Thread: BAD NEWS.Windows 8 is only being sold as an upgrade install.

Well I bought my Windows 8 pro upgrade installation DVD from PC World on of the big computer stores in England,where I live. And I only bought it yesterday,Saturday,so no,I have not got round to installing it yet. But my plan is to install it on one of my windows 7 netbooks.I have got several Netbooks with Windows 7 installed.

The upgrade version of Windows 8 cost £49 which is cheaper than what a full installation DVD of windows 8 would have been.If they made one,which they don't.But I would have bought a full install version of Windows 8 if I could have. But of course you can't because there is no full install version of Windows 8.

And I have been using Windows 8 from the beginning since Windows 8 DP. So now I want to see it through to the end by installing Windows 8 Pro which is the permanent version of Windows 8.

But because there is no full installation version of Windows 8 it will have to be an upgrade install. There is no other option,if you want to install Windows 8. But from what I have read on the web you can install Windows 8 from any version of Windows XP,Windows Vista and Windows 7. And you can also format the hard drive during the installation.

And I am going to try to install Windows 8 from Windows 7 this evening or tomorrow. And I will let you know how that goes. But the upgrade install should work from Windows 7. You could either first uninstall Windows 8 RP and then reinstall windows 7 or the previous version of Windows that was on your computer. Then install the upgrade version. Or do the upgrade install from one of your other computers that has any version of Windows XP,Windows Vista or Windows 7 already on there.
Andrea Borman.

Wow! Well OK then...... good luck.

Originally Posted by Trouble

Wow! Well OK then...... good luck.

As of 10-27-12,every thing is fully operational,no complaints yet(he he)

From my upgrade disc I did a completely clean install of windows 8 pro. So you don't even need a qualifying product on the system to install.

Multiple sources have reported that there is no validation of previous version of Windows on the upgrade disk. Typically you would see an upgrade have this verification service so that you can only install when a prior version is legally owned. However, this is not true of Windows 8; YOU CAN DO A FULL INSTALL FROM THE UPDATE DISK.

Try this, wipe one... delete the partition so there is no history of the prior OS then just stick your disk in and try to install it. See for yourself if that works. Sincerely, I promise you it will work without any problems.

Yes, on an empty, formatted drive, you simply select the "Don't keep anything" option. The Upgrade is, indeed, the complete Windows 8 SKU.

And, correct, w/ Windows 8 there is no such things as OEM, as there was in the past. May sound like semantics but, what we thought of as OEM versions before, w/ Windows 8 it is the System Builder version. And is what is for people like myself who custom build new computers.

And while I'm at it, by the way, the Win8 Upgrade can be used to go from the RP & Keep Data; this is the 1st time we could go from a beta OS to Final. This is especially ideal & nice for people who (wrongly) wiped out their existing non-beta/current OS & replaced it w/ a beta OS, namely Win8 RP.

Cheers,
Drew

To install Windows 8 Pro upgrade, customers must be running Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista, or Windows 7

Considering the quote, it would appear, that you need to be running one of the qualifying OSes. But for the Windows 7 release, it stated you had to have a previous OS installed and activated...

I have not yet purchased any Windows 8 product since I was looking for, but have not found a full retail version, except for the OEM.

Considering some of the changes that occurred when Windows 7 came out, if you have not forgotten, Microsoft can change what they will allow at any time. It appears, because of the price, they are trying to get Windows 8 on as many systems as possible, so they may be forgiving certain things, like a prior OS, to get folks to install this one.

If they are forgiving certain requirements, that might continue for a while, possibly the end of January, but no way to know. The fact they are not selling a full retail version means something. I suppose there will not be any version of Windows 8 beside the Pro version..so no bitlocker or language packs -- ever?

Edit: Looks like Bitlocker may be in the pro versions, and I suppose language packs would be an additional item as the Media Center is. I also found this statement. So if you have a prior OS activated, maybe they are just reading your computer to see if it has a prior license. Maybe we need to hear from someone with a new system and whether the upgrade will install on that system.

you can install the upgrade only on PCs that have a valid base license

1. Win8 Pro does have Bit-locker
2. The Upgrade can not only go from XP, Vista & 7 but, also, from the RP
3. It IS possible to do clean installs to blank drives w/ the Upgrade.
4. The (what was called) OEM is System Builder version.


I can research Lang Packs for you, if you'd like; I just don't recall the details about them right off the top of my head, right now.

Cheers,
Drew