Windows 8 upgrade going cheap - should I bother?

[KeyboardDemon]

I think there are a bunch of people that have simply chosen to dislike Windows 8 so I decided to look into it and make my own mind up and have decided I want to add it. I ran the Upgrade assistant today, I am fully compatible with 37 apps and all of my hardware was ok but I had 13 possible issues, some of which had updates that could fix the issues, a few like the sidebar gadgets won't work but will hopefully eventually get live tiles for those and a very small number of these (Battlefield 1942 being a prime example) are things that I won't miss (sorry DICE). I have a Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch tablet and have tried one of these with Windows 8 running and I can see this being a great combination, so I am strongly considering it.

[NorBdelta]

£25 is a small amount of money, it pushed me to try and I quite like 8, it takes a while to get used to but at least try it for yourself before casting it to the wind.

[Mehta23]

Would win 8 pro be a decent upgrade from Win7 Ultimate?

Oh wait... Hasn't the price increased drastically?

[Phage]

Thread refresh !
OK I bought a copy of 8 as I thought that I'll have to get used to it eventually, and I might as well do it while it's on special.
Installation was a nightmare.
Tried an upgrade first - "Installation failed". No error codes, message or diagnostic. Luckily I had burnt an iso, so went for a clean install.
Gah took a couple of tries for it to install and when it finally worked it still thought I had 7 on the disc as well. (it wasn't) USB 3.0 no longer worked and even the DVD of drivers for the MoBo wouldn't load. Strangely Metro shows my printer. Did it install drivers without telling me ? Not happy with that at all, and what about my MoBo and USB 3.0 ?
Tried various MSoft wizards and "Solutions" - nada. Essentially W8 will not run on my machine in any functional form. Even when it is installed it's bloody ugly isn't it ? Looks like it was done by a 7-year old with a blunt crayon.

I'll have another go on the next machine, but really what a faff. What a huge step in UI, that delivers what extra value ? (Obv it does for MS)
I can't find anything, I don't know where my files/libraries are, it wants to know where I live in detail, and I found the whole experience not unlike having to learn OSX. (Something I've still not managed)
<Shudder> - I really didn't enjoy that. I've now rolled back to 7 which continues to work flawlessly.

[Thorsson]

Well I went for it, and apart from the fact that it set up my default speakers incorrectly (which Win 7 did as well) it seems to have gone OK.

Not sure about the new interface - find myself going back to the "desktop" a lot at the moment. But then it's only been installed for 10 hours.

[KeyboardDemon]

Another update. I've been running with Windows 8 for close to a month now. Biggest issue is when playing games I get some sort of notification that minimises my game, I can't actually see what this notification is for, all I do see is that my screen will suddenly minimise and go to my desktop top and keyboard inputs result in an error sound. If I could actually see what the notification was then I could do something about it, but as yet I haven't worked out what's causing this.

Everything else is better, I really like the start menu, I like the search and the simplicity in organising my start menu items so that I can find what I want when I want it, which is easier than the pre-Windows 8 Start menu with nested folder type options. Also boot up times are now under 20 seconds and my PC generally 'feels' more responsive.

[nomissivraj]

In my honest opinion it is not worth it at all. There are supposedly some performance improvements over Win7 but not anything drastic worth switching. There are currently to many issues with Win8 in regards to gaming etc to bother. The Metro or 'Modern UI' is horrible also. Although you can disable those features using 3rd party applications.

[Thorsson]

Oh wait... Hasn't the price increased drastically?

Yes, it was on special offer until 31/01/13. If you're very quick you can get people who bought a bunch and are making a quick profit on EBay - a full upgrade with 2 CDs will set you back around £45 inc postage.

[kkxlynx]

Windows 7 deffo!

If you're a pc gamer, then win8, coz it's better and faster load up times etc.

[Splash]

Another update. I've been running with Windows 8 for close to a month now. Biggest issue is when playing games I get some sort of notification that minimises my game, I can't actually see what this notification is for, all I do see is that my screen will suddenly minimise and go to my desktop top and keyboard inputs result in an error sound. If I could actually see what the notification was then I could do something about it, but as yet I haven't worked out what's causing this.

Everything else is better, I really like the start menu, I like the search and the simplicity in organising my start menu items so that I can find what I want when I want it, which is easier than the pre-Windows 8 Start menu with nested folder type options. Also boot up times are now under 20 seconds and my PC generally 'feels' more responsive.

My money is on the Java updater. Was having the same issue, disabled the updater app.

[JimmyBoy]

I installed win 8 and apon my next reboot all I got was blue screens so I had the palarva of saving data on the hdd then formatting and reinstalling win 8. It's been fine since and I love it

[unclebobee]

...I think it's a GREAT improvement over Win 7, but couldn't load the 'cheap' upgrade and two MS Techs, couldn't do it either ! So, I had to pay for the disks (32 and 64 bit) which worked fine. Unfortunately, MS did NOT send the APPS disk promised. Still working on it to get familiar and hoping the NEW upgrade will solve some of the things I don't like.....Overall, it's pretty good...Much better than Win 7 !!