Microsoft may scrap full retail edition of Windows 8, offer OEM and upgrade only

froggyboy604

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Microsoft is reportedly planning to kill its retail full edition of Windows 8, offering simplified upgrade and System Builder options for home users. The software maker has typically sold upgrade, full, and OEM System Builder copies of its Windows software at retailers. Windows Weekly co-hosts Paul Thurrott and Mary Jo Foley have both revealed that Microsoft is planning to remove the full edition option in favor of a System Builder option for home users building a PC.

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I think this is the step in the right direction for MS since I think having many versions of Windows just confuse a lot of consumers because they don't know which version is best for them, or they can upgrade to from their old MS OS when installing Windows on a computer with no operating system on a blank hard drive, or upgrading Windows to the latest version from an older OS like XP, Vista, 7.

I wonder if the OEM version would be 39.99 as well, or just slightly more expensive like 49.99.
 
I'd rather have them drop the upgrades and keep the full versions. In fact, if they did that, they'd only need one version total.

I can understand why they'd want to have upgrade versions- to reward loyal customers of previous releases, but it's pretty annoying to work with those when you need to reformat your harddrive, for example.
 
I dislike the upgrade version as well since if you lost the full version of the previous version of Windows you can't upgrade on a blank hard drive.

On the upside, you can easily clone your hard drive, and re-clone it onto a USB external hard drive with Norton Ghost, or Clonezilla, so you just need to upgrade once, and when Windows gets broken, you can just re-clone it onto your drive again.

Maybe when Windows 100 comes out Windows would be free to download, and burn on CD like Linux, and Microsoft make money from technical support like Linux, online ads like Google Adsense, Bing Search, selling DLC, games, eBooks, cloud services, and online certifications exams for MS Office, Word, MS SQL, C# programming language, etc which could earn more money in the long run then selling Windows for $39.99-99.
 
But would people be able to use that partial upgrade? I know my parents would mess it up.
 
The Upgrade disc is the full version of Windows which rewards previous version of Windows with a lower price for brand loyalty after you proven to the computer you own a previous version of Windows by also inserting your old disc into your disc drive during a clean install when it ask for it, or you install Windows 8 from within Windows XP, 7, or vista.

If they bought the upgrade for Home Premium for 8, and has Home Premium of 7 on their PC then they can upgrade. But, they can't upgrade from 7 Home Premium to 8 Ultimate or Pro because they are different versions of Windows.

You can install Windows 8 via big Install.exe program you download after you paid 39.99 to MS. This was how I upgraded from Vista to 7, or you can burn the Full CD for Windows 8 by downloading the ISO file from MS, and do a clean install by starting your PC from the Install disc.

If they have the full version of XP, Vista, or 7 installed on their computer or a XP, Vista, or 7 install disc then they can use the upgrade version. The upgrade version is just the full version of Windows 8, but it checks your computer for an older version of Windows or it asks you to insert the Windows Xp, Vista, or 7 disc during installation to check if you own an older version.

I think some people just borrow an older version of Windows from a friend, so they can use the upgrade version, and save money by not buying the full version.
 
If you buy the upgrade version via the web, Internet Explorer checks if you have a legitimate version of Windows via the web, and you get the Full/Upgrade version for a cheaper price.

Windows 7/Vista now have Windows Upgrade Anytime built-in to the Startmenu, so it is very simple as long as you have a valid credit card for payment, and you can upgrade by clicking on the shortcut in your startmenu..
 
froggyboy604 said:
If you buy the upgrade version via the web, Internet Explorer checks if you have a legitimate version of Windows via the web, and you get the Full/Upgrade version for a cheaper price.

Windows 7/Vista now have Windows Upgrade Anytime built-in to the Startmenu, so it is very simple as long as you have a valid credit card for payment, and you can upgrade by clicking on the shortcut in your startmenu..
Click to expand...

Huh I never even knew that. So you don't need to buy the upgrade disc?
 
tetutato said:
Huh I never even knew that. So you don't need to buy the upgrade disc?
Click to expand...

I think all you need to do is purchase a key, and the Upgrade Anytime Program checks if the key is legit/not hacked, and Windows automatically upgrade your version of Windows to the version you paid for according to the video below. I think MS might give you the option to burn your own Upgrade disc from the upgrade program, or by downloading the DVD ISO from Microsoft.com after you paid if you want to do a clean install rather then a upgrade.

 
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