Sunday, September 30, 2012

Windows 8 Upgrade

Microsoft is going to be offering to upgrade every computer now running Windows XP, Vista or 7 to Windows 8 Pro for $39.99. See here. This is the download price, if you want the DVD it will cost considerably more but they say you can make your own DVD from the downloaded file.

My desktop and my new laptop (which I use in the motorhome) have Windows 7. I am happy with Windows 7 so I think I will leave them alone. Norma's desktop runs XP but is only used for email and the odd Word document so it can keep plugging along as is.

That leaves my Asus EEE Netbook, the 10 inch, lightweight, long battery life, $300 computer I bought for packing around Mexico in search of a WIFI signal. There are few places in Mexico where I have to do this any more so this computer has become my bedroom computer. I check email on it in the mornings and read Blogs at night when Norma is watching something I am bored with on TV. It is running XP.

I will have to upgrade the RAM from 1GB to 2 but I think I shall load Windows 8 on it. It is in good shape and really has not had all that much wear and tear. It is a nice little machine and updating it will keep me from buying one of the new tablets. I can't think of anything a tablet does that the Netbook does not except for being able to run that satellite finding app that I really do not need anyway. 

I will again be at the cutting edge of technology!


5 comments:

  1. The "cutting edge