Windows 8 upgrade to cost $40

Anyone guessing how much this will work out to in British pounds?
I'm thinking around £29.99. Makes Windows 8 a much more attractive proposition imo.

By pbryanw on 3 Jul 2012

price

Most likely will be £39.99, traditionally that is how it works.

By Bunnyman on 3 Jul 2012

Potentially a great deal

Particularly for XP owners who have not upgraded before. Suddenly Windows 8 take-up is looking much more attractive. Good to see MS taking a more realistic attitude to pricing. Windows 8 could be a massive success after all. Once upgraded I am sure they will use it to leverage income from apps etc. Following the Apple model.

By AdamD6 on 3 Jul 2012

ElDiabloJuanCarlos

40 units of currency to get off of Windows Vista! Suddenly I'm very interested in a Windows upgrade (never bothered before). Slightly worried about what it will be like on my non touch screen laptop (no time to try the consumer preview alas), but hopefully eeeking a few more years of life out of my ageing laptop will compensate for the Metro 'inconveniences' I've been hearing about.
Windows 8 on my laptop or (assuming it's any good) save up and splurge on a Surface. DHmmm, decisions, decisions....

By ElDiabloJuanCarlos on 3 Jul 2012

It will cost Microsoft more than that..

..they'll need to pay me a lot more than $40 to put up with "Metro"!

By cheysuli on 3 Jul 2012

So will I be able to install the upgrade again if my SSD blows ups (again) or have to revert back to Windows 7 ?

By zedbilly on 3 Jul 2012

Give me the option to disable all of the Metro rubbish and i might think about spending $40, otherwise one machine will stay on Win 7 pro and the rest will go Fedora!.

By Coltch on 3 Jul 2012

40 quid is def. worth it for anyone using Vista. However bad Metro might be it can't be as horribly slow and painful as Vista.

By Deano on 3 Jul 2012

Surely this is all about getting you hooked in to apps and other app store content so that Microsoft can establish itself a new revenue stream. Think I'll remain a happy Windows 7 desktop user.

By rifinlay on 3 Jul 2012

Not too amazing compared to Windows 7

Amazon sold pre-order full versions of Windows 7 Home Premium for £45 in mid-July 2009 - my order history says so.

So what's so great about an upgrade version to Win 8 for $40 - which will traditionally convert to £40 in software companies' unique exchange rates.

By halsteadk on 3 Jul 2012

missing something?

what is it with all the Vista bashing? I honestly struggle to tell the difference between Vista and Win 7 other than a few cosmetics - am I missing something?
As to Win 8, any compelling reasons to change? What good news does it offer, for a non-touchscreen desktop or laptop?

By martindaler on 3 Jul 2012

They can give it away!

It doesn't matter how much or how little something costs if it's something that nobody wants in the first place.

By BrownieBoy6 on 3 Jul 2012

Upgrade to pro...

I have Windows Home Premium version of Windows 7 on my main PC (Ubuntu on everything else) and the one thing I would like to do (without using any 3rd party software) is to remote desktop into my Windows PC - Home Premium does not allow this.

If I read this correctly, for all upgrades will be to a pro edition which will allow remote desktop and all the other pro features which are blocked in Home Premium editions. An upgrade would cost me £120!!

I haven't tried Metro, but this alone may make an upgrade worthwhile for me.

By neil_aky on 4 Jul 2012

No thanks

Just change to $ sign to £ sign and there's your price...
I'll not be buying it though. Having religously bought every new OS Micro$oft has released since Windows 3.1 I don't really see what it does that previous editions before it don't... except make any programs / games that are over two years old obsolete and unplayable.

By Smudge_Smith on 5 Jul 2012

harps1h

I fail to see how we will pay the quoted price. For the UK market (suckers) we will probably be asked for £50+. It would really dismay me if this turned out to be the case as it still only a download which can be mirrored from anywhere in the world.

By harps1h on 5 Jul 2012

Upgrade hardware at same time?

A great idea in principle, but lets face it chances are your eg XP machine will be pretty out of date by now. Now if you could upgrade the hardware at the same time it might be worth doing.

By steve_bentley on 5 Jul 2012

Upgrade hardware at same time?

A great idea in principle, but lets face it chances are your eg XP machine will be pretty out of date by now. Now if you could upgrade the hardware at the same time it might be worth doing.

By steve_bentley on 5 Jul 2012

tail sting

"If you are upgrading from Windows Vista, you will be able to bring along your Windows settings and personal files, and ..."
but NOT your apps, as you can with Win 7.
So, if you have expensive apps like Photoshop, MS Office, etc you have to pay way more than $40 for the 'privilege' of upgrading to Win 8. As others have implied, Vista is Win 7, rc1 and not worth upgrading from.

By pictonic on 5 Jul 2012

Even-numbered MS OSes

Just like Star Trek films, the even-numbered MS OS versions are not very good. (Props to Tim from Spaced for that quote)

By baldmosher on 5 Jul 2012

Spelling mistake

Just an FYI - a spelling mistake 5th paragraph: Miorosoft

By noise on 5 Jul 2012

Spelling mistake

Just an FYI - a spelling mistake 5th paragraph: Miorosoft

By noise on 5 Jul 2012

GigaFlop

Let them get it out there and have it flop and they might finally kick out Balmer and bring in a human.

By Gindylow on 5 Jul 2012

More interested in the W8 upgrade assistant?

Unless you're interested in the metro "desktop" this is very similar to W7.

But what does interest me, sadly, is the upgrade assistant and how it will determine the underlying OS. Will it be able to prompt for a product key for example? Wishfull thinking methinks...but it'll save me having to dust off one (or more) of my old (licensed) Windows installation disks...

By grumpycrabuk on 21 Jul 2012