Product Description
Microsoft Windows 8 Pro (Upgrade)Product Details
- Brand: Microsoft
- Model: 3UR-00001
- Released on: 2012-10-26
- ESRB Rating: Everyone
- Platform: Windows 8
- Format: DVD-ROM
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 5.75" h x 5.79" w x .79" l, .20 pounds
Features
- Running Windows 7, Windows XP or Windows Vista? Upgrade to Windows 8 with Windows 8 Pro
- Once you install Windows 8, Windows 8.1 is available as a free update directly from Microsoft
- Customize your Start screen with Live Tiles
- Stay safer with Windows Defender
- Encrypt your data with Bitlocker
Editorial Reviews
If you currently have a personal computer running Windows 7, Windows XP or Windows Vista then you can upgrade to Windows 8 Pro (Professional). With Windows 8 Pro, you can connect and share your files. Windows 8 Pro also adds enhanced features if you need to connect to company networks, access remote files, encrypt sensitive data, and other more advanced tasks.
The new Windows 8 start screen is your personalized home for items you use the most and can be customized according to your user preferences. Windows 8 Live tiles provide real-time updates from your Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail accounts. Along with the new Start screen, the lock screen now includes e-mail, calendar, and clock widgets.
To access your PC, Microsoft has replaced a standard PIN or password with a swipe gesture; unlock your PC by clicking or swiping preset locations you’ve selected on the lock screen. New functions also allow you to search for your favorite software programs, open, close, hide, resize, or run multiple apps simultaneously with the swipe of a finger or a swipe of the mouse.
Windows has also made changes to make your PC more secure by boosting its existing security features and adding "SmartScreen," which acts to prevent suspicious programs or apps from being installed or running on your machine. Finally, Windows 8 also gives you the ability to "refresh" itself to give users a new starting point and a cleaner version of Windows.
You can upgrade to Windows 8 from Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 8 Release Preview, Windows 8 Consumer Preview, or Windows Developer Preview, but you might not be able to keep all of your files, software programs, and settings. The following table shows what you can keep during an upgrade, depending on the current version of Windows you are running. If you choose to boot from removable media, you won’t be able to keep your software programs, Windows settings, or personal files when you upgrade.
The new Windows 8 start screen is your personalized home for items you use the most and can be customized according to your user preferences. Windows 8 Live tiles provide real-time updates from your Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail accounts. Along with the new Start screen, the lock screen now includes e-mail, calendar, and clock widgets.
To access your PC, Microsoft has replaced a standard PIN or password with a swipe gesture; unlock your PC by clicking or swiping preset locations you’ve selected on the lock screen. New functions also allow you to search for your favorite software programs, open, close, hide, resize, or run multiple apps simultaneously with the swipe of a finger or a swipe of the mouse.
Windows has also made changes to make your PC more secure by boosting its existing security features and adding "SmartScreen," which acts to prevent suspicious programs or apps from being installed or running on your machine. Finally, Windows 8 also gives you the ability to "refresh" itself to give users a new starting point and a cleaner version of Windows.
You can upgrade to Windows 8 from Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 8 Release Preview, Windows 8 Consumer Preview, or Windows Developer Preview, but you might not be able to keep all of your files, software programs, and settings. The following table shows what you can keep during an upgrade, depending on the current version of Windows you are running. If you choose to boot from removable media, you won’t be able to keep your software programs, Windows settings, or personal files when you upgrade.
| Upgrading from: | What you can keep: |
|---|---|
| Windows 8 Preview | Personal files |
| Windows 8 Developer Preview | Nothing, but your old files will be saved in the "windows.old" folder |
| Windows 7 | Software programs; Windows settings; personal files |
| Windows Vista | Windows settings; personal files |
| Windows XP | Personal files |
System Requirements
- 1 GHz processor
- 2 GB RAM
- 20 GB available hard disk space
- 1366 × 768 screen resolution
- DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM driver
Additional Requirements to Use Certain Features
- Internet access (fees may apply)
- For touchscreen, you need a tablet or a monitor that supports multi-touch
- Microsoft account required for some features
- Watching DVDs requires separate playback software
- Windows Media Center license sold separately
- To access the Windows Store and to download and run apps, you need an active Internet connection and a screen resolution of at least 1024 x 768
- To snap apps, you need a screen resolution of at least 1366 x 768
FAQ
If you want to upgrade from an earlier Windows operating system than Windows XP (for example, Windows 95 or Windows 2000), you'll need to purchase the Windows 8 System Builder. You won’t be able to keep any files, settings, or software programs when you install the new operating system.
