The metrosexual UI is easy to avoid, which is good, but it has no business on a desktop PC. Yes, it really is that bad.

The reason I dislike Windows 8 so much is because, the way I understand it, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like Microsoft is really trying to close in the platform now. Windows has kept the PC market as a very open platform for a long time now, but with the way Windows 8 works, they're trying to close the platform up and control it more like Apple does with their iPhone. Friends I have out in Silicon Valley in the tech industry say that Microsoft is wanting to start designing their own hardware, too. Though I don't know if that's accurate or not.

So, this all sounds to me like Microsoft is trying to bring the way Apple does business with the iPhone to the PC. If this is the case, this is horrible, horrible news. If I'm wrong, please correct me.

The system is capable of handling 64 bit because I have it dual booting Windows XP 32bit and Linux Mint 64 bit. At the time I assembled the machine I had a free Windows XP from my University so I used that but if I'm going to upgrade to W8 I want to use the 64 bit version so I can use my full 4GB of RAM.

Has anyone upgraded to Windows 8 using a laptop? Is it true that battery life is significantly better with Windows 8?

Using it on a laptop here, though I rarely use laptop unplugged, so I can't say anything about this.
Ah, don't think you can upgrade from 32bit to 64bit... you could try the win 7 pirated copy method, but whether it would work or not, I've no idea.

Yeah since I don't have access to Windows 8 I can't really check for you. I'm assuming you've already searched around online for an answer? All I can tell you is, if the Windows 8 iso/disc functions the same as the Windows 7 iso/disc, then you can upgrade from 32 bit Xp to 64 Win8, just not directly; you'd have to do a clean install of Win8 using the upgrade media, which would still allow you to dual boot XP 32bit.

They've been designing their own hardware for a very long time, and yet at every single presentation so far, they have also included their partners' devices.

Also, this is being talked about over and over and over again. There are still APIs and a bunch of other things in Windows allowing users to run the crappy console programs they bought back in 1992. The system is not closed in any way.

The only thing in this regard, changed in comparison to Windows 7, is the addition of Windows Store for WinRT applications. Previously developers had to hope that the users would somehow randomly enter their websites to buy their software packages. Now they can make their software packages directly available to all Windows 8 users. The old and crappy APIs are still here, outdated 'Win16' stuff is still here, the full Win32 is still here, .NET, Silverlight, Flash, and a billions of other frameworks are still here and working perfectly.

TL;DR: Stop reading crap that devs like Valve say, because they WANT the system to fail, in order to keep their dominance in the market. The Store will certainly drive a percentage of their users away from Steam, and that is why they are bashing Windows 8 so much. Absolutely no other technical limitation or whatever.
You can do that? Cool then, clean install is the way to go anyways.
I think the slowdown is there because of Windows Defender. I get this a lot when I open a folder with a few dozen installers for games / applications. Sometimes, depending on the installers, Explorer could crawl for a minute or two (I've noticed that MSI installers don't cause a slowdown compared to EXE installers, so I've been avoiding the second ones whenever possible).

Upgrade means it will replace the current install of windows. In my experiences with Windows upgrades, it has ALWAYS overwritten the existing OS.

There is a possible workaround for the upgrade issue though... If you have multiple partitians, and 2 separate installs of the OS, then you can upgrade one, while leaving the other partition with the OS.

Unfortunately, there is a problem with your situation. You have a 32 bit version of windows. Here's an excerpt from Microsoft's upgrade FAQs:

"Can I upgrade from a 32-bit version of Windows to a 64-bit version of Windows 8?


Yes, but you can't do this using Upgrade Assistant. If your PC has a 64-bit capable processor (CPU) but is currently running a 32-bit version of Windows, you can install a 64-bit version of Windows 8, but you'll need to buy Windows 8 as a DVD.

You also won't be able to keep any files, settings, or apps when you upgrade from a 32-bit to a 64-bit version."

quoted from:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/upgrade-to-windows-8

If what they say is true, then unfortunately, the upgrade won't work for you :( Sorry.

I don't necessarily disagree with what you're saying, but I have a problem with the part in bold. Companies like Valve are already a well established platform for developers to sell their software on, at least with gaming. In fact, game publishers really have had no trouble selling their software at all. They haven't for a decade. Since this is a gaming website, that's what I'm focusing on here. If you're wanting to talk about new, low level developers selling stuff, then sure, the Windows store is fine for that. But it's definitely, 100% wihout a doubt, unnecessary for current video game developers. The Windows store will provide almost no benefit to them, and in some cases could hurt them if the 30% cut in revenue wasn't made up for in increase sales, which will not be the case on Windows 8. The gaming market isn't going to increase by 30% because of the Windows app store. It's just not going to happen.

Edit: I should also add that I don't mind the thought of using an app store. I do use Steam after all. But the beauty of it is that I'm not forced to use Steam, and that's what worries me about Windows 8. I feel like this is a step in the direction of Microsoft locking down the computer platform by forcing users and developers into the App store the same way Apple does with it's App store. That's one of my major concerns with 8. I avoid Apple products for a reason, so if Microsoft starts emulating Apple, I don't really see why I'd want to be a Microsoft customer anymore, either.

It may be still be possible to do what he wants with the Windows 8 iso. Microsoft wasn't quick to acknowledge some of the ways you could do fresh installs from an upgrade iso. It's possible that they fixed those situations with 8 so that you would in fact have to have the actual retail DVD, but remember they said the same thing about Windows 7 intially and there ended up being ways around it.

Yep, I did that for an earlier setup a couple of years ago. Which also included hex-editing the partition table with Ranish Partition Manager. Fun times. :)

Usually, if an installation is technically feasible, I can make it work eventually. Determining the feasibility was the problem in this case, since most of Microsoft's documentation completely ignores multiboot solutions. Microsoft seems to assume that all users want to ditch their old OS and are only concerned about keeping their files. Whereas I want to keep my old OS, and then manually tweak both OSs to access my personal files in the same folder, which is on a separate partition.

Thanks, that was the info I was looking for. Also, extra thanks for linking the source of the info, much appreciated. :)

I'll wait a bit if someone discovers a workaround - if not, then we'll just buy another Win7 when it drops off the market, should be cheap then. And we prefer Win7's interface anyway, so no big loss. :)


Might be, but the Windows 8 DVD isn't available in the 30€ offer (or is it?), and the low price is the only reason why we consider buying Win8 over buying another Win7 license. :)

My rig is pretty good (see screen) and Windows 8 definitely has a more noticeable response time. I have a couple of folders with lots of files and it's pretty quick to load.

Yeah, I mistyped - I meant to say the iso file that you download. I was able using the windows 7 upgrade ISO from the Microsoft website to do a clean install from 32 bit to 64 bit, so that may still be the case for Windows 8, I have no idea.

Ah, good to know. Well, the offer is still open for several weeks, and we're not in a hurry. I'll keep my eyes and ears open in case a workaround for my specific scenario pops up somewhere. :)

thats all i ask! the day i can't play fallout or baldurs gate any more is a sad day of defeat in my book. thats all i'm saying.

It's highly probable that it will happen eventually, but the likelihood of you caring about games anymore at that point is pretty slim, heh.

Amazon USA was offering the Win8 Pro Upgrade retail package for $69.99 with a delayed $30 credit a week or two ago. I jumped on that because I too have a 32bit XP system I want to upgrade to Win 8 Pro 64. Perhaps your region has a similar offer?

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-3UR-00001-Windows-8-Pro/dp/B008H3SW4I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1351633644&sr=8-1&keywords=win+8+pro+upgrade

*checks page
Hmm... looks like they've lowered the credit to $15. It may still be worthwhile.