Four Million Windows 8 Upgrades Since Friday


Hehe, you are trying too hard to justify the product.

While I won't call it the next Vista or Me as it doesn't seem like a bad product after using it for awhile, it's just another misstep MS has taken since Gates left. I'm all for getting rid of the start menu and trying something different, but a tablet ui just doesn't work with a keyboard/mouse. MS just doesn't get it.
 
Those of us who did research never upgraded to iOS6.

Meh, I like iOS6 regardless of the iMap debacle. I don't even use iMap even before iOS6. I use my Garmin in the car or Google Maps on the computer before I even go anywhere.

The other iOS6 features are pretty cool. Panorama shots, photos to Facebook, to name a few.

As for Windows 8 sales: I work downtown Chicago, so I see all manners of computers and tablets every day in parks, at restaurants and coffee shops, in lobbies... I've seen a few Windows 8 tablets already - not sure what models they are though.

Microsoft Surface ads are plastered everywhere at bus stops and on some CTA buses. Good to see Microsoft finally getting into the marketing and advertisement business. Took them long enough to figure it out.
 
Meh, I like iOS6 regardless of the iMap debacle. I don't even use iMap even before iOS6. I use my Garmin in the car or Google Maps on the computer before I even go anywhere.

The other iOS6 features are pretty cool. Panorama shots, photos to Facebook, to name a few.

As for Windows 8 sales: I work downtown Chicago, so I see all manners of computers and tablets every day in parks, at restaurants and coffee shops, in lobbies... I've seen a few Windows 8 tablets already - not sure what models they are though.

Microsoft Surface ads are plastered everywhere at bus stops and on some CTA buses. Good to see Microsoft finally getting into the marketing and advertisement business. Took them long enough to figure it out.

They've been advertising, just not for everything they have. I see so many Windows, MS Office, or Xbox, but never saw any for Windows phones, Zune, etc. Not sure if advertising is just a division decision or full on corporate one.
 
Hehe, you are trying too hard to justify the product.

While I won't call it the next Vista or Me as it doesn't seem like a bad product after using it for awhile, it's just another misstep MS has taken since Gates left. I'm all for getting rid of the start menu and trying something different, but a tablet ui just doesn't work with a keyboard/mouse. MS just doesn't get it.

Whole one may not like Windows 8 it doesn't need justification, it's purpose is to allow Windows to run on fastest growing segment of computing devices. One can disagree with the design but it is much more difficult to make the case that Windows should remain a desktop only OS because that WILL limit the growth and scope of Windows clients, there's just no way around that.

Is Windows 8's design at the expense of traditional PCs? That's the core issue of the great Windows 8 debate and clearly a lot of folks do believe that the traditional desktop was compromised. However a lot of people don't think that was the case, at least not to any significant degree that can't be adapted to. It is a complex question that will never have a definitive answer because the answer is based on individuality. Some will be fine, some won't. The only way to objectively gauge it is the market, and that still isn't a true measure of the underlying question.

The way I see it is if Windows can't support this new generation of touch oriented tablet devices then what future does it have besides being an enterprise legacy OS?
 
They've been advertising, just not for everything they have. I see so many Windows, MS Office, or Xbox, but never saw any for Windows phones, Zune, etc. Not sure if advertising is just a division decision or full on corporate one.

Microsoft has historically counted on their OEM partners to do their advertising for them. "Buy this HP TouchSmart so and so, powered by Intel Inside and running Windows so and so".

Most of their in-house advertisement are found in tech magazines and a few places here and there. But I've never seen large amounts of ads in many places downtown Chicago as the Microsoft Surface ads.
 
Microsoft has historically counted on their OEM partners to do their advertising for them. "Buy this HP TouchSmart so and so, powered by Intel Inside and running Windows so and so".

Most of their in-house advertisement are found in tech magazines and a few places here and there. But I've never seen large amounts of ads in many places downtown Chicago as the Microsoft Surface ads.

I haven't really seen any ads for it here yet and I live pretty much in Seattle's armpit around Tacoma. Then again, even though I know iPads are a popular product, I've only personally seen maybe a half dozen of them since the first model came out which is weird since I go to Starbucks once in a while to hang out with my BFFs and you'd think that someone there would own one.
 