Can I upgrade from a 32-bit version of Windows to a 64-bit version of Windows 8?
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. You also won't be able to keep any files, settings, or software programs when you upgrade from a 32-bit to a 64-bit version.
If I upgrade and select "keep nothing," how can I restore my files after the upgrade?
If you're running Windows Developer Preview or Windows 8 Consumer Preview when you upgrade, or if you choose the option to "keep nothing" when you upgrade, your files won't come with you to Windows 8. However, you might still be able to copy your files over after you upgrade. If you don't reformat your hard drive during installation, your files are saved to the Windows.old folder, where you can retrieve them after the upgrade.
If I change my mind, can I uninstall Windows 8 and go back to a previous version of Windows?
Not exactly - To go back to your previous version of Windows, you'll need to format your hard drive and then reinstall the previous version of Windows from the recovery or installation media that came with your PC. Typically, this is on a DVD. If you don’t have recovery media, you might be able to create it from a recovery partition on your PC using software provided by your PC manufacturer. Check the support section of your PC manufacturer’s website for more info. After you install Windows 8, you won’t be able to use the recovery partition on your PC to go back to your previous version of Windows.
How can I tell if my devices (keyboards, mice, webcams) will work with Windows 8?
Windows 8 generally works with the same peripheral devices and apps that work with Windows 7. In some cases, a device or program might require an update. The best way to tell if your devices will work before you upgrade is to run Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant, a free program that scans your current hardware, software programs, and devices for compatibility.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews106 of 114 people found the following review helpful.
Cheaper than buying the non-upgrade version.By AnthrSolidSnake
I've had my issues with Windows 8 when it first came out, but to be honest, I've gotten over a lot of them. I don't like the fact that the typical start menu has been taken away, and I'm not a fan of the tile menu, but overall I've actually noticed I have to go through far less clicking to get to what I want. Once you figure out exactly how to use Windows 8, you'll be flying through all the menus at almost half the time you would on Windows 7 or XP.
As long as you can read, you'll notice that this is an upgrade, not a bootable install. In order to install Windows 8 with this upgrade, you must at least have Windows Xp, Vista, or 7. It doesn't matter if it is 32-bit or 64-bit (unless you want 64-bit and you currently have 32-bit, but I'll get to that in a moment.)
Upgrading is easy. Just have any of Windows XP-7 preinstalled on your PC, insert the disc, and the install goes from there. This upgrade comes with both a Windows 8 32-bit disc, and a Windows 8 64-bit disc. This DOES matter. If you currently have Windows XP 32-bit installed for example, you can only install the Windows 8 32-bit. But if you have Windows XP 64-bit, you can install either of the two (64-bit allows for better performance and unlocks the ability to install more than 4GB of RAM). It's easy, and you don't need to be too technically savvy.
Now I did have an odd thing happen when installing. My mind slipped, and I didn't check if I had 32-bit or 64-bit before hand. I wanted Windows 8 64-bit installed, but I had Windows XP 32-bit, so I couldn't. Now, this is an UPGRADE version of Windows 8, and isn't supposed to be able to install without a pre-existing version of Windows being installed. Apparantly, I got around this somehow. I wanted 64-bit, but had 32-bit, so I installed Windows 8 32-bit. After, I rebooted my PC, placed the Windows 8 64-bit install disc instead, and then booted from the disc, and it let me reformat the partition in my hard drive, and install Windows 8 64-bit from scratch. I don't know if this was a glitch or a fluke, but from what I know, Windows Upgrade discs aren't supposed to allow you to install from scratch. If you want to spend a little less on Windows 8, but only have a 32-bit on your current system, then you can try and take your chances on installing the 64-bit version anyway with my method above, but I do not suggest, and cannot guarantee it will work the same way.
