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

[QUOTE=MaddaCheeb;36595631]So Aero won't take up 500 MB of RAM space this time around?[/QUOTE] You're complaining about 500 MB RAM in 2012? Holy shit. If it's that big of a deal to you, just disable Aero. Simple problems have simple solutions.

I'm still on the fence about upgrading on my desktop. The Previews are freaking amazing on my tablet PC. I find the fastest way to navigate is to use both the keyboard/mouse and touchscreen in a hybrid type of way (touch for metro, keyboard/mouse for non metro apps). The only way they could get this to fly off the shelves is if high res touchscreen desktop monitors were predominate.

[QUOTE=McGii;36602624]And in return I get to use a tablet UI on my mouse and keyboard desktop. Start button > shitty mandatory [b]that you can remove with different free programs[/b] fullscreen metro (which is not "Metro" but the start screen)[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Elecbullet;36601107]well what can I say, some people are just more willing to wait for 35Mb/sec[/QUOTE] There's a 12Mb/s USB 2.0 too you know. [editline]3rd July 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=The Baconator;36601283] any motherboard made in the last year or two has USB3.0 ports. Do you plan to be on the exact same motherboard forever?[/QUOTE] Considering if I upgrade my motherboard I have to pretty much redo my entire system because not much is made for my motherboard anymore, I don't plan on upgrading for a while. My computer works perfectly fine for what I use it for. It runs new games fairly well. It full of older shit but I don't have many problems. I can't spare the cash to upgrade to a newer system. [editline]3rd July 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Elecbullet;36602201]ctrl-alt-delete power button in corner That's how I do it, I don't know if Microsoft had some more efficient way hidden in the bowels of Metro that they intended us to use.[/QUOTE] I don't like this. Control Alt Delete is for punishing my computer when it's been bad. I don't want it to think it's bad every time I want to shut it down.

Yeah, no thanks. I'd rather stick to Win7.

It does seem like a good deal, hell now this has me interested but I'm going to wait off a while until I get $40.

[QUOTE=Within;36603712]You're complaining about 500 MB RAM in 2012? Holy shit. If it's that big of a deal to you, just disable Aero. Simple problems have simple solutions.[/QUOTE] To be fair 500MB is a lot for a desktop theme to be using. But at the same time I've NEVER seen Aero use that much. My top 5 ram users right now are Google Chrome (175k), SVCHOST (150k), a Game Patcher (135k), and two more partitions of Google Chrome at around 80k each. I am assuming Aero is bundled in with explorer.exe since it goes away if I end that. In which case I have to go down very far to see it and it's only using 25k memory.

"Your PC's CPU isn't compatible with Windows 8" Anyone else having this problem? I have an i5 2500k, so I don't see the issue. Googling it just gives me a german post on some forum. [editline]3rd July 2012[/editline] Nevermind

[QUOTE=Within;36603712]You're complaining about 500 MB RAM in 2012? Holy shit. If it's that big of a deal to you, just disable Aero. Simple problems have simple solutions.[/QUOTE] if i have to disable a core component of my operating system to stop it from using 1/8th of my ram, it needs to be redesigned. this isn't a valid excuse.

[QUOTE=fixture;36602928]why upgrade from Windows 7? from what I have read in this thread the new Windows 8 uses about half the amount of RAM W7 does and can search for files quicker.. I have 8GB of memory and I've never found RAM usage to be an issue. and hard drive search times? I know where my things are, and when I DO need to search for something it [I]does not[/I] take 30 minutes like some people say it does. sure, W8 is cheap but having just built a new windows 7 PC, what other reasons are there for an upgrade? A lot of people are being rated dumb for sticking to Windows 7. is it really THAT much of an upgrade? there must be something I am missing here.[/QUOTE] There's a lot of improvements other than the RAM, and aside from that it's just a cheap upgrade for the next version of the OS. At some point windows 7 is going to be out of date and no longer updated, and you'll have to upgrade to 8 or 9 if it's out. If they're going to give you a cheap as dirt upgrade, why not? If you're still on XP or Vista, this is really a no brainer.

[QUOTE=Pbox;36605133]if i have to disable a core component of my operating system to stop it from using 1/8th of my ram, it needs to be redesigned. this isn't a valid excuse.[/QUOTE] Aero has never used "500MB" of RAM. Aero alone shouldn't anyway. The DWM application that controls that kind of thing uses around 30MB in Windows 7 on average, I can't remember how much it used on my old Vista machine, but it most definitely wasn't close to 100MB, let alone 500MB. If you're going to call something bad, at least get it right.

Wow! I might actually get Windows 8 then.

On one hand, I think it's cool that Microsoft want everybody to use their cross-architecture OS with a new API on it. On the other hand, Windows 8.

Yeah, I guess I'll switch off of Vista to 8. I would prefer 7, but if this is good too, I'll do it.

