News Microsoft officially retires Windows 8

That had better be a typo, or I will be set to rage.

 

8 is dead, long live 7

 

+1

 

Is it possible to do a clean installation of Windows 8.1 (Update 1) with your original Windows 8 key these days? It used to be that you had to install Windows 8 first and then update to 8.1, at least officially.

Not that I really care, for that matter. Windows 7 is still going strong on my pc and has no intentions of going anywhere.

 

Hah, still on 7 at home and work!

 

It seems like only yesterday that I saw Windows 8 pop up on systems at local PC stores and I was all like 'nope' while admiring my pretty Windows 7 setup.

I'm fine until at least 2020

Windows 7: the new Windows XP

 

Unless they changed it very recently you have to install 8 first then 8.1 upgrade. It's really f'in annoying as I have an 8 key only.

The fact they already killed 8 and suddenly class 8.1 as a 'service pack' tells me they're rolling out 10 as fast as possible with the intention of SaaS setup for OS like Office 365. It will certainly happen for business' - volume licensing will end as MS wants more control and repeat revenue, with the 'sell' that it'll be for security and reliability.

 

Well, there's always the method of skipping entering the product key while installing Windows 8.1. Once installed, Windows 8.1 should happily accept a valid Windows 8 key. I just hoped these kinds of shenanigans were no longer necessary.

 

i always used windows 8.1 USB install on laptops, if its an OEM system with the key burnt into the bios you can go straight to windows 8.1 (even if the system is windows 8 OEM system)

 

And I'd be on 7, if it had native nvme support; but doing a clean install of win 7 on my nvme drive sounded painful, so my new build is on 10 (clean install with a win 7 key)
But I'd rather be on 7

 

Did not know - thanks!