Andrea Borman
Honorable Member
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2010
- Location
- England
I have just found out last week that when Windows 8 goes out on sale in the shops tomorrow on 26th October 2012,it will only be sold as an upgrade install. And I telephoned PC World a large computer store in England,where I live and they confirmed this.
Which means that there will be no full installation DVD of Windows 8 like there is for Windows 7 and the other versions of Windows. And this is going to cause problems for many Windows users. As an upgrade install will work in certain cases, but if you have problems with your computer. For example you have wiped out your OS you won't be able to re install Windows with an upgrade install.You would need to do a clean install.Which you can only do with a full installation CD.
Also with an upgrade install,you must already have a supported version of Windows on your computer. And although you can upgrade to Windows 8 Pro from Windows 8 RP. That's no good. Because Windows 8 RP expires in January 2013.
So say you do upgrade from Windows 8 RP to the retail version and your OS crashes in say,July 2013. To reinstall Windows again,you would first have to install the previous version of Windows you upgraded from.Before you could install Windows 8 Pro. And you won't be able to upgrade from Windows 8 RP after January 2013 because it will have expired. And so Windows won't activate.
And once you have done the upgrade from Windows 8 RP. If you then try to do the upgrade install from another version of Windows it won't work. Because Windows won't activate because you have activated Windows 8 Pro as an upgrade from Windows 8 RP,which will no longer be supported by then.
The alternative is to instead upgrade from Windows 7 or Windows Vista. But that I and other Windows users will be faced with the inconvenience of having to go through the long installation process of Windows 7 all over again.And waste a product key activating it. When what we really want to do is to install Windows 8.
With Windows 8 RP and the Beta versions of Windows 8 we had the option to do a clean install or an upgrade install. But with the final version of Windows 8,we won't be able to.
Also on all of the Windows forums experts advise Windows users to do a clean install rather than an upgrade install. As upgrade install sometimes have problems. And I don't want to do an upgrade install of Windows 8. I want to do a clean install as I have done with Windows 7.
People were worried that we would not be able to have the start button and Windows 7 start menu on the final version of Windows 8. But all of the start menu software like Classic Shell is working on Windows 8 RTM. So that is not our problem.
The problem is being able to install Windows 8 as because it is only being sold as an upgrade many people won't be able to install it. And if something goes wrong with Windows you need to do a clean install. Which you cannot do with an upgrade version.
There is the OEM version but OEM is only for people building their own computer for the purpose of selling them. For example computer makers like HP and Dell. So OEM is not for ordinary home computer users like us. And also I am not clever enough to build my own computer and most people cannot either. So OEM is not an option for us.
Windows 8 will be sold as 32 bit which is what I want as I don't like 64 bit Windows,I only have 32 bit Windows. But the problems is that it is only being sold as an upgrade version and not a full version. And that's not what I and most Windows user want.
So it looks like we will have to go back to Windows 7 or whatever version of Windows we had when Windows 8 RP expires.
Andrea Borman.
Which means that there will be no full installation DVD of Windows 8 like there is for Windows 7 and the other versions of Windows. And this is going to cause problems for many Windows users. As an upgrade install will work in certain cases, but if you have problems with your computer. For example you have wiped out your OS you won't be able to re install Windows with an upgrade install.You would need to do a clean install.Which you can only do with a full installation CD.
Also with an upgrade install,you must already have a supported version of Windows on your computer. And although you can upgrade to Windows 8 Pro from Windows 8 RP. That's no good. Because Windows 8 RP expires in January 2013.
So say you do upgrade from Windows 8 RP to the retail version and your OS crashes in say,July 2013. To reinstall Windows again,you would first have to install the previous version of Windows you upgraded from.Before you could install Windows 8 Pro. And you won't be able to upgrade from Windows 8 RP after January 2013 because it will have expired. And so Windows won't activate.
And once you have done the upgrade from Windows 8 RP. If you then try to do the upgrade install from another version of Windows it won't work. Because Windows won't activate because you have activated Windows 8 Pro as an upgrade from Windows 8 RP,which will no longer be supported by then.
The alternative is to instead upgrade from Windows 7 or Windows Vista. But that I and other Windows users will be faced with the inconvenience of having to go through the long installation process of Windows 7 all over again.And waste a product key activating it. When what we really want to do is to install Windows 8.
With Windows 8 RP and the Beta versions of Windows 8 we had the option to do a clean install or an upgrade install. But with the final version of Windows 8,we won't be able to.
Also on all of the Windows forums experts advise Windows users to do a clean install rather than an upgrade install. As upgrade install sometimes have problems. And I don't want to do an upgrade install of Windows 8. I want to do a clean install as I have done with Windows 7.
People were worried that we would not be able to have the start button and Windows 7 start menu on the final version of Windows 8. But all of the start menu software like Classic Shell is working on Windows 8 RTM. So that is not our problem.
The problem is being able to install Windows 8 as because it is only being sold as an upgrade many people won't be able to install it. And if something goes wrong with Windows you need to do a clean install. Which you cannot do with an upgrade version.
There is the OEM version but OEM is only for people building their own computer for the purpose of selling them. For example computer makers like HP and Dell. So OEM is not for ordinary home computer users like us. And also I am not clever enough to build my own computer and most people cannot either. So OEM is not an option for us.
Windows 8 will be sold as 32 bit which is what I want as I don't like 64 bit Windows,I only have 32 bit Windows. But the problems is that it is only being sold as an upgrade version and not a full version. And that's not what I and most Windows user want.
So it looks like we will have to go back to Windows 7 or whatever version of Windows we had when Windows 8 RP expires.
Andrea Borman.