Overall however, I'm happy with this product (aside that it took forever to deliver since it apparently ships from Hong Kong.) Windows 7 still has slightly better gaming performance, but Windows 8 certainly does a nice job.
EDIT: After spending a bit more time with the OS, I like it. A lot in fact. Ignore people saying "You can't do things on 8 that you can do on 7." That's an outright lie. What DID change however, is the way you can do these things. Just google it and you'll be fine. It does take some new knowledge.
Another thing I've seen, is that it is completely possible to load Windows 8 without any previous operating system. Just boot from the disc. I did this on another computer I built with this exact upgrade, and it installed no problem. It's pretty much just Windows 8.
570 of 660 people found the following review helpful.
Will the GUI Stick With You?By Winter
BEFORE YOU UPGRADE: stop by the Microsoft website and run the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant (link in the comments). This program will comb through your system and offer you detailed analysis of what will and won't upgrade. It offers links to articles that explain in detail what you may need to do, and it can save you a lot of headaches. For example, I have a laptop with no USB drivers--yet! I now have a link to the manufacturer's website that I've bookmarked and when drivers become available I'll upgrade that machine too.
Windows 7 has been a well-received OS, so the case for upgrading to Windows 8 has been difficult for Microsoft to make. While the look and feel of Windows 8 is strikingly different, for the most part it boils down to one huge change: the Start Menu that we have had since Windows 95 is no longer a menu. Icons are now displayed as tiles of varying widths in a full-screen splash. Some of this makes sense in that some of today's programs are more like the Windows Desktop Gadgets we've seen in Vista and 7: rather than needing to be launched, they idly stream information to you, and need a bit more room to be easy to read than the older Start Menu could have allowed for. If you've used Windows Media Center, Office 2010, or an XBox 360, you've already been interacting with similar interfaces. This sort of UI has been slowly making its way into Microsoft's products for a while now.
UPDATE: Amzn customer Robert Haines says that there is a program called "Classic UI" that would restore the old look, so if you're dead-set on new code that skips the new UI, you might want to try that. There is also a program called "Pokki Menu" that will let you make your own customizations and last, Stardock makes a (paid) program called "Start8" that will also roll back the Start screen.
The Windows 8 desktop looks exactly like it did in Windows 7 and Vista, except there's no Start Button: you're expected to press the Windows key or move your mouse to the bottom corner of the screen to launch the tile dashboard. The desktop has the tray of running programs you're used to in earlier versions, shows you wallpaper, and offers access to the Windows Explorer for looking through the files on your hard drive. All programs can be launched directly off the tile screen, and while Windows 8 apps always run in full-screen, older programs run from within the Desktop and can be resized. We have a version of Internet Explorer accessible from the desktop that looks just like IE 9 did in Windows 7, then we have a version of Internet Explorer in the tile screen that looks entirely different. Some parts of the Control Panel have the tile look and feel and the options cascade left-to-right like the Home screen in any MS Office 2010 or 2013 product. Other parts of the Control Panel look exactly like they did in Windows 7 and before. Unfortunately, I haven't found a good pattern for this yet: you may flip from one side to the other in order to do something like troubleshoot a network problem.
Performance-wise, Windows had been slowly moving away from always-running programs that drain performance to background services that would launch programs as needed...but this too started to get unwieldy. Microsoft have stripped several services out of Windows 8 which by default makes the OS more efficient than 7. Any machine that could run 7 can also run 8. Programs that used to run, shut down, then have to be fully re-launched to run again are instead put in a standby mode so they can launch faster when called again. The Windows Vista and 7 "Aero effects" that gave your windows a glassy sheen and rounded corners used graphics and CPU to run, so they've been stripped out of the tile UI in favor of simple color schemes and blocky edges (though you can still see a subdued glassy effect on the Desktop). Interaction with Windows in this new look and feel is easier if you have a touchscreen or you're using a tablet, and if you're a Windows Phone user the territory is already pretty familiar. The downside for mouse users is that you occasionally spend time hunting along the edges of the screen for scrollbars and dragging screens around to be able to interact with everything. My chief complaint with Windows 8 hasn't been with the Tile layout so much as the fact that the scroll bars are too skinny.
