Thread: so who installed the $40 windows 8 upgrade?

Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

Very good question.
I recently upgraded a fellows XP to Windows 7 at his insistence (despite my advice not to) and it runs very slow.
We still use XP at work. They have been trialling a few Windows 7 machines but they have been exhibiting compatibility issues with other software we use.
Why should I upgrade? On past form, Windows upgrades have been wrought with compatibility issues.

For me, upgrading from XP to 7 has been really worthwhile. Bootup time has been significantly reduced. With XP it would take nearly 8 minutes to boot (in the morning, I'd start the PC then go and have breakfast), now about a minute. I was able to take advantage of 64-bit. I probably wouldn't have done it if I'd had to pay full price for Win 7 Pro.

Compatibility is an issue. The program I've used for years to track vehicle maintenance and costs will not run even in XP compatibility mode. I can't import the data to a new program. I can't get LR RAVE to run anymore (starts but has an issue with the PDFs), Land Rover Viking Express (an older LR parts program) won't run.

Originally Posted by p38arover

'Tis a pity she has a Mac so it was useless to her - so she gave it to me.

That might have been trueish prior to the introduction of OSX - if you ignore the existence of VirtualPC.

Bootcamp which comes with OSX as part of the default install allows you to dual boot into windows on a Mac.
Windows on a Mac - Apple Store (Australia)

Virtual Box can be used to run a windows virtual machine.
https://www.virtualbox.org

Win7 running under virtual box on OSX.


Both of these are free. There are commercial products that are more feature rich and polished but either of the above will do the trick.

Maybe you shouldn't tell your daughter that now

Originally Posted by OffTrack

Maybe you shouldn't tell your daughter that now

Oh, she knows well enough. (She has a MacBook Air)

I think she's also going to find that the student edition of Adobe Lightroom won't run on her Mac, either.

Originally Posted by Didge

Hi guys, can anyone tell me what the cheapest price I can obtain Windows 7 or 8 for is, as I'm currently running a Mac and, due to various programmes I need to use, have to run Windows? I saw something on the net suggesting around US $65 but in Australia even the educational version is around $430 for which price I could buy an 11" with it loaded.
thanks in advance
cheers Gerald

Go back a few posts and read about the $15 online upgrade or the $48.72 pack from Officeworks, the upgrade will work on XP + .

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

wow talk about a sweeping statement,,

You might think that!
I work and have worked in the network support/tech hands on role for 25 years now supporting multiple businesses and private schools from 5 to 300 user networks. I started basically when PC's started. I can state that I have comprehensibly used and supported every OS since DOS (and others but we are talking Microsoft here). I would have lost count of the countless 10 of thousands of PC's I have installed and fixed over that time.

The 2 OS that gave the most trouble were ME and Vista. You might have had a good run with Vista, but not many have and business avoided it like the plague - tells you something doesn't it. Microsoft were forced to extend XP's life because of the pressure from business by a year or so -tells you even more !

I think you will find if you updated from Vista to Windows 7 your PC will run faster and with a lot less problems - in fact I have never seen this not to be the case. There are very few incompatibilities with win 7 unless you have some very old hardware or some oddball software and even then there are very few software glitches that can't be solved (especially is you are running the 32bit version of win 7)

cheers

I've lost count of the number of times I've had to re-install vista,,

but having said that,,

the old saying of never buying the first of anything new(including landrover models) holds true, the world had settled comfortably with XP,, and a new OS after how many years was never going to be adopted well,,
and Win7 is only Vista with a new dress--
-- and several more years of the public accepting a new OS.

For $40 for the Pro version I'd say jump on it!
It takes a while to process but it's worth it.
Fast to boot, crisper graphics.

While you are at it make sure you get the Windows Media Centre Pack so you can still play DVD's!
Why Microsoft would drop DVD playback who knows!
Add features - Microsoft Windows

Just a couple of not so clever things:
For Tablets the "Metro" screen works, but on normal PC's without a touch screen no.
When you get to the desktop you will see "NO START ICON" in the lower left corner, to switch off you have to raise the "Charm" bar select setting and then select power / shut down.
Not so good for business users either having a PC boot into the Metro screen ( the name has now changed to the Start Screen)

There is alot of good features in Windows 8 but to make it even better read this article from Techlife Australia:
https://www.box.com/s/7a4y5ml72t9d4ylfdbx8

This will make your PC boot into your normal desktop, reinstate your Start icon, but you can still access the new Start screen by selecting it in the Charm bar.

Download the exe here:
https://www.box.com/s/59j07pqmsdgxtablbuor
Yes it's safe and even gives you the option of returning to the standard Windows 8 boot and setup.

Regards Rich.

Well I asked my Computor Tech what would be some good upgrades for my computor. As I'm running XP said I should go to Windows 7 and not to worry about 8 yet. Throw a heap more RAM at it ( his words ).
Been have a few problems with Internet explorer 8 freezing lately . Have to reboot to fix. He said that this was because XP & IE8 getting a bit old now & cant go bigger than IE8 with XP.
Whats others take on this . OR is he just being a salesman
Gary