Windows 8 Upgrade -- Price set at 39.99 USD

[Deleted]

For $40, my reason is gonna be:

4 years old laptop with SSD starts in less than 15 seconds from power off to internet ready in Win8 preview, instead of nearly minute in Win7. It really is that much faster.

One thing to keep in mind is that Win8 per default does not perform a complete shut down and power on, instead it hibernates and resumes (without restoring any sessions).

Note that hibernating instead of shutting down is not necessarily bad but you may be able to get better results on Win7 if you use hibernation there as well.

[BicycleMafioso]

Note that hibernating instead of shutting down is not necessarily bad but you may be able to get better results on Win7 if you use hibernation there as well.

He has an SSD. Hibernation is adviced against with SSDs, on account of it using up write-cycles.

[Riavan]

lol@ so many haters, thinking its all designed specifically for tablets, grossly uninformed, the metro interface may work with touch, but it's no harder than clicking icons on your desktop if you are using a mouse instead. Besides the far faster load speed, the new eco system allows for app downloads and use within the metro ui, as well as integration with xbl, skydrive and more.

[Deleted]

He has an SSD. Hibernation is adviced against with SSDs, on account of it using up write-cycles.

If that was true you'd probably have to advice against using Windows 8 as well because Hibernation is what it does instead of shutting down although the (shutdown) hibernation file is somewhat smaller since it does not have to keep the applications' memory.

[vesseblah]

One thing to keep in mind is that Win8 per default does not perform a complete shut down and power on, instead it hibernates and resumes (without restoring any sessions).

Win8 does partial hibernation if you use the regular shutdown button. It hibernates the kernel and hardware drivers, ie. the parts that never change, but shuts down all user programs.

Also because the kernel part never changes, it gets written exactly once after every hardware change and never again which means no extra writes on SSD and shutdown in less than five seconds.

[Evil Inside]

lol@ so many haters, thinking its all designed specifically for tablets, grossly uninformed, the metro interface may work with touch, but it's no harder than clicking icons on your desktop if you are using a mouse instead. Besides the far faster load speed, the new eco system allows for app downloads and use within the metro ui, as well as integration with xbl, skydrive and more.

I'm not misinformed, I've played around with the customer preview copy and I simply dont like it.

[Jailbuild]

If that was true you'd probably have to advice against using Windows 8 as well because Hibernation is what it does instead of shutting down although the (shutdown) hibernation file is somewhat smaller since it does not have to keep the applications' memory.

on top of that I hardly think adding the number of write cycles to an SSD getting put into hibernation a few times per day is going to kill the SSD any time soon, its not like your trying to defrag or format it every other day.

[Rennadrel]

Won't buy it, I heard it's still horribly buggy and I'd rather not have an OS that is crashing every 20 minutes like some of my friends are having.

[BicycleMafioso]

Won't buy it, I heard it's still horribly buggy and I'd rather not have an OS that is crashing every 20 minutes like some of my friends are having.

Do note that release candidate does not equate to final retail product.

Either way, it's not like Windows 7 was always perfect, nor was Windows Vista always quite good.

[This name sucks]

Translating this from Swedish, so bear with me. Also going to list a lot of improvements and not only those I find most interesting for myself. But not all

• Storage spaces http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2...fficiency.aspx
• Windows Store http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsstore...xperience.aspx
• Language version - download any language, free. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsstore...xperience.aspx
• Windows Defender, better yet than MSE http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2...m-malware.aspx
• Skydrive app, 25 GiB free cloud storage http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2...m-malware.aspx
• Better Battery Lifetime with mobile devices such as notebooks http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2...e-windows.aspx
• More detailed file copying (can be paused et c) http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2...nd-delete.aspx
• Refresh/Restart PC; functions to rollback your computer conveniently http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2...t-your-pc.aspx
• Mounting VHD/ISO straight through explorer. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2...vhd-files.aspx
• Hyper-V http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2...windows-8.aspx
• Same system req as Win7, but lower resource usage - apparantly <200 MiB RAM used. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2...endations.aspx and http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2...windows-8.aspx
• New file-system (think NTFS); ReFS http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2...dows-refs.aspx
• Native USB3.0 support http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2...0-support.aspx
• Support on booting from partitions larger than 2.2 TB and big sectors http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2...windows-8.aspx
• Running Windows from a USB-thumbstick http://channel9.msdn.com/events/BUILD/BUILD2011/HW-245T
• Less restarts with Windows Update http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2...ws-update.aspx
• Big performance boost through gaming (heard numbers as high as 20-50% boost to FPS in games) http://gbatemp.net/topic/323614-wind...ormance-boost/
• Fewer versions http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b...-editions.aspx
• Faster connection with/to wifi http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2...-mobility.aspx
• Better multi-monitor support http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2...-monitors.aspx
• Miss your start menu? Right click lower left corner. http://media.askvg.com/articles/imag...ccess_Menu.png
• Keep network connected even while computer sleeping http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/BUILD/BUILD2011/HW-456T
• Background metro-apps use no resources http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/BUIL...D2011/APP-409T
• Higher security http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2...windows-8.aspx and http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2...with-uefi.aspx and http://www.winsupersite.com/article/...desktop-142642
• Universal spell-checking - not just in office anymore. http://techie-buzz.com/microsoft/win...t-roaming.html

I'm tired of listing now, might return to it later. D:

While a few of those seem appealing and legitimately useful the obvious big one was the 20-50% boost to fps games, which has no source or real proof other than a guy saying it and the posts below him saying they hadn't had any real boosts.

