impression they're 'really frigging expensive'. Solaris appears to be $75 to $6000, depending on what options you get.
There aren't many companies that sell OSes these days to compare to.
(Yes, yes, I know, Linux is free therefore no one should pay anything for an OS.)
No ta. The university can infect their labs with whatever shit they like, but I won't be touching TIFKAM with a very large barge pole.
Especially not some doubly shit time-limited "student" version that'll disable the computer somewhere down the line.
What's that people say about crack dealers? First hit for free?
They say it about crack dealers but IMHO the "1st for free" tactic is far more prevalent (almost universal more like), in the 'non-drug' business world than it is in the drug-related business.
Sherlock liked to roll out the barrel now & again I recall(In fact the icon depicts him having a quick pipe). Handy having a best mate who's a doctor with a good, strong writing arm though, heh heh. Though of course it was legal then...
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"Note, however, that System Builder editions have different licensing terms than mainstream editions of Windows 8. Most notably, once installed, Windows 8 System Builder licenses cannot be transferred to another computer."
That pretty much screws people who build their own PCs. Can see a good market in second hand copies of WinXP developing...
Wny not? The new security advancements? The cloud features? The SSD performance tweaks? The system-builder license that can be transferred to my new computers legitimately? Yeah, I'd hate to have any of that nonsense.
If you don't like the new UI, smack Classic Shell or Start8 onto it. Tada! A reasonable approximation of ________ (your favorite Windows version's interface) with the latest security enhancements under the hood.
Sadly mechBgon, you're banging your head against a brick wall. Don't bother mate, unless you love watching downvotes/
Most people who slag it off probably haven't even tried it. I use it on my Samsung Series 7 Slate and it rocks. I'll be putting it on my desktop (which runs 3 touchscreen monitors) as soon as I get around to buying a copy.
I guess its fun to run with the blind hate crowd....
@Monty Burns:
How many people have a touchscreen monitor? Not many. If you like it, fine. I've used it and I hate it with a passion. The new "modern" design is just plain ugly and annoying and not meant for people who use a mouse. I don't have a touchscreen, I don't want a touchscreen, and I want my desktop with my start button small and in the corner.
Wade, I think you have it summed up. The conflict is between the 'touchy crowd' and the 'mousy crowd'.
Tablets and some mobiles, (not mine!) are touchy items and probably work almost as well with Win 8 as they do with say IOS or Android, I certainly found it a burnt bridge from mouse plus screen to the more integrated tablet for which I have no need at all.
Having used it on a desk top I found it really hard work though the stories of upgrades to make the desktop version usable may overcome the issues. For those who do not use the cloud or have any interest let alone need for cloud access that is a drawback not an advantage; not quite as big a disadvantage as the mouse and screen hostile interface when I tried Win8, but not a benefit.
The SSD improvements in Win 8 may be of value to some, but the cost of SSDs make that a still specialised market, certainly if I had an SSD I would want a user welcoming not user hostile experience for me.
Oops, that lets me out.
I have, in the past, bought retail versions of things, specifically so that I can run them in virtualised environments later on, e.g. buying retail XP so that when the inevitable later time came, I could run it in some kind of container, just as I ran 98 in containers under XP - now I run 98 and XP in containers under 7.
But if my only choices are upgrade or OEM, there is no chance I'll buy it because that's just not how I want to operate. I even was quite happy to pay the premium for that privilege, but I guess MS doesn't want my money that badly.
It would be funny, except for the time, money, resources, and heartache about to be foisted on the victims.
Unless you have a tablet, or a mobile device.
This thing should have been named "windows touch" not "windows"
Upgraded from XP features...
1. no start button
2. no start menu
3. no taskbar
4. no classic productive themes without a hacked uxtheme.dll "again"
5. control panel, settings, networking, mmc, everything scattered everywhere
6. event log hell
7. process spam hell what is all these services and processes running there were 12 on XP...wtf!? NTBui!? Why not IPX too??!! lets be done with it..
8. no classic menus
9. no classic explorer
10. three levels, with junctions and hardlinks of file access vs one on xp
11. cant run a lot of old productive stuff
12. it feels like I bought an acer in 1996!
1-very observant, but the win button brings up the start menu, or click lower left corner
2-see above
3-yes there is, right where it used to be
4-The classic theme from Win 95 (nearly 2 decades old) has gone, I wouldn't say that was any more productive unless you are running on very old hardware
5-CP is exactly where it used to be, accessible from the handy right click menu in the lower left corner, individual "metro" app settings accessible via the right charm bar
6-the event logs are MUCH better, I cant see anything that's wrong with it so please advice what you mean?
7-processe list shows ALL services and programs running, divided and sorted, xp does not, but yes I agree there are a few more on the new OS than on the decade old XP, NetBEUI has its uses when used with NT and believe it or not but NT is still used, all be it limited, IPX/SPX is however completely archaic
8-see number 4
9-what is it you actually want? no ribbon? then hide it, it looks identical to XPs file manager or would you rather progman 3.11 style interfaces?
10-you talking about virtual folders?
