Cheap Windows 8

[escapeUK]

They would not sell it that cheap if it was any good.

Exactly. No Start Button?

[AtW]

Exactly. No Start Button?

There is one here (free) - Welcome to Classic Shell

It's not as refined but God sent in situation with Win 8 - using it on our Win 2012 servers.

Microsoft is practically giving Win 8 away to make up numbers for Wall Street - PC market crashed in Q4, but OEMs were forced to buy lots of Win 8 copies (probably with massive discount), for Microsoft books that's enough to count as sale even if OEMs themselves won't sell them for months.

[VectraMan]

They would not sell it that cheap if it was any good.

Windows 7 Home was only £40 when it first came out (I bought Pro for £80), and that wasn't an upgrade.

[AtW]

Windows 7 Home was only £40 when it first came out (I bought Pro for £80), and that wasn't an upgrade.

Home OEM was always cheap - they had disaster called Vista so needed quick sales to make up for it, putting up high price would have deterred it.

I can't remember last time Microsoft had £25 upgrades of Windows.

[Sysman]

Windows 7 Home was only £40 when it first came out (I bought Pro for £80), and that wasn't an upgrade.

The UK had better prices than Europe until last summer, and that gave UK resellers a boost while it lasted.

[Sysman]

Typically don't "upgrade-only" copies work just fine on any old PC?

Windows 8 license agreement (PDF)

[d000hg]

Bought an upgrade copy with backup DVD, after being reminded:
Microsoft to end Windows 8 discounts on January 31 ? The Register

[centurian]

Does the upgrade you get - allow you to re-install Windows 8 at a future point. It seems to read that you need to have Windows XP/Vista/7 already installed on the PC.

So what happens when you want to rebuild next year ?? Does the media allow a fresh install

[eek]

Does the upgrade you get - allow you to re-install Windows 8 at a future point. It seems to read that you need to have Windows XP/Vista/7 already installed on the PC.

So what happens when you want to rebuild next year ?? Does the media allow a fresh install

Usually. The most it will ask for is to see the previous disk but I think Microsoft gave up with that plan with Vista.

[d000hg]

I think I read it will work... that technically 'upgrade' means you're upgrading a valid Windows license (meaning you can't use that old license anymore), even if it's not currently installed.