I haven't really seen any ads for it here yet and I live pretty much in Seattle's armpit around Tacoma. Then again, even though I know iPads are a popular product, I've only personally seen maybe a half dozen of them since the first model came out which is weird since I go to Starbucks once in a while to hang out with my BFFs and you'd think that someone there would own one.

Windows 8 ads are flooding TV these days, and many of the retail stores have been doing their on promos. At the Staples folks we're wearing Windows 8 shirts this week.
 
Windows 8 ads are flooding TV these days, and many of the retail stores have been doing their on promos. At the Staples folks we're wearing Windows 8 shirts this week.

I don't own a TV or really stream anything so I guess that would explain why I'm not seeing the ads. I would have expected at least to see like Microsoft people outside their campus on highway exit ramps with "Will Install Windows 8 for Food" signs or something though.
 
The way I see it is if Windows can't support this new generation of touch oriented tablet devices then what future does it have besides being an enterprise legacy OS?

Forging the wanton destruction of the desktop environment for a minute, shoehorning 20+ years of legacy code onto a tablet does not make a good tablet operating system.

Android and iOS have the advantage that they were built from the ground up for mobile devices. Android ROMs are typically 500mb-1gb (Including Polaris Office). iOS is around 1gb in size. Windows RT is 12gb. Windows 8 requires 16-20gb. Windows RT should have been easy to strip down in size because there is no backwards compatibility to worry about. Windows 8 should not take 20 gigabytes; Mac OS X 10.7 takes 4.5gb and a GNU/Linux distro complete with KDE only takes a few gigabytes. And a full KDE install comes with far more applications than Windows does, as does a full Mac OS X install.

At least with Windows Phone, Microsoft had the common sense not to try and put a desktop operating system on a phone (even if the walled garden is unethical). It would have been better to port Windows Phone up to a tablet and call that Windows RT rather than the other way around because phones and tablets have much more in common. Windows 8 could have then be tailored for higher end convertible laptops with the option to use either a desktop or a touchscreen interface (with nothing forced, unlike the current setup).
 
Wonder who's buying it? I don't know anyone who is using Windows 8...

Hey you should go to this place on the internets called hard forums, there are people who run windows 8 there.
 
I also find it interesting that a ton of people here say windows 8 looks like shit, yet being good looking seems to be what I hear as one of its strengths from non stubborn crowds. In fact today I was listening to NPR (which is a terribly apple bias agency) and one of their reporters basically said windows 8 was very good looking and forward thinking and that with this product they were more innovative than apple on the issue he was discussing.

Yogas were sold out at best buy.
 
Microsoft has historically counted on their OEM partners to do their advertising for them. "Buy this HP TouchSmart so and so, powered by Intel Inside and running Windows so and so".

Most of their in-house advertisement are found in tech magazines and a few places here and there. But I've never seen large amounts of ads in many places downtown Chicago as the Microsoft Surface ads.

Ya, I'm use to the OEM ads. Not in the states currently, so have no idea how their ads are right now. I didn't see many when I left, but MS wasn't putting out anything new during then either.
 
Android and iOS have the advantage that they were built from the ground up for mobile devices.

But they also weren't built to support traditional desktop software. Windows 8 is a hybrid, it's not trying to be a lightweight mobile OS, but light enough to run on low power ARM and Atom powered SoCs and it looks like it does do this fairly well.
 
I don't own a TV or really stream anything so I guess that would explain why I'm not seeing the ads. I would have expected at least to see like Microsoft people outside their campus on highway exit ramps with "Will Install Windows 8 for Food" signs or something though.

Microsoft hadn't been known to advertise on cats so its pretty clear why you haven't seen it.
 
I couldn't get into it. I tried for a few hours, but ultimately I like Windows 7 for now. I'll wait until it's been out a while and see what I think. Much of my work revolves still moving from Windows XP to Windows 7, so I'm not largely concerned with it atm.

I know several people who bought new laptops/desktops loaded with it. I wonder if that number gets calculated into the sales figures above? I also know many devices purchased for schools/businesses that came with it also and were immediately unloaded and loaded with Windows 7.
 
Microsoft hadn't been known to advertise on cats so its pretty clear why you haven't seen it.

I think they really should attempt to put something on catforum.com for the sake of the normal people who have feline pets. :( They're ignoring almost 80% of the world's population by not paying close attention to what people who hug kitties are buying.
 
I did a "clean" install with an upgrade from USB, redoing drive partitions and all that stuff and it didn't prompt for qualifying media during the process. I don't know what it does if you do an in-place upgrade. Here's directions for the cleain install process:

I’m running into problems:

I clicked on the $39 offer.