11-such as? im running old 16bit dos programs on my 64bit OS, IE6 shit doesn't work, ill give you that, some very poorly designed programs that seem to need admin access do not work, these can usually be used if you install the program in to your documents folder, or assign admin rights and run in compat mode, but yes not all will work, but NEW productive stuff works just fine, just like 4 star leaded petrol doesn't really work without issues in a newer car, regular newer unleaded works just fine
13-i get the feeling youd be more at home with a 96 Acer
Look im not here to preach how good Win8 is, it has a lot of issues I will completely admit, however you haven't listed any of them which tells me you never really tried it out in the first place, MS needs to sort those issues out other wise it wont gain Win7 status, but seriously mate, get over yourself and at least try and wake up to the 21st century
I can't believe the price, considering that it doesn't come with a full compliment of all the programs you need. I thought that a modern OS was supposed to come with a selection of word processors, spread sheets, database systems, web servers, etc. I mean it's not really an "OS" without all those things.
"a modern OS was supposed to come with a selection of word processors, spread sheets, database systems, web servers"
No, what you are thinking of is a "distro" as in Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Mageia, etc.
Distros give you pretty much all you need to get going, straight out of the box with no scratching round for drivers, they are in there as well. Get a copy of VirtualBox and Wine and you can pretty much run anything.
Oh, and by the way you also have the choice as to what you pay, either nothing or a retail version with added applications and support.
Sorry, but you cant have it both ways.... If MS started shipping their OS's with all their products pre-installed at no extra cost Windows client with Office, Project, Visio etc.. or Windows Server with SQL, Exchange, System Centrer you would all be whinging that it was a monopoly, suddenly when its a Linux distro its all of a sudden 'for the people'.
ok windows 7 is now popular due to the fact it works drivers and software works on it why would i want to upgrade to windows 8 for whats the reason apart from i dont have a touch screen monitor to use the touchscreen feature thats one reason but what does 8 offer that 7 does not. i just dont get someone explain it to me
"ok windows 7 is now popular due to the fact it works drivers and software works on it why would i want to upgrade to windows 8 for whats the reason apart from i dont have a touch screen monitor to use the touchscreen feature thats one reason but what does 8 offer that 7 does not"
You might want to consider breathing in between what should be separate sentences. Windows 8 is shit but IMO there's no point having a heart attack over it.
It's TheReg. Most people are IT folk here and they are going to be upset because it's not a straightforward OS for business use. They've stuck a pretty plinky plonky interface and generally will give headache to IT support in any company that adopts it as their desktop system...
On the consumer side I'm gonna guess most people will simply get use to it and I think regular, non "techies", will actually like it. It's not often most regular users need to delve in to core features or administrator tasks on an OS.
I can live with Windows 7's security features and critical omissions. Win 7 is decent enough to use, though a major pain to work on if you're an IT person. By making it so everyone's grandmother can easily fail to connect to a wireless network, I have to dig down 3 more levels to get to the menu I want. Okay... progress, eh? And Windows' "long goodbye", which still persists to some extent, the omission of things like Netmeeting and the handy little network lights widget. The way that I cannot make my old Quicklaunch bar behave the way I like it. The way that regardless of my global 'view' settings, that when I open the printers folder for example, that it still insists on showing me huge, useless icons. And the trail of bread crumbs interface that I've never much liked. I could rant about these things all day... But still usable, and an improvement on some fronts. And pretty. Not as nice as Linux, but pretty...
Windows 8? It will be a sad day when LTS for Win 7 stops and we're all forced to use this or something worse. Every time MS includes a plethora of new security features in an OS (which ultimately don't help all that much), I'm reminded of the scene from one of the Harry Potter movies where Dumbledore walks into the room full of spinning, whirring craptastic gadgets that ostensibly prevent intrusion and tampering of all sorts, and gazes at them with mild distaste and bemusement...
At work, I'm still embroiled, as my colleagues are, in the shift from XP to W7. In that respect, Microsoft can just go screw itself because I can't see the addition of W8 systems any time soon. Too much work, and too expensive. I suspect that a similar scenario will be played out in many other places as the replacement cycle here is far too fast for a number of companies' liking.
At home, I'm not so bothered, but I still doubt I'll be moving anytime soon. I'm actually doing this from a self built W7 64-bitter which has yet to give me any grief. Amongst other things, it has let me run the "Not Allowed to Call It A Beta" preview of the "Interface Formerly Known as Metro" and while it isn't going to be the death of me, I really can't see the point of shifting. By the time I've buggered around with it so that I can do anything approaching work on it, what I actually have is so similar to W7 that I might as well stay where I am until I absolutely have to. And possibly not even then.
It's just like a certain Linux distro I tend to use. They pushed for change in their setup but what I'm left with is a monumental headache trying to get things to work the way that I want them to, so I am increasingly leaving my upgrading until I really have no choice. Yes, openSUSE, I'm looking at you!
Bottom line - An operating system is meant to allow the user to use a computer to do things that they want to do in the way that they want to do it. Too often, these days, what the user wants is ignored, whether by open sourcers, Microsoft or Apple. That's why they complain. In the case of W8, Microsoft have gone out on a limb and created a system that, despite the improvements under the hood, has been sabotaged at the front end in the name of what seems to be a fad or, at the very least, an ill-advised design flaw.
