Windows 8 Pro, Ultimate Upgrade $39.99

[SimMike2]

https://windowsupgradeoffer.com/en-US

The website is in Germany. Still, I submitted my information.

 

[mikeford]

I think this is to drag people off XP, but maybe its also a sign that serious money for a new OS days are over.

Whats missing for me is a good reason to switch to Win8. I've seen various stories, but mostly about pricing, not why to do it in the first place. What's it do, what does it break.

Offer is I believe only for XP and Vista, nothing older and no idea on WHS. I'm sure validation of the old OS will be an issue for many, as I can remember the mess with other updates when you need to reinstall a fubar system and have to first put the old system on.

On the plus side I believe Win8 for $40 includes free media center.

 

[vshah]

If you have a touchscreen device (all-in-one or tab) then W8 will be a huge benefit. The layout is very slick and simple.

For traditional desktop or laptop users though, I am not sure what the benefits would be. I'll stick with 7 on my business rig for a while as I haven't had a single issue since I built it over a year ago.

I'm buying it for drive extender aka storage spaces

 

[goobee]

I'm buying it for drive extender aka storage spaces

Perhaps but I think many, including me have very little reason to upgrade at this point. If you pick through Mickey Soft's offerings through the years, most of their intermediate products following successful products have not done well.

Win95 - Revolutionary for it's time.

Win98 - Improved 95 but not spectacularly.

Win2000 - Not so good for home users but good product overall.

ME - What?

WinXP - Good product but had some issues.

XP64 - Good product but little to no support.

Vista - Resource hog, buggy, eventually made stable.

Win7 - Stable from get-go.

If you think about it, 95, XP and Win7 are really the only stand out products, with Win7 no where near EOL.

 

[batmanuel]

I don't believe they ever have, but things change with every new version of windows. In Win 7 upgrade versions it just checked if you had some proper files in the /windows folder of your hard drive. Actually it wouldn't even do this before it started installing stuff. IIRC, on a bare drive it'll install either the whole OS or part of it then check to see if you had a previous install, and then won't finish because there wasn't an install already present. Then if you restarted the OS install again it'll detect the version it just installed as a previous installation and finish what it had to and activate fine.

I'm curious if they'll close the double install loop hole from Vista and 7 that allowed you to install an upgrade version on a bare drive. It was a pretty useful trick. You would install Windows on the bare drive but not enter a key during installation, then when it was done installing, you'd just upgrade the clean install, put in the key and everything would activate just fine. I've done it several times and had no issues.

 

[mikeford]

We may not "really" know what install will require until the first service pack is out, no point in even guessing until product release.

 

[daveybrat]

I'm curious if they'll close the double install loop hole from Vista and 7 that allowed you to install an upgrade version on a bare drive. It was a pretty useful trick. You would install Windows on the bare drive but not enter a key during installation, then when it was done installing, you'd just upgrade the clean install, put in the key and everything would activate just fine. I've done it several times and had no issues.

You don't have to install it twice like that. Here's the instructions:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/clean...t-key-on-formatted-or-empty-blank-hard-drive/

I've used that trick above dozens of times and it works the same way as yours, but without installing the OS twice.

 

[mechBgon]

Perhaps but I think many, including me have very little reason to upgrade at this point. If you pick through Mickey Soft's offerings through the years, most of their intermediate products following successful products have not done well.

Win95 - Revolutionary for it's time.

Win98 - Improved 95 but not spectacularly.

Win2000 - Not so good for home users but good product overall.

ME - What?

WinXP - Good product but had some issues.

XP64 - Good product but little to no support.

Vista - Resource hog, buggy, eventually made stable.

Win7 - Stable from get-go.

If you think about it, 95, XP and Win7 are really the only stand out products, with Win7 no where near EOL.

Until Service Pack 2 arrived, WinXP was really just a warmed-over Win2000, and some versions (Home) were crippled, whereas 2000 only came in a full-featured version (Pro). Domain capabilities, file encryption, and support for multiple-socket processing are a few examples.

I wouldn't underestimate the refinements to security with Win8 over Win7. Yeah I know, boring under-the-hood stuff that will never be noticed. But I'd factor that into my decision to upgrade the fleet at work, especially at just $40 a seat.

 

[NICKel]

From the ARS TECH article, it seems like WIN8 should be a good step up from WINDOWS HOME SERVER v1..... Decisions, Decisions.

 

[riffdex]

i want windows 8 simply for the drive extender like feature that was removed from whs 2011.

Aren't you concerned about the features they have removed, like native video playback?

 

[mikeford]

Whats it break is what I like to know.

 

[JTsyo]

Is this for upgrade from Win7 or any windows? currently running vista.

 

[riffdex]

Is this for upgrade from Win7 or any windows? currently running vista.

XP, Vista, and 7 users upgrade for $40

 

[goobee]

Been reading up a bit, it appears a lot of people are concerned about the "Pay to Play" aspect with Win8 (ie: yearly fees to use software) Will need to look further into this.

 

[AustinInDallas]

Aren't you concerned about the features they have removed, like native video playback?

vlc is free? and a million times better than WMP

 

[Roland00Address]

.
< I was planning on a new TechNet Sub because I have several systems , but

I really like Win-7 , so I will prolly just try this upgrade on one of my extra

XP-boxes to see if I really think Win-8 is the way to go . >

Just a heads up on technet.

They have changed the rules on the technet sub again. If you request any new keys, those keys will expire at the end of your current technet sub unless your renew. Thus in effect you are now renting keys instead of buying them.

http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/03/mi...ys-will-expire-at-end-of-subscription-period/

It appears that keys prior to the change (thus keys form June 2012 or prior) are not affected by this change.

 

[Subyman]

I tried the Win 8 dev preview and didn't care for it. I have no reason to upgrade from 7 at the moment. I like the storage options for 8, but I run an OpenSolaris server that does everything I need.

 

[vshah]

Aren't you concerned about the features they have removed, like native video playback?

no, i'm going to be using it for a storage server only. i'll keep my desktop and htpc on win7 for the time being.

 

[Pray To Jesus]

Why upgrade from Win 7 to Crap win 8

 

[lazarus000]

Why upgrade from Win 7 to Crap win 8

because eventually they will fix crap win 8 and start to migrate everything over to Win 8. Then you will have to pay twice the price for Win 8.

for this cheap, you buy it and throw in a drawer for 6 months and use it after it's fixed and save money.

 

[AMDZen]

vlc is free? And a million times better than wmp

wmpc > vlc > wmp

 

[XNice]

because eventually they will fix crap win 8 and start to migrate everything over to Win 8. Then you will have to pay twice the price for Win 8.

for this cheap, you buy it and throw in a drawer for 6 months and use it after it's fixed and save money.

Good man, I was thinking the same thing. That and I don't actually see Win 8 as crap.

wmpc > vlc > wmp

Hell yea. I love the WMPC:Home Theatre edition. Best media player out there. I typically use VNC when I'm on a WinXP machine that I don't feel like installing codecs on.

 

[texasfury]

......

 

[Pray To Jesus]

because eventually they will fix crap win 8 and start to migrate everything over to Win 8. Then you will have to pay twice the price for Win 8.

for this cheap, you buy it and throw in a drawer for 6 months and use it after it's fixed and save money.

i doubt that will happen within the next 10 years given that win 7 is so strong

 

[vshah]

Why not just use real streamlined version of Linux then? Seems a shame just to pay money for a mere storage server.

if there's a linux distro that has easy to set up, non-raid, redundant file storage, i'm all ears. i've tried amahi and it was a mess.