Microsoft offering Windows 8 upgrade for $40 to everyone with XP and later

[Richy13]

[QUOTE=redBadger;36595613]Now nobody has an excuse that they cannot upgrade from XP.[/QUOTE]

incompatible hardware

[Lankist]

[QUOTE=redBadger;36595613]Now nobody has an excuse that they cannot upgrade from XP.[/QUOTE]

except that they like XP?

[BananaFoam]

[QUOTE=J!NX;36596275]Less features sounds cool to me considering the fact that it'll have only what I fucking need

facepunch, games, bullshit

seriously, that's ALL a computer needs for me. You know... what is actually rawly useful.[/QUOTE]

But when older versions of said OS still have those, then why upgrade?

I mean, it's not like there will be many incompatibilities for at least a few months.

[Lankist]

[QUOTE=Clementine;36598083]You realize you can run programs in compatibility mode right[/QUOTE]

Haha, right.

Compatibility mode is a fucking joke.

[Panda X]

[QUOTE='[Seed Eater];36597685']I didn't much like that either, I would indeed prefer the XP method, but the Vista/7 style

-was not Gaudy
-was not completely oversimplified
-did not remove significant functionality

so it's at least usable and acceptable.

Again, I don't mind changes, but they need to ease into them and not just go "hey guize we've had this our entire existence. FUCK IT. you get to use this completely different thing that's impossible to find anything in because we only make the 10 most common functions easy to find in an appropriate place, since we're appealing tot he lowest common denominator now."[/QUOTE]

What functionality has been removed?

[Jeep-Eep]

[QUOTE=Lankist;36598322]Haha, right.

Compatibility mode is a fucking joke.[/QUOTE]

That's why this old XP machine is gonna stay XP, pretty much.

If he can get it, my dad will likely be getting this for his laptop though. Vista is terrible, running it on that laptop makes it worse.

[rodent-man]

Does anybody know if we can do this program (as in, the promotion) now, or at least sign up for it? I signed up for another promotion that seemed like it ([url]https://windowsupgradeoffer.com/en-US[/url]) but I don't know if it's the same one. I want to sign up for it now so I don't forget about it later when it actually matters.

[ViralHatred]

[QUOTE=Clementine;36598083]You realize you can run programs in compatibility mode right[/QUOTE]

You do realise that compatibility mode isn't DOS.

[Mr Skeltal]

give me start button pls

[Clementine]

[QUOTE=Lankist;36598322]Haha, right.

Compatibility mode is a fucking joke.[/QUOTE]

Always seems to work for me (though to be fair I've never had a compatibility problem in my life

[ithon]

[QUOTE=Clementine;36596351]And somehow idiots still complain, even though this is a fifth cheaper than Windows has ALWAYS been.[/QUOTE]

when you hear people working on windows 8 complain how much shit it is, are you going to call them an idiots?

Don't believe me, get a contract or a friend get one with microsoft in the OS division.

I'll chip in 20 us dollars as a starting pool that windows will fail almost to vista levels at launch.

[lavacano]

[QUOTE=Ereunity;36598057]I use XP for the compatibility it has with older games. If I upgrade to Win 8 will I lose it?[/QUOTE]

Not that hard to set up a dual boot, especially within the new Windows setup.

I myself have Win XP, Win7 [b]and[/b] Win8 CP all installed at once.

[E Quantifier]

What about my hardware drivers? Is the release preview compatible with most drivers that my stuff came with? Or will the recovery disc I made take care of that?

[Big D Duchovny]

[QUOTE=Cows Rule;36598978]What about my hardware drivers? Is the release preview compatible with most drivers that my stuff came with? Or will the recovery disc I made take care of that?[/QUOTE]

I haven't really had a problem with drivers. My Mobility Radeon 5650 makes some fuss, but I when I roll back to Windows 8's drivers it works just fine.

[TheDecryptor]

[QUOTE=Ereunity;36598547]You do realise that compatibility mode isn't DOS.[/QUOTE]

And XP doesn't have DOS, so...?

[Elecbullet]

[QUOTE=meppers;36597995]hmm, my Uni sells full windows 7 keys for $29.99, i wonder how win8 pricing will be[/QUOTE]

My dad gets it for free because he's a university professor.

[ViralHatred]

[QUOTE=TheDecryptor;36599220]And XP doesn't have DOS, so...?[/QUOTE]

XP has enough of the DOS code left in it for running Windows 98 games.