And that's why I say to Microsoft, in the case of W8, to go stick your "upgrades" (which has been a dubious way to install MS operating systems anyway since time immemorial) where the sun refuses to shine.
All those restrictions, prices and limitations.......I'll stick with my Mac and OS X. Full version of OS X is $20 these days.
Plus if its the same crap they released earlier as a beta they can really have it. I'll never use Windows again and stick with Windows 7 on my gaming PC for as long as I can.
No, an *upgrade* costs $20. The full version you paid for when you bought your Mac.
Frankly at least MS is trying something different. I can't tell the difference between OSX 10.5, 10.6 or 10.7.
Don't get me wrong, I won't be rushing out to upgrade my Win7 desktop or indeed replace my Macbook, but from what I can tell there's a hell of a lot of people here who are complaining because they've read on the Internet how horrible Metro is.
I like the fact that all of the OS X versions look sufficiently alike and I don't see the value of change for change's sake. OS X works and it works well. It's intuitive to use but let's me get under the covers easily when I need to. Do I need added bells and whistles? No thanks. Bring me change only when it adds some value - but don't make the change so great that I need to keep re-learning a whole new UI.
I wouldn't pay a red cent for Windows 8.
We are swearing off Windows 8. We don't want our user interface experience changed. The changes only work to slow down our work day and play time. They will bring annoyances to Windows. The only two ways to circumvent Microsoft's unimaginative designs, and careless behavior, and still be able to enjoy the sizable investment we have in Windows software, is to f**c Windows 8 up by running 3rd party utilities to fix Microsoft's terrible mistakes, or to just skip Windows 8. We've chosen to skip it.
Windows 8 is a tablet/phone OS. No amount of false advertising, or convincing on Microsoft's part will change that. Why Microsoft is insistent on forcing Windows 8 down Desktop user's throats is beyond me.
I really hope that Linux takes off for gaming, because once that happens, and it's reliable, Microsoft will be well on it's way to losing the battle.
Dear Microsoft,
You didn't have to piss us users off. All you had to do was listen to us, and give us what we want. That's how you make money. Selling something that isn't wanted by the masses, well, that's just plain ignorant. I don't like Apple's products, but you know, you deserve to lose out to Apple. Apple's not a whole lot better, but at least users can chose to stick it to Microsoft. Users have other options to get screwed. The centre of the computing universe is no longer over Redmond. It has moved a lot closer towards Android, Linux and Apple.
You are losing our trust, and that is the consequence of not paying attention to the market, and the desire of users.
Then you never need to transfer it - you just change the host system.
Given the choice I rarely use a bare metal OS any more (work PCs are forced on me, but one of them I run in a VM, some work servers need serious performance and are single function devices most are VMd)
Can't really fault it to be honest. I was a critic of the public release preview but I installed the RTM version and haven't looked back. It has some quirks and annoyances like all OS's have, but it I soon learned to love the new UI. So far, Windows 8 is proving to be an excellent OS.
However, I do see Windows 8 as a 'stop gap'. I think with Windows 9 (or whatever they call it) will be the true vision of what Microsoft see as a modern OS. As good as Windows 8 is, there's too many paths back to old methods of doing things (Control Panel, Computer Management etc). I realise the desktop needs to remain for many years to come due to millions of programs people and businesses rely on, but I do hate having to click/touch multiple times to get simple things done. Hopefully the next version of Windows will deliver Microsoft's vision and then some.
Indeed it's not all that bad. I wasn't too keen at first and took great delight in handing my Windows 8 laptop to folks and just watching them flounder after I switched it on and told them to just open up Notepad.
20 mins later.....okay give it here I'll show you.
However, if you take the time (about 3 minutes) to show folks how its different, most of them take to it just fine. No real problems and these are average Joe users, not techies. So it seems in actual fact mum and dad will grasp it easer than their tech guru son will.
I've rolled out a couple of test Windows 8 machines with SSDs in them to a couple of people and the feedback has been really good. They love it. Just little Lenovo Q180 boxes with 2GHz dual core atoms.
As for me I'v got it running on a old Tecra M7 tablet laptop with a Samsung 830 SSD/2Ghz C2D in it and it flies. This is a XP tablet edition machine that Windows 8 detected and installed 98% of the drivers for on first install!! The last couple I had to get from Toshiba were the Vista drivers which also worked fine.
I've also installed it on my gaming rig and no problems. For a desktop I just uninstalled all the Metro apps I don't need (most of them) and pointed all the default apps to the desktop versions. Works a treat.
I think some people in the tech world just like making mountains out of molehills.
I'm not a tech genius by any stretch of the imagination but I've found working with Windows 8 really quite easy.
1. You can format the hard drive during the installation of an Upgrade if you wish. Obviously this fixes the unstable-upgrade scenario at the cost of having to reinstall and reconfigure software.
2. You can get the Personal Use license if you want the full version, with transfer rights. I believe this will be revealed after launch, and be available directly from teh Microsoft.
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