wharvey

I just got an email on Windows 8.

Newegg has it for $69.99 and then you get a $40 gift card via gift card. Final price $29.99.

SkeptiCallie

Cute.

I had Googled . . . and Googled . . . but did not use the term "hotkeys." That term is used by youse guys, y'know. Y'know who I mean.

The ones that's causin' all this commotion to begin with. That expects the rest of us to just unnerstan all this gibberish to start with. Like the Start button that actually means to shut the machine down.

Anyhow--thanks, I appreciate it. (I think. )

mooper

I use Classic Shell but haven't messed with others. Price aside, can you or anyone else suggest which of these is the best, or are they all quite similar and I should just stick with Classic Shell?

Even better, if you act quickly, you can upgrade for $14.99 if you purchased a Win 7 machine between June 2012 and Feb 2013, even if you "forgot" when you purchased it!

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w.../upgrade-offer

PTravel

Great tip, mooper. Thanks!

gobluetwo

And at least half of those 17 responses will be non sequitur complaints/rants.

wharvey

Oh well... it said I was not qualified... I had purchased my Lenovo refurbished from Ebay... I put in my Windows 7 code... and said I was not qualifed.

mooper

You could try different email, date, store.... maybe you forgot

wharvey

HHHHmmm... any particular combination of date, store you recommend?

PTravel

I provided my HP Pavilion laptop that I bought at Best Buy in . . . uh . . . June, 2012.

wharvey

I am wondering if I am out of luck since I purchased mine through a distributor on ebay in June 2012? Perhaps the Windows 7 license is attached to the refurbished unit, so it will not work. I even tried changing the store to Best Buy. But it did not work.

PTravel

Perhaps they have a database of model numbers and the one that I provided is on the, "It's possible that it was sold new during the upgrade window," list. The only problem is I have no interest in upgrading the laptop -- I use it every day at work and don't want to change the OS -- and would prefer to install it on a different machine that I can use as a test bed. The confirmation that I got indicates the the upgrade has to be installed on the machine for which the upgrade was confirmed.

nkedel

That's not correct; you do have to use the "upgrade advisor" to do the checkout, but you can use the upgrade license key on any machine... and while they say the "upgrade advisor" has to be on the machine that was confirmed for the upgrade, in practice I used two other machines' keys to do the purchase on another ineligible machine to run the upgrade advisor and purchase the keys.

SkeptiCallie

Update: Re the post-it note-like things on Vista, I have now found them on Windows 8. In fact, they are somewhat better. Vista notes allowed for only three lines per note, whereas these expand.

To find them: Windows key, then type notes or sticky notes.

Letitride3c

+1 I can confirm that, just back from a trip and had been debating about getting an W8 upgrade license at the rock-bottom discounted price. Picked up a Sony Viao E-Series preloaded with Win8 Core for travel to match the Nexus 7 as part of the weight reduction scheme for 2013, getting used to the Metro interface a bit but still rather use the Classic Shell to bring up that Start Menu. Going to bump that netbook's 4GB memory up to 8GB as DD3 rams are cheap these days to kick up that 64-bit OS with the $ saved from the upgrade license.

Ran the Upgrade Assistant earlier on the 5 years old Dell D620 that's running w7 Ultimate just fine w 2GB and a 350GB HDD - but registered for the Inspiron 15 that was purchased in 2012, and without even asking for COA or key info, it was accepted & subsequently emailed me with the discount code. Managed to ordered it 30+ minutes before midnight yesterday, and for a token sum - received the upgrade key instantly plus the download link - made an USB stick plus an ISO image for DVD backup purposes, and it CAN be used to upgrade any PC's that meet the minimum specs for W8 installation - it is NOT restricted to being installed on the "qualifying" PC used for the ordering. For personal use, I'm still debating on a downgrade to Win7 on the Sony while preserving the W8 activation image & partition, maybe doing a dual boot on the 750 GB HDD, as I don't plan on wasting the upgrade from Core to Pro.

FYI - apparently, advance users are having luck & success installing W8 on these Dell 600's laptops with boot time of 40 secs. - most likely will apply it on one of the newer desktop now running W7 already. Looking back, I should've get a 2nd. set of key based on the Sony as it would've been an interesting exercise. Taking a bit of adjustment to think of "Apps" while running $S Windows OS - just d/l YouTube Express ... cool, blurring lines into Android & iOS frontiers - except, that it crashed with seconds of launching, so much for being convincing ... as paying beta testers for $S

The intro deal is gone, it's now full retail pricing for most - yikes - heck no way that I would spring for a full license or upgrade at the $200+ tier. For many users, W7 is solid and will be around for quite a bit.

WIRunner

I finally got around to installing W8 on my netbook. It makes quite a difference. I do have 2GB of ram and a SSHD on it, but W7 was slow, and it just felt clunky when using it. This has made quite the difference in speed and performance. Is it for everyone? Nope, but if you've got an old computer at home that isn't being used any more because it is slow, it is probably worth the upgrade. (Although now that it has gone up in price, it probably would be cheaper to just buy a new machine with it preloaded)