Windows 8 upgrades priced at $39.99
Those consumers wishing to upgrade to Windows 8 need only put $39.99 aside in order to do so, which should up the early adoption rate by quite a margin.
Windows 8 is set to be released in a few months time. No one outside of Microsoft is quite sure when, but this side of 2013 is absolutely guaranteed. Until then us Windows users who haven’t yet turned to the dark side and bought a Mac will continue using XP, Vista, or Windows 7 quite merrily. And then possibly upgrade to the new radically-altered Windows 8 when it finally drops.
Doing so will only cost $39.99, as announced by Microsoft in a Windows Blog blog post by Brandon LeBlanc. From the day Windows 8 is available to the general public until Jan. 31, 2013, anyone currently running XP, Vista, or Windows 7 on their machine will be able to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for that low price. As long as their machine is capable, of course.
The Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant will check whether your machine is indeed capable of running Windows 8. If it is then you can proceed. Windows 7 users will be able to move everything with them to Windows 8, while Vista and XP users will have to leave some things behind in the transition to the new operating system.
The $39.99 asking price will buy you a Windows 8 download which can then be installed straight away or stored on a bootable USB or DVD for back-up purposes. A packaged DVD version of this upgrade will also be available in stores for $69.99. This promotion will run in 131 markets, which means a lot of people will be able to take advantage of it. The only question left to ponder is whether you actually want to or not.
This is much cheaper than the price Microsoft charged for upgrades to Windows 7 during a similar promotion after its launch. The reasoning is very simple: create an immediate Windows 8 userbase, grab a high number of early-adopters to tempt the media with, and get people populating the app-driven Windows Store.
July 4th, 2012
Oh dear. Well Microsoft will offer this upgrade at a great price. What they are not telling you is, that the start menu will disappear, to be replaced by a metro menu. I have tested the developer and consumer versions of Windows 8 extensively. I have desperately tried to gain access to things I now take for granted in Windows 7. It looks very Metro like it’s name, however has no real functionality for a serious computer user. Tasks that I could do easily now are a nightmare. I tried Start 8. This is a start menu made by Stardock, but it still was not what I needed. The only way I felt semi comfortable using Windows 8 was with a dock called Rocket Dock. I still had problems. Finding a program that you rarely use is so frustrating as you have to virtually go into the install drive to where the program folder is to run it. Who wants to do that with every program? If you made your own shortcuts on the desktop then you eventually will end up with a clutter of links and folders. The Start Menu is what made Windows so great to begin with. Apparently due to a customer experience survey nobody uses the Start Menu anymore. Dear Microsoft, Anyone with a little computer knowledge, will not participate in a survey, as they like to keep their files and activities private. Well good luck Microsoft. I just recently purchased another copy of Windows 7. I will not be upgrading to Windows 8 as it is now. However I would if it had the Start Menu.