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If you’re on Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 — and if you’re a Windows user reading this site and a human, you better be — upgrading to Windows 8 is going to be dirt cheap and totally worth it: only £25-odd.
The £25 upgrade price for Windows 8 Pro is part of an upgrade extravaganza promotion period lasts from the Windows 8 launch (sometime in autumn) until January 31st, 2013. The way the cheapo upgrade works is through Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant, which will give you step-by-step instructions on how to download and check your PC to see if you meet up to the system requirements. If you hate downloading software and/or collect DVDs, you can get a retail copy of Windows 8 for around £50 during this promotional period. Either way, it’s going to be very affordable to upgrade to Windows 8. [Windows Team Blog via Forbes]
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Can you actually see this being “only £26-odd.”?
No, neither can I. £40 quid odd maybe.
Still… it would tempt me.
I think they just did a direct copy from the US site and converted the price from USD to GBP, maybe it will be £29.99.
Yeah, I know. What I suspect though is what normally happens when something comes across the pond… replace the $ with a £ and you’ve got your price or there abouts.
The original Microsoft blog does say “you will qualify to download an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for just $39.99 in 131 markets”
There’s no list of what those 131 markets are, but it does give the clear expectation that it’ll be the same price for all.
Hopefully the price will stay the same if it’s just a digital download. I can see the price going up if physical media and shipping costs are going to be involved.
I’m using Win8 at the moment. Not sure I’d be willing to upgrade from 7 for a long time.
I’m pretty sure I’m the only person who thinks the opposite. Windows 7 is a great and incredibly refined operating system, but I’m really loving the freshness and new user experiences that Windows 8 is offering in the previews I’ve tried thus far.
Might have something to do with the fact that I have a touchscreen monitor, but £26 for Win8 is an absolute bargain in my eyes.
You’re not the only person. I’m using it on my laptop which has no touch facility on it, but am still loving it.
If I had a touch screen then it’d be completely different – I’d really see the attraction then. However as it stands, the live tiles leave me cold – I’d like to see maybe Icons in Win7 doing something similar.
Come Windows Surface, I’ll be having giving it more time
“totally worth it” lolno. I’d pay to not upgrade.
Ok! Send your £26 cheque to me
Good for you
£45 isn’t a bad price for the full license. I got a copy of Win 7 for £50 during a similar offer.
Yep. I did the same with Win7; the price will at least double if not triple once the pre-order period is over, so if you ever even suspect you’re going to bite on Windows8, that’s the time.
I bet I’ll end up buying this and not using it. ha ha.
A really smart move by Microsoft. I’m a Win XP holdout due to the marginal benefit of upgrading (I only use my laptop for work, internet and music) against the cost – but I’ll be happy to shell out about £30 for an OS that doesn’t cause me a vague nagging feeling of embarrassment.
Great price, I’ll have a few of those!
want now …crikey that seems an absolute bargain
It’s tempting. My laptop used to run a 64-bit version of windows 7, but a botched update, corrupt restoration discs, and a nightmare of a time with Sony customer support left me with downgrading to the 32-bit version that the local tech-guy has. So now its not reaching its full potential, the blu-ray player is non-functional (due to a lack of 32-bit drivers for it) and civ V barely runs now.
But then I no longer use my laptop much, as my tablet has pretty much replaced it.