Published on October 26, 2012 By Island Dog In WinCustomize News

We’ve seen a lot about it, we’ve been able to try the Consumer Previews, and now we have the official release of Windows 8.  At midnight, people were lined up to get Windows 8 and get their hands on the new Surface RT tablet offered by Microsoft.

If you are a current user of XP, Vista or Windows 7 you can get the download for Windows 8 for just $39 until January.  Boxed copies are also available today for around $69 and can be found at retailers around the country.

Once you get Windows 8 installed, don’t forget to grab Start8 to bring back the start menu along with additional useful features for Windows 8.

http://www.windows.com/buy

 

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Comments (Page 1)
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on Oct 26, 2012

I dont know why people would grab the surface RT, it is only 3 months till release for surface with windows pro its only 3 month to wait...
Its like buying an ipad to use it as digital photostand ... well at least the surface RT is better and more usefull than any ipad
But if you seriously want to use one for deisgn then wait for the w8 pro version

Like i still wait for my windows 8 pro systembuilder version 

on Oct 26, 2012

Whoopee...

on Oct 26, 2012

LightStar
Whoopee...

I man who thinks like I do. 

on Oct 26, 2012

I was curious so I ran their upgrade assistant on my "vintage" machine.  Let's just say it's not an option.

on Oct 26, 2012

Is that like George Jetson riding Dino?

on Oct 26, 2012

Is that like George Jetson riding Dino?

Pretty much.  That's ok though, Dino's got a lot of character.  I'll just let him keep wandering aimlessly about in the woods eating his tired old berries.

on Oct 26, 2012

Purchases on the left, returns on the right.

on Oct 26, 2012

I downloaded my copy in the early hours of the morning [Sat in Aus].  I have yet to install it, but I reckon it will go smoothly if the purchase and download process is anything to go by.  I'll get round to installing it once I've sated myself with my first forum foray of the day, however.

I'm going to install it on my main rig as that has the higher specs and the 2 SSD's in RAID0, which will boost its performance considerably over the platter drive it was on.  I had been running Win 8 Customer Preview in a dual boot configuration with Win 7 as the primary OS, but to get the best performance from my CPU and the OS, I need to be running Win 8 on the SSD's.  This time around, however, I will not be dual booting.  I will be installing Win 7 on my second rig upstairs, while my Win 8 rig remains downstairs.

LightStar
Whoopee...

Like you, Tom, I was not at all impressed with Win 8 when the first previews were released, but I gave serious thought to some relevant points and persevered with it.... and with the latest edition of Stardock's Start8 installed, it's not a lot different to using Win 7.  Yes, the Metro interface put me off as well, but with Start8 installed you never have to deal with it, booting directly into the desktop, which as I said, is just like running Win 7.

The points to consider are: Microsoft is very unlikely to return to previous incarnations of Windows now that it has taken this step to merge the various platforms it uses, meaning that in a few short years you'll not be able to purchase XP, Vista or Win 7 pre-installed or on an installation disc.; Microsoft will pull support for XP and Vista sooner rather than later, and for Win 7 around the time Win 11 is released.  What this adds up to is that we're going to have to adapt to the new way of doing things or get left behind, and it's probably best to begin that transition with Win 8 as things will have changed considerably more when Win 11 is released and the older incarnations are dropped/no longer supported.

Well that's the way I see it, and while I'm not a fan of Metro, I will familiarise myself with it to avoid getting left behind further down the track.

on Oct 27, 2012

"Windows 8 Officially Launches"

 

How many tries did it take?  

on Oct 27, 2012

I got the $14.99 deal because I work on people's PCs around here ( my friends and relatives).

 

I'm gonna need to be familiar with 8. I expect a lot of business.

on Oct 27, 2012

Just installed windows 8 and can't install windowblinds7.  I thought it had been updated to run on windows8.  Guess I was wrong, though.

on Oct 27, 2012

starkers
I downloaded my copy in the early hours of the morning [Sat in Aus].  I have yet to install it, but I reckon it will go smoothly if the purchase and download process is anything to go by.  I'll get round to installing it once I've sated myself with my first forum foray of the day, however.

I'm going to install it on my main rig as that has the higher specs and the 2 SSD's in RAID0, which will boost its performance considerably over the platter drive it was on.  I had been running Win 8 Customer Preview in a dual boot configuration with Win 7 as the primary OS, but to get the best performance from my CPU and the OS, I need to be running Win 8 on the SSD's.  This time around, however, I will not be dual booting.  I will be installing Win 7 on my second rig upstairs, while my Win 8 rig remains downstairs.


Quoting LightStar, reply 2Whoopee...

Like you, Tom, I was not at all impressed with Win 8 when the first previews were released, but I gave serious thought to some relevant points and persevered with it.... and with the latest edition of Stardock's Start8 installed, it's not a lot different to using Win 7.  Yes, the Metro interface put me off as well, but with Start8 installed you never have to deal with it, booting directly into the desktop, which as I said, is just like running Win 7.

The points to consider are: Microsoft is very unlikely to return to previous incarnations of Windows now that it has taken this step to merge the various platforms it uses, meaning that in a few short years you'll not be able to purchase XP, Vista or Win 7 pre-installed or on an installation disc.; Microsoft will pull support for XP and Vista sooner rather than later, and for Win 7 around the time Win 11 is released.  What this adds up to is that we're going to have to adapt to the new way of doing things or get left behind, and it's probably best to begin that transition with Win 8 as things will have changed considerably more when Win 11 is released and the older incarnations are dropped/no longer supported.

Well that's the way I see it, and while I'm not a fan of Metro, I will familiarise myself with it to avoid getting left behind further down the track.

 

Oh, I have Windows 8 starkers, I am using it on my little netbook computer with Start 8.  It's OK, but until it can be skinned it is no better than Windows 7 to me.  The UI is downright ugly!

on Oct 27, 2012

LightStar
Oh, I have Windows 8 starkers, I am using it on my little netbook computer with Start 8. It's OK, but until it can be skinned it is no better than Windows 7 to me.

Yeah, the UI is rather dull and uninteresting, but I'm sure Stardock has been working on WB for Win 8 so that pretty soon we can tart it up and make it look more than halfway decent.  MS was never know for producing an easy on the eye UI.  Aero was the best thing MS ever did to spruce up the desktop, and now it's gone.

I'm glad , though, that you are trying out Win 8 and not sitting on the fence like some I know.  Sure there's a learning curve with Win 8, but it's like I've said to my friends and family, sitting on Win 7 until Win 11 or 12 will steepen that learning curve considerably because the technology will have advanced even more while they've been stagnating and refusing to give up on old tech.

Oh well, the distractions have passed and I'm off to install my copy now.

on Oct 27, 2012

Sure, we’ve seen and heard a lot about it, we’ve been able to try the Consumer Previews, we've been able to get our hands on the final bits when they were made available back in August and now that we have the official release of Windows 8 all we got is ... Start8 ... !?

on Oct 27, 2012

Sure, we’ve seen and heard a lot about it, we’ve been able to try the Consumer Previews, we've been able to get our hands on the final bits when they were made available back in August and now that we have the official release of Windows 8 all we got is ... Start8 ... !?

No.

 

https://forums.wincustomize.com/432321

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