For some features, time will tell. I've found the Tile UI version of the browser to be less compatible and more cranky with websites, but I expect that to change given time. I like the fact that security/antivirus are rolled into the OS without me having to take care of them or be interrupted with update notifications. The OS runs Windows Updates on a schedule that's far less aggressive than previous versions and won't nag you about rebooting when it needs to. I've been told that the performance for gaming is supposed to be greater simply by virtue of a cleaner codebase, but I haven't seen anything substantially different on the PC apart from faster boot-up and shut-down times (I did benchmark my machine with 3DMark11 and, after some adjusting, noticed a higher score). The basic applications like Weather, Photos, Stocks, Mail, and more are very user-friendly, but solely within the context of the new look & feel: expect little familar ground and a lot of new territory, and the assumption that you should be using a touchscreen. If you have a Windows Live account and/or SkyDrive, these can integrate fully into the OS: so much so that you would sign in to the computer with your Windows Live/Hotmail account and everything you do would be synced to Microsoft's cloud if your account has SkyDrive.
Windows 8 requires you to purchase a license for Windows Media Center separately; you still have Windows Media Player, but the Center is a separate application now, available for sale in the Microsoft Store.
UPDATE, 11/2013: Microsoft has now released Windows 8.1, an update to the OS that mostly attempts to make the user experience better. If you purchase this copy of Windows 8, you will be offered the ability to update it to 8.1 at no additional cost. The upgrade is pushed through the Windows Store that is part of Windows 8. Personally, I've done clean installs of 8.1 from the MSDN media and done an in-place upgrade via the store, on both my desktop and laptop, and have not had good experiences. I don't personally recommend the update at this time for that reason. Sooo....if you go the Windows 8.1 route, there is then a Windows 8.1 "Update for Windows 8.1" that you should probably pull down that puts one more round of fixes into the OS. Reviews so far have been positive--minor adjustments like putting the power button where it's easy to find and making interacting with the Tile UI have been needed...but surprisingly it also lowered the OS' system requirements to where it can run on as little as 1GB of RAM.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
Not for productivity or business, the purpose of this product is to forcibly train you to use a Windows phoneBy Lee Cascio
This is the worst OS Microsoft has ever produced by a long shot. It is unbelievable that they think it is ok for this to be rolled out into a business where it would certainly kill productivity for a week or more.
So much that was second nature is gone:
1) Right-click? doesn't do anything anymore.
2) File, edit, ... menu? non existent, it's up to you to figure out the magical keystrokes to do all that stuff now
3) Little X in the upper corner to click and close the app? no such ease, you are expected figure out the puzzle of how to close apps on your own with absolutely no context or conveyance from the OS to guide you
4) Multitasking and multiple windows open at once? That's history, Microsoft believes you are better off only able to see one full screen app at a time no matter how large or how many monitors you have
5) Start menu where it at most 3 mouse-clicks to launch any app on your computer? Gone. Now you have to scroll through a messy clutter of disorganized tiles to find what you want. And it if it isn't there, then you have to memorize specific search terms to type into the magical "charms bar" and perform a search (brings back memories of memorizing DOS commands!)
6) Don't have a touch screen? Tough, your OS is optimized for a touch screen experience now.
The point of this product has nothing to do with productivity or efficiency. The point of this product is to forcibly train us all to be happy Windows phone users. MS threw productivity under the bus in a feeble attempt to sell more gadgets.
Unless you really like the "Metro" concept and have a week or two on your hands to learn a new OS from the ground up, avoid this like the plague.
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