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Microsoft brings back full retail versions for Windows 8.1

Arthur

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Arthur

Arthur

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Great news if you're are building your own PC or need a copy of Windows for a VM.

 

Sources: Microsoft (via Ars Technica)

 

Microsoft has announced the pricing and packaging for Windows 8.1. Retail packages of Windows 8.1 will have a retail price of $119.99, and Windows 8.1 Pro will be $199.99. The Pro Pack, to convert 8.1 to 8.1 Pro, will be $99.99. Media Center will also remain available to Pro users for $9.99. As disclosed in May, upgrading from 8.0 to 8.1 will be no-cost.

 

These packages will be full, supported, retail copies, suitable for installation on systems without an operating system at all, as well as for use within virtual machines.

 

Windows 8 scrapped full Windows versions, with retail packages being only upgrades. Microsoft's rationale for this was that since almost every PC ships with Windows already, and is hence eligible for an upgrade, the demand for full non-upgrade versions was negligible. The closest thing to a full version was the System Builder package, designed primarily for small system builders to pre-install on systems that they then sold to third parties.

 

This scheme was awkward for those seeking to virtualize the operating system and those building their own PCs. The readily available retail upgrades weren't suitable for these roles, as they required a previous operating system in order to qualify for the upgrade. The System Builder edition was suitable, thanks to a new Personal Use provision, but the System Builder edition was harder to find. Microsoft says that the reinstatement of the retail package should make these scenarios much easier.

 

These boxed copies won't, however, be ideal for upgraders. Although Windows 8 can be installed as an upgrade to Windows 7 (preserving most settings and applications in the process), Windows 8.1 cannot. So if you stuck with Windows 7 because you felt that Windows 8 was too unpolished, but think that Windows 8.1's changes make it viable, you'll probably be better off tracking down a copy of Windows 8 and buying that, rather than 8.1, and then upgrading for free to 8.1.

 

http://i.imgur.com/rRHAhqS.png

SYNACK

SYNACK

Posted
Posted (edited)
Let's add more stupid edge cases and loopholes, users love those. Just sell the software, praise the great spaghetti monster on the sky that Ballmer is gone and hopefully this kind of Apple following nonsense will be purged. I was just ragging of OSX because it could not upgrade two versions without a nasty back where as Windows could go about five. What does Balmer's idiot brigade choose to copy, the dumb restrictions rather than anything useful to any end user anywhere. Edited by SYNACK
Arthur

Arthur

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Let's add more stupid edge cases and loopholes, users love those.

Most users will buy a PC with Windows pre-installed, so it won't affect them.

 

hopefully this kind of Apple following nonsense will be purged.

Microsoft need to copy more of Apple's great ideas. e.g.

 

  • Make Windows a digital-only download and lower the price to £13.99.
  • Sell one edition of Windows to consumers, not two.
  • Force OEMs to include a BIOS-level 'Internet Recovery' feature that allows users to re-install Windows (and relevant drivers) from scratch without any bloatware.

SYNACK

SYNACK

Posted
Posted
Most users will buy a PC with Windows pre-installed, so it won't affect them.

 

 

Microsoft need to copy more of Apple's great ideas. e.g.

 

  • Make Windows a digital-only download and lower the price to £13.99.
  • Sell one edition of Windows to consumers, not two.
  • Force OEMs to include a BIOS-level 'Internet Recovery' feature that allows users to re-install Windows (and relevant drivers) from scratch without any bloatware.

 

I did follow up with 'rather than anything useful to any end user anywhere.' which all of the above stuff counts as :)

sted

sted

Posted
Posted
Most users will buy a PC with Windows pre-installed, so it won't affect them.

 

 

Microsoft need to copy more of Apple's great ideas. e.g.

 

  • Make Windows a digital-only download and lower the price to £13.99.
  • Sell one edition of Windows to consumers, not two.
  • Force OEMs to include a BIOS-level 'Internet Recovery' feature that allows users to re-install Windows (and relevant drivers) from scratch without any bloatware.

 

you can buy an intenet download version now thats how i got windows 8

Apple can do updates cheap as they rob you blind on the hardware the same spec pc will probably cost half as much and its all goping to them not dell/lenovo etc so they already have a much larger chunk of your cash and they also stop software working because osx is 2 years out of date (had to download 10.8 as apple configurator wouldnt work on 10.6)

 

as to restore from internet as a last ditch effort yes but if i did that at home it would take probably about 10 hours to install my os (assuming windows is approx 4gb) so thats just not viable. Whats wrong with install from media being the default? As an example its hardly impossible to imagine a scenario where some dns record gets altered maliciously and your download installed os comes preinstalled with all sorts of very low level crapware

zag

zag

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Posted

$199!!! WTF

 

I just got my latest Apple iOS 7 upgrade for the fantastic price of.....

 

£0

 

Good luck with Windows 9 Microsoft, you are going to have to do something special to get users back.

sted

sted

Posted
Posted
$199!!! WTF

 

I just got my latest Apple iOS 7 upgrade for the fantastic price of.....

 

£0

 

Good luck with Windows 9 Microsoft, you are going to have to do something special to get users back.

 

comparing an upgrade of ios7 a phone os to a full retail boxed ive never owned windows before version of a computer os is silly. Besides if you have an iphone 3 isnt the upgrade £700?

pcstru

pcstru

Posted
Posted
$199!!! WTF

I just got my latest Apple iOS 7 upgrade for the fantastic price of.....

£0

I didn't realise they were giving apple devices away these days...

Sheridan

Sheridan

Posted
Posted

Surely if MS priced Windows 8 (or whatever next) better then it would perhaps encourage more genuine takeup - if W8 for a home PC was only about £40 then I might buy it- otherwise its Linux.

 

Typical of most software companies now though - invest huge amounts of time and money on draconian licensing methods, instead of taking a step back and considering why people are so keen to get a hooky copy!

sted

sted

Posted
Posted
Surely if MS priced Windows 8 (or whatever next) better then it would perhaps encourage more genuine takeup - if W8 for a home PC was only about £40 then I might buy it- otherwise its Linux.

 

Typical of most software companies now though - invest huge amounts of time and money on draconian licensing methods, instead of taking a step back and considering why people are so keen to get a hooky copy!

 

fair point and its not like its hard to find a dodgy key/kms server on the internet 30 mins on google tops

pcstru

pcstru

Posted
Posted
I find it strange how many people think nothing of paying £40 for a game which they play for a few weeks, but a retail copy of windows, which might last them 5+ years and which is maintained for many years more (unlike many games) they complain so bitterly at. And of course, no complaints either at spending many hundreds on the hardware - but I guess you can't pirate that.
Arthur

Arthur

Posted
  • Author
Posted
It's a complete rip off to pay for a platform just to allow me to run other apps!

Most people don't pay for Windows. They buy a new PC with the latest version pre-installed. For these people, it's effectively free (gratis).

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