They are inoperable on Vista, 7. I expect 8 too.

[Elecbullet]

dosbox?

I wouldn't keep DOS if I were Microsoft either, it's very niche-y right now.

I recently got into playing Wolf3D again, but I use an OpenGL port that adds WASD strafing and mouse look simultaneously, among other things, making it a modern game.

[ithon]

[QUOTE=Cows Rule;36598978]What about my hardware drivers? Is the release preview compatible with most drivers that my stuff came with? Or will the recovery disc I made take care of that?[/QUOTE]

depends if they put in areo.

apparently before they removed it, there was a decision made to set it by default and embed it into the kernel, however only half the test machines could run it.

now what's going to be most unstable from what I've gathered are the arm tablets, I forget the reason for the issues with atmel's arm core chips have issues running.

[TheDecryptor]

[QUOTE=Elecbullet;36599427]dosbox?

I wouldn't keep DOS if I were Microsoft either, it's very niche-y right now.

I recently got into playing Wolf3D again, but I use an OpenGL port that adds WASD strafing and mouse look simultaneously, among other things, making it a modern game.[/QUOTE]

Proper DOS died with ME, what's in XP/Vista/7 is an older variant of DOS that runs in a virtual machine (It's not even a proper version of DOS, just a thin "wrapper"), it's not available in the x64 releases since you can't run a 16 bit DOS app when the processor is in "long mode" (Which it needs to be to run a 64bit OS)

Turns out Wine on Linux has the same issue, it can't run 16bit DOS apps on a 64bit kernel.

[Darkimmortal]

[QUOTE=Elecbullet;36599427]dosbox?

I wouldn't keep DOS if I were Microsoft either, it's very niche-y right now.

I recently got into playing Wolf3D again, but I use an OpenGL port that adds WASD strafing and mouse look simultaneously, among other things, making it a modern game.[/QUOTE]

Games like Dungeon Keeper 2 are completely and utterly impossible to run properly in both Windows Vista/7, and don't work properly virtualised either (in my experience)

[thisispain]

[QUOTE=Ereunity;36599337]XP has enough of the DOS code left in it for running Windows 98 games.
[/QUOTE]

uh no XP has zero DOS code in it, and the last windows to have any DOS code was ME.

any DOS under XP was run under a virtual machine, and it was an extremely flawed one at that.

[MR-X]

When is W8 suppose to come out anyway?

[TehWhale]

october

[Drsalvador]

[QUOTE=redBadger;36595613]Now nobody has an excuse that they cannot upgrade from XP.[/QUOTE]

except me, where Vista and up shut down my computer immediately on startup for no reason at all

[editline]roycocuppasoup[/editline]

win8 will probably make my pc go fucking orbital

[GhostSonic]

[QUOTE=Ereunity;36599337]XP has enough of the DOS code left in it for running Windows 98 games.

They are inoperable on Vista, 7. I expect 8 too.[/QUOTE]

XP has no DOS code in it, it used [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_DOS_machine]This[/url] for DOS compatibility. This also true for Windows 7, but only on the 32-bit version. [url=http://www.dosbox.com/]Dosbox[/url] makes the built in Virtual DOS Machine look like a fucking joke.

[Darkimmortal]

DOS is not the problem obviously, it is older DirectX games (that also don't take kindly to virtualisation)

[The Baconator]

[QUOTE=MaddaCheeb;36595597]Can someone tell me the differences between W7 and this besides shitty metro and the lack of a start button?[/QUOTE]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_Windows_8[/url]

let me point out [B]one[/B] random under the hood one:

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/h827X.png[/IMG]

DO YOU SEE THAT SHIT? Right now on Windows 7 you need to [I]install drivers[/I] to use USB 3.0 speeds on your PC.

Yes you read that right, you need to install fucking drivers from the fucking internet or a CD for your USB ports, I shit you not.

I am just trying to put into perspective how dated Windows 7 is, it is literally Vista 1.1, it's entire purpose was to wipe away the embarrassment that was Vista, it is what SHOULD HAVE been released in [I]2006[/I]

Windows 8 is the next proper installment of Windows, with 7 being a much needed Service Pack for Vista

[liquidMountan]

This is really cool of them.

Now if only Apple or EA would do something like this to haha jk they wouldn't.

[thisispain]

uh apple has offered cheap upgrades to every mac user