Coming up to deadline day, or rather the imaginary pre-deadline deadline before the servers start melting when it gets too close to the actual deadline. I was wondering, are there any rules on how long you have to install W8 and activate a licence after you buy it? What I'm basically saying, is there anything to stop you from cheekily stocking up on a few at £25 and using them at a later date?
Actually it's a little of my fault, I original post (I changed it already) was a bit too aggressive, as I miss interpreted the tone of boiled_elephant original post. boiled_elephant PMed me, and I have adjusted the post. So I guess, he had the impression that your post was also very aggressive. @boiled_elephant, Sorry. But we love you! We are just a bit too passionate about this topic Lucky it's not a sports forum.
took the plunge and i have to say i like it so far now ive moved everything around. Only issue i have so far apart from having to make my own shutdown and restart buttons! is IE10 integrates wonderfully in Start but no other browsers do. Hey lets us IE10 you might think well it doesnt support plugins so my last pass and adblocker dont work. Only way around it to create more shortcuts and copy them to the start menu directory
newer versions of chromer have a 'windows 8'/metro mode which lets you pin bookmars to the start screen, iirc chrome has to be the default browser for it to work also unlike IE it's the same profile info in both modes and add-ons work in both
Price will likely drop once windows blue is released later this year ( with surface 2 ) unless your pcs are running windows xp not even sure id be stocking up on this at the moment.
Anyone know if there's any way of buying a £25 upgrade licence without doing it through Upgrade Assistant on a PC not running W8 but that meets W8's minimum specs? I have a Windows 7 machine to hand but it only has 1GB of ram and won't let me get past the system check.
Ah yes, to prevent Vista problem. Your computer doesn't meet Windows 8 minimum requirement. You need 2GB of RAM for Windows 8 64-bit. In fact your computer doesn't even meet Windows 7 minimum requirement which also states 2GB of RAM for Windows 7 64-bit. Either get more RAM, or buy the disk version in store, or find a friend with Windows XP, Vista or 7 64-bit (if it's not 64-bit, it will get the 32-bit, as it can't make a 64-bit bootable disk or USB drive, as the OS is 32-bit). There is no other way to do it, to my knowledge :/
Minimum requirements are for pussies I actually just need a system to buy a licence for a another system I don't have access to yet. I already have the 32 and 64bit ISOs and bootable USB drives from other purchases. I guess I'll just have to find a bit more RAM just in order to buy the licence. Seems a bit silly, but I guess I'm not doing what MS had in mind so it's okay if if have to jump through a few hoops. For what it's worth, W7 32bit runs fine on 1GB if you're a bit frugal with your multitasking, so looking at how they compare memory usage wise I imagine W8 would to.
Yea, you fall into some special condition. I don't think anyone here would have thought of your special case (assuming your goal is to do that system). Windows 7 and 8 32-bit version minimum requirement is 1GB, hence why it runs fine
Can I upgrade Vista OEM? I've read loads about W8 licensing, but I’m still confused. I hope someone can clarify (otherwise I’ll have to ask Microsoft). I’m currently running Vista Home Prem 64 OEM on an HDD, and (TRIM-less) Vista has thus far stopped me upgrading my boot disk to an SSD on this machine. I would like to upgrade to W8 on an SSD, but I don’t want the W8 licence to be locked to the mobo (Core2Quad vintage). Option A: Can I take this £25 offer, or will the licence still be locked to the mobo? Or Option B: do I need to buy this systems builder’s OEM W8 license to decouple it from the mobo lock? W8 OEM at Amazon (I recall reading that the W8 OEM (system builder license) is no longer locked to the mobo, unlike W7 and Vista OEM) Clearly, I prefer option A as option B is £90 more expensive :-o and the £90 will come in handy with my long overdue GPU upgrade.
Windows 8 Upgrade follows the RETAIL license, so it will not be locked to the system. You can do a clean install with Windows 8 Upgrade. This is what you do: 1- Download the Upgrade Assistance to get the promotion. The software will scans your system to see if its Windows 8 ready, make sure that your current version of Windows is activated, and will tell inform you of non-compatible Windows 8 programs. 2- Once you pass through that, it will ask you for your credit card info to purchase Windows 8 Upgrade at £25. 3- Once you complete the form it will process it, and download Windows 8 (if you have a 32-bit OS, you'll get Windows 8 32-bit, if you have 64-bit OS, you'll get Windows 8 64-bit), and ask you if you want to prepare a USB flash drive OR Disk. 4- Once it's done, it will start the setup. At this point you can cancel it, and boot from the disk or USB flash drive when you want to install Windows 8, or you can install it that this moment. (The above is not exactly the steps, I am just going by memory, but its to get your the idea of the process). At worst, let say you do this, then you upgrade your computer and need to install Windows 8 -> Once Windows 8 is installed, Windows 8 activation will fail, and do a phone activation and your good to go. Takes 2min at most. That is correct. Here is how it goes: Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro System Builder license is lock to your motherboard if you are selling the computer to someone, but for personal use it is not. (My guess is that you'll need to do a phone activation, the second time if you change motherboard, but you are legit).
And you need to be registered on this page : http://personaluselicense.windows.com/en-US/default.aspx My guess is that they validate against this registraion when activation fails.
Just took advantage of this offer again and bought a copy for my HTPC, however I don't plan on installing it yet, is there a time scale of which it has to be installed and activated ? As i know with the free media center pack upgrade it has to be activated by the 31st of Jan :/
If you purchase the copy of Windows 8, and have the product key in hand, I see no reason it wont' activate after. I think you are right on this.
Another one done for my laptop, I had to get onto customer support to get a media center key though as the website really doesn't like me just gives me the " cannot process your order error ". So that's 4 windows 8 keys I have now, too cheap not to tbh.
Just popped Win 8 in the bank here as well. Not with the upgrade, just with the license - had a 7 Pro OEM license to cash in so can't argue with £15. No compelling reasons for me to upgrade right now, I dabbled with the RTM enough to know that, but better £15 now than £120 in 12 months.
