More about Upgrading to Windows 8

Published on June 29, 2012 By DrJBHL In Personal Computing

This comes from Mary Jo Foley (a very dependable source) who wrote in her ZDnet blog:

Users will be able to upgrade to Windows 8 (the name of the entry-level consumer version of the operating system) from Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic and Windows 7 Home Premium while maintaining their existing Windows settings, personal files and applications.

Users will be able to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro from Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate while maintaining their existing Windows settings, personal files and applications.

Users will be able to upgrade to Windows 8 Enterprise (available to volume licensees with Software Assurance contracts only) from Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise while maintaining their existing Windows settings, personal files and applications.

Users will be able to upgrade to Windows 8 from Windows Vista (without SP1 installed) but only personal files (meaning data only) will be maintained. If upgrading from Vista with SP1, personal data and system settings will be maintained.

Users will be able to upgrade to Windows 8 from Windows XP with Service Pack 3 or higher but only personal files/data only will be maintained.

She went on to write about what won’t work:

“Users won’t be able to upgrade or keep their Windows settings, files or applications if doing a cross-language installation. (However, users will be able to keep personal files/data during a cross-language install by using Windows 8 Setup.) Microsoft also is also not allowing users interested in doing a cross-architecture — i.e., 32-bit to 64-bit — install to do so. Whether running Vista or Windows 7, these users won’t be able to keep their existing Windows settings, personal files and applications or data. They won’t be allowed to upgrade this way, period.”

I think two things about this are necessary to understand: This came to her from a source at an OEM – not directly from MS, and that things could (possibly) still change.

So…. just to keep you all up to date.

Source:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-details-its-windows-8-upgrade-plans/13051?tag=nl.e064

Comments

ZubaZ

on Jun 29, 2012

Historically, your best bet for a stable system is to backup your documents, do a clean install, and then restore the documents.

gmc2

on Jun 29, 2012

just wondering: OEM = original equipment manufacturer. win8 is an MS product and MS would be the OEM. did she mention which OEM she acquired this from? (I mean it sounds reasonable, I'm just curious because I didn't find that referenced in the article)

I hope that I never have to upgrade but the, "won't work section" would be enough to scare me off.

DrJBHL

on Jun 29, 2012

I only know that it wasn't MS. What I put up was (supposedly) the gist of what MS "shared" with certain "select partners".

Nice avatar, btw.

gmc2

on Jun 29, 2012

thanks Seth, on both accounts.

DrJBHL

on Jun 29, 2012

Zubaz

reply 1

Historically, your best bet for a stable system is to backup your documents, do a clean install, and then restore the documents.

Probably good advice. "Upgrades" historically leave quite a bit of "detritus", especially in the registry.... so your computer will be slower from the get go.

You're welcome, Greg.

Uvah

on Jun 29, 2012

I think I'll wait for #9. The odd ones usually work pretty good. IMO

Rosco_P

on Jun 29, 2012

I've never trusted Windows upgrades. I tend to format and reinstall often enough anyway, so it works out.

starkers

on Jun 30, 2012

Rosco_P

reply 7

I've never trusted Windows upgrades.

Me either.... since it was an upgrade from 98SE that soured my first experience of XP. While some said it was going from FAT32 to NTFS, and others said it was due to the different kernel, blah, blah, blah, I had issues with the upgrade version from day one. And another thing that pissed me off was having to insert the 98 disc part way through reinstallation, which is why I eventually purchased a full copy of XP Pro for less than half what I paid for the upgrade version.. it was at the time Vista was nearing release, so they were trying to offload old XP stock.

Rosco_P

on Jul 02, 2012

I wonder how well Windows 8 will fit into this:

Savyg

on Jul 02, 2012

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2012/07/02/upgrade-to-windows-8-pro-for-39-99.aspx

Probably deserves its own thread, but can't be arsed to participate on this forum much anymore.

Daiwa

on Jul 02, 2012

Savyg

reply 10

can't be arsed to participate on this forum much anymore.

Thanks for the link, Savyg. Hang in there with us. Some of us are trainable.

CarGuy1

on Jul 02, 2012

Rosco_P

reply 9

I wonder how well Windows 8 will fit into this:

Thanks for the stroll down memory lane.

Wonder why he skipped ME?

harpo99999

on Jul 02, 2012

from what I remember it came out AFTER win2k (by a week or two) and did not get an upgrade to win2k option.

harpo

Savyg

on Jul 02, 2012

Daiwa

reply 12

Thanks for the link, Savyg. Hang in there with us. Some of us are trainable.

I love y'all, I'm just busy and irritable.

The Secret World demands my attention!

Daiwa

on Jul 02, 2012

Rosco_P

reply 9

I wonder how well Windows 8 will fit into this:

That dude has unbelievable discipline - waterboarding would have been preferable. Hard to fathom there wasn't a suicide in there somewhere.

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