[QUOTE=Ganerumo;36603561]Why do I get the feeling Microsoft's kinda desperate with Windows 8 ?[/QUOTE] They had the same deal with Windows 7 when it came out. Difference is now you get Pro instead of Home Premium.

Hmm, i'm still on Vista but would upgrading be the same as 'reformatting'? I'd like to start fresh.

The only answer to "why not upgrade" is "because everything is set up just the way I like it." Considering everything is set up just the way I like it (and [i]need[/i] it for my work) - why upgrade?

Using the Release build right now, for $40 I'll definitely try to buy this.

[QUOTE=Elecbullet;36602201]ctrl-alt-delete power button in corner That's how I do it, I don't know if Microsoft had some more efficient way hidden in the bowels of Metro that they intended us to use.[/QUOTE] Swipe the right side of the screen and go into settings. The power is there for some reason. Personally I'd prefer it in a more accessible location. I like Windows 8 for a lot of things, but I don't like it for other things. For example, the lack of a start button isn't good because the Windows key takes you to Metro, it doesn't open up a start tab or start tab alternative. So if you need to find a program you have to go through your files and folders, right click the application and pin it to the start screen (or pin to taskbar, create shortcut on desktop). It's a lot of work. I have W8 and W7 installed side by side and they work well, no problems here. But when I go into a user profile from w8 to w7 it takes forever to load it initially. That's where all my music and videos are and W8 didn't auto detect them there because they aren't in a Public folder (I'm assuming), so it was a hassle getting that set up. The video player sucks. I tried watching videos and it got stuck at the first frame and all I heard was sound. You can play it from Windows Media Player on the desktop, but that defeats the purpose of having the video app in Metro. [editline]3rd July 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Silverspar;36607609]Hmm, i'm still on Vista but would upgrading be the same as 'reformatting'? I'd like to start fresh.[/QUOTE] Not necessarily. You can choose to keep your old files and settings so long as you are upgrading from Windows 7. Vista and XP both do not transfer everything over, so it would probably be close to a format. [editline]3rd July 2012[/editline] One thing I absolutely hate about Windows 8 though is that because they designed it for tablets in mind, EVERYTHING is built for gesture. They gave barely any thought or consideration to keyboard/mouse. And because of that navigation and customization can be a real hassle.

I was hoping that w8 would be similar to w7 but with some added metro stuff that only shows at startup and some theme and performance improvements. The fact that they have changed the entire way of accessing almost everything kind of puts me off. Though I bought an asus laptop in december with windows 7 that came without a repair disk for some reason (and had to buy several DVD's to back it up myself with their preinstalled AI Recovery software) so I would gladly buy w8 even in the current state as long as they provide me with the entire iso (and not the bullshit that depends on a stupid partition) and maybe even the possibility to downgrade to w7 if necessary.

[QUOTE=redBadger;36595613]Now nobody has an excuse that they cannot upgrade from XP.[/QUOTE] what if they still use a voodoo card [editline]3rd July 2012[/editline] also i dont care, i'm personally not going to upgrade. yeah, it boots faster. you know, i never cared at all about windows booting fast because i've been dualbooting with linux for years. i only use windows for bideo games

[QUOTE=nomad1;36595799]Doesn't W8 come with a built in emulator or something that can run something? I swear I heard it comes with a built in emulator. Fuck ninja'd...[/QUOTE] It comes with native DOS support farewell, DOSBox, you served me well

[QUOTE=No Party Hats;36609006]It comes with native DOS support farewell, DOSBox, you served me well[/QUOTE] What?

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

[QUOTE=Irockz;36609260]I like my XP.[/QUOTE] good luck with DirectX 9

My school bought something like 100 new computers. A Core 2 duo in each, 3 gigabytes RAM, a Windows 7 professional license key on the side... ...each and every one [I]downgraded[/I] to Windows XP.

[QUOTE=Elecbullet;36610785]My school bought something like 100 new computers. A Core 2 duo in each, 3 gigabytes RAM, a Windows 7 professional license key on the side... ...each and every one [I]downgraded[/I] to Windows XP.[/QUOTE] My workplace has this weird combination of Window 2000, XP, and 7. There doesn't seem to be rhyme or reason to it.

[QUOTE=Yersinia;36600877]If he can run the games he's worried about on XP he can run them on Win7 or Win8.[/QUOTE] Wrong.

[QUOTE=Elecbullet;36610785]My school bought something like 100 new computers. A Core 2 duo in each, 3 gigabytes RAM, a Windows 7 professional license key on the side... ...each and every one [I]downgraded[/I] to Windows XP.[/QUOTE]That's what my school did as well.

[QUOTE=Elecbullet;36610785]My school bought something like 100 new computers. A Core 2 duo in each, 3 gigabytes RAM, a Windows 7 professional license key on the side... ...each and every one [I]downgraded[/I] to Windows XP.[/QUOTE] I'm pretty sure Microsoft has a deal for schools with XP. That's probably why. Then again, if they have the keys...hmm. Curious.