It says, “upgrade to Windows 8 Pro”, implying that Win8 is better than whatever I’m running right now. Corporate arrogance in America is really sickening.

Then it offers to download a small executable, “Windows8-UpgradeAssistant.exe”.

So I download, it doesn’t run in Linux, so I fire up my trusty Windows 2000 in VM. I get “not a valid Win 32 application”.

So I fire up a Windows 7 VM. I get, “This PC doesn’t meet system requirements, you need at least 24 GB free on drive C to install Windows”.

I’m running out of patience with these bozos.

You said you were able to download in ISO, which you can use to install from CD or a USB flash drive. Where did you find the ISO?
 
I’m running into problems:

I clicked on the $39 offer.

It says, “upgrade to Windows 8 Pro”, implying that Win8 is better than whatever I’m running right now. Corporate arrogance in America is really sickening.

Then it offers to download a small executable, “Windows8-UpgradeAssistant.exe”.

So I download, it doesn’t run in Linux, so I fire up my trusty Windows 2000 in VM. I get “not a valid Win 32 application”.

So I fire up a Windows 7 VM. I get, “This PC doesn’t meet system requirements, you need at least 24 GB free on drive C to install Windows”.

I’m running out of patience with these bozos.

You said you were able to download in ISO, which you can use to install from CD or a USB flash drive. Where did you find the ISO?

Um, lemme see...the executable probably won't ever run inside Linux since it was made to run on a modern Windows OS and file execution along with the way code even "looks" to the system is different between Linux and Windows. You're not gonna be able to execute that program natively.

Win2K's problem is probably that it's a 32-bit OS and you're grabbing a 64-bit executable which it doesn't understand. Even if you get the 32-bit verison, the intent of that program is to identify the hardware, OS, and software on the system it executes on so it can determine if the total system meets requirements. Win2K isn't a qualifying product from which you can upgrade to 8 so it'd probably tell you to get a qualifing OS.

In your VM, try expanding the existing partition size of the virtual disk to at least 24 GB. Depending on your VM software, something like dynamically expanding partitions would probably confuzzle the installer, but I haven't done that stuff inside a VM. I was actually using a physical system running 32-bit Vista without a virtualization layer between the OS and hardware so I dunno. Maybe someone else has a better clue if they've done the virtual machine install depending on what you're using as a VM.
 
Um, lemme see...the executable probably won't ever run inside Linux since it was made to run on a modern Windows OS and file execution along with the way code even "looks" to the system is different between Linux and Windows. You're not gonna be able to execute that program natively.

Win2K's problem is probably that it's a 32-bit OS and you're grabbing a 64-bit executable which it doesn't understand. Even if you get the 32-bit verison, the intent of that program is to identify the hardware, OS, and software on the system it executes on so it can determine if the total system meets requirements. Win2K isn't a qualifying product from which you can upgrade to 8 so it'd probably tell you to get a qualifing OS.

In your VM, try expanding the existing partition size of the virtual disk to at least 24 GB. Depending on your VM software, something like dynamically expanding partitions would probably confuzzle the installer, but I haven't done that stuff inside a VM. I was actually using a physical system running 32-bit Vista without a virtualization layer between the OS and hardware so I dunno. Maybe someone else has a better clue if they've done the virtual machine install depending on what you're using as a VM.

Thank you. I thought that clicking on the link lets you use your credit card to buy a license, download the thing, and then you install it anywhere you want, bare metal or VM.

I have a licensed copy of every version of Windows since DOS, I just don’t use them. I’ve tried Win8 Developer Preview, I would not use it daily, I just like to try different things.
 
Meh, I like iOS6 regardless of the iMap debacle. I don't even use iMap even before iOS6. I use my Garmin in the car or Google Maps on the computer before I even go anywhere.

The other iOS6 features are pretty cool. Panorama shots, photos to Facebook, to name a few.

As for Windows 8 sales: I work downtown Chicago, so I see all manners of computers and tablets every day in parks, at restaurants and coffee shops, in lobbies... I've seen a few Windows 8 tablets already - not sure what models they are though.

Microsoft Surface ads are plastered everywhere at bus stops and on some CTA buses. Good to see Microsoft finally getting into the marketing and advertisement business. Took them long enough to figure it out.