I might give it a try while its still free if I find a start button simulator that I really like.

[Evil Inside]

Do note that release candidate does not equate to final retail product.

Either way, it's not like Windows 7 was always perfect, nor was Windows Vista always quite good.

Lol vista was never good IMO.

[Rennadrel]

Do note that release candidate does not equate to final retail product.

Either way, it's not like Windows 7 was always perfect, nor was Windows Vista always quite good.

Well Windows Vista was terrible all the time, and Windows 7 worked pretty darn well from release day, but my friends are getting BSOD's a lot on the release candidates and it's because of incompatibility with hardware.

[vesseblah]

I might give it a try while its still free if I find a start button simulator that I really like.

I really don't understand why people are so hung up with this one... Microsoft is right that pinning programs to the launchbar killed the need for start menu. I need the start menu less than once per week for anything else besides shutdown, everything I use more than once per week is pinned down and is faster to find there.

Well Windows Vista was terrible all the time, and Windows 7 worked pretty darn well from release day, but my friends are getting BSOD's a lot on the release candidates and it's because of incompatibility with hardware.

Not a single crash of Win8DP for me during half year use in four years old laptop with 2GB RAM. Problem is most likely buggy drivers, which always causes more than 90% of BSODs, instead of Windows itself.

[BicycleMafioso]

While a few of those seem appealing and legitimately useful the obvious big one was the 20-50% boost to fps games, which has no source or real proof other than a guy saying it and the posts below him saying they hadn't had any real boosts.

I might give it a try while its still free if I find a start button simulator that I really like.

I'd have listed more sources about this, but they are in Swedish, so it'd be rather pointless.

Lol vista was never good IMO.

Well Windows Vista was terrible all the time, and Windows 7 worked pretty darn well from release day, but my friends are getting BSOD's a lot on the release candidates and it's because of incompatibility with hardware.

Vista is rather good nowadays, just a bit worse than Win7.
Just because something used to be one way, doesn't mean it stays that way. Look at Internet Explorer, for instance.

I might give it a try while its still free if I find a start button simulator that I really like.

Rightclicking lower left corner
http://media.askvg.com/articles/imag...ccess_Menu.png

[Jailbuild]

I really don't understand why people are so hung up with this one... Microsoft is right that pinning programs to the launchbar killed the need for start menu. I need the start menu less than once per week for anything else besides shutdown, everything I use more than once per week is pinned down and is faster to find there.

Because you are you and others are different, I tend to use start and type the program I need and run it from there, its just the way I have become accustomed to using it, same way I have seen people who have a desktop covered in icons.

[Jtbrig7390]

Never touching win8 from what i seen of it it was made with the new MS tablet in mind and last i checked im on a desktop not a tablet if things go the way they have win7 will be around and updated for at lease 10 years.

Offtopic: been enjoying my win7 even tho its just vista without the bugs and a slightly better look. to me *win 7 was the win xp of this time and win vista was windows millenium*

[Evil Inside]

Vista is rather good nowadays, just a bit worse than Win7.
Just because something used to be one way, doesn't mean it stays that way. Look at Internet Explorer, for instance.

I ended up going back to xp because it was faster than vista, granted I dont have any RECENT experience with vista, but on release it was horrible for me.

[Deleted]

Win8 does partial hibernation if you use the regular shutdown button. It hibernates the kernel and hardware drivers, ie. the parts that never change, but shuts down all user programs.

Also because the kernel part never changes, it gets written exactly once after every hardware change and never again which means no extra writes on SSD and shutdown in less than five seconds.

Any source for that?

Yes, the driver files do not change outside of updates but those files are already on the disk and don't need to be written anyway. The same is true for applications as well: those files are on the disk as well.
However what does change is the state of those drivers (and applications) in memory. And while you probably can identify quite a few parts that do not change (or aren't needed after a restart) I don't think you can get away without storing some data at each shutdown.

[BicycleMafioso]

I ended up going back to xp because it was faster than vista, granted I dont have any RECENT experience with vista, but on release it was horrible for me.

Meh, Windows XP was rather horrible when it was first released as well, to be fair. It was a long time ago now, so I might misremember that, but hey.
Either way, it's a good price, especially to be Microsoft. It's good to see they are reading the trends.

[This name sucks]

I'd have listed more sources about this, but they are in Swedish, so it'd be rather pointless.

If you have them on hand I can always use google translate, im genuinely interested about the boost and why it happened, if it did.

If not then don't worry about it.

---------- Post added 2012-07-03 at 09:53 AM ----------

Meh, Windows XP was rather horrible when it was first released as well, to be fair. It was a long time ago now, so I might misremember that, but hey.
Either way, it's a good price, especially to be Microsoft. It's good to see they are reading the trends.

Oh man, win xp before any service packs...