They're FLOODING all advertisements avenues here in Brazil. They're really serious about marketing right now, and it's working. My friends have me as a reference for computer stuff, and everyone wants to know if Win8 is good or not. Seems to me it's going to gain some traction really soon. The fact they kept the upgrades at a competitive price helps a lot.
 
I wonder how my notebook will perform with 8. It rocks a AMD C-50 processor.

Should I go for it? If it's good, I will think about moving my HTPC too - currently running a AMD C-60 + XBMCbuntu. I heard media center will go the way of the dodo?
 
I wonder how my notebook will perform with 8. It rocks a AMD C-50 processor.

Should I go for it? If it's good, I will think about moving my HTPC too - currently running a AMD C-60 + XBMCbuntu. I heard media center will go the way of the dodo?

Moved my 4850e (bit more powerful then your C-60) and it has been doing better with 2gigs of ram than Win7 was.
 
All this talk of upgrading for businesses seems odd, why dont most of them just get an enterprise subscription so they can isntall whatever they want when ever they want. Upgrade, downgrade etc...

I think that windows 8 could be big simply for the fact that they can deploy cheap devices like surface where they used deploy more expensive convertible tablets. Alot of businesses saw the cost savings in this and that is why they started to deploy ipads. This is a big reason why MS went all in with ARM
 
"Any app that runs on Windows 7 runs better on Windows 8," he said, because Windows 8 needs less memory and boots faster.
Application performance is directly correlated to boot times in this man's completely un-skewed perception of reality.
 
I wonder how my notebook will perform with 8. It rocks a AMD C-50 processor.

Should I go for it? If it's good, I will think about moving my HTPC too - currently running a AMD C-60 + XBMCbuntu. I heard media center will go the way of the dodo?

Microsoft included single core n-series Atom netbooks in their testing. The C-50 is a dual core chip with more processor power at its disposal than any single core Atom. I'm pretty sure I read someone here having installed it on an Asus EEE and getting decent results. You probably won't have any performance problems with the C-50.
 
Application performance is directly correlated to boot times in this man's completely un-skewed perception of reality.

He was quoted out of context but I believe the man truly thinks that memory is the culprit in this case. Which it isn't but its not exactly a CTO's job to know all the technical details.
 
Ok i'm using Windows 8. It was more of a monetary thing.

I'm using a business application that requires a professional edition. W7 Pro was much more expensive an upgrade than Windows 8 so I went with Windows 8. The upgrade only cost $40. It does run business applications slightly faster than Windows 7 but it might be biased because the 2 systems I have are different in spec. Only time will tell if this is a crappy OS but so far it's pretty stable with no issues.
 
Yay, I qualified for a $15 upgrade. Been on Windows 8 for two days now, and I have no inclination to go back. Early adoption has its pitfalls though. I had a driver issue which pushed me into buying a new piece of hardware (sound card). Also, Windows Update doesn't even suggest .NET Framework as an optional download. I had to find that download manually. Working inside the OS and doing my thing with applications is just as seamless as with Windows 7.
 
I'm going to give myself a couple weeks to familiarize myself with the new interface, but as of right now its taking me ten times longer to get to any advanced functions or multitask.

I was hoping for less clicks, not more, and bootup is slower than Windows 7 on the two systems I've tested it on, although that may be due to legacy drivers I'm having to use.

My main rig here is very modern, but I'm hesitant to "upgrade" it while the bugs are being worked out.
 
I just did a fresh install last night. Like 30 mins to install. 2-3 hours to install other programs, then setup that start page with all my programs.

Then google how to install .Net 3.5 without an internet connection. It's available on the install media, just not installed. Going through Programs and Features to enable it, makes it so it tries to download. Had to use the dism command to get it to install off the install media.

---------

My main annoyance, which hasn't changed with the release. Killing the damn integrated apps. Damn thing is like Android, just leaving random shit open everywhere. I have to open up the task manager to kill these things. Like the Music, Pictures, Videos, etc crap. I set it up so that MPC deals with all videos, ACDSee deals with all pictures, Winamp deals with all music, so I won't have an issue with those anymore.

With Ducman, it is annoying trying to get to more advanced functions. Like how it's got that integrated MS Office style ribbon for menu options in folders. I'm use to it, cause of Office, but it's still retarded.

Well some people will like it, some won't. It works well on my laptop tablet, but it'll never touch my non-touch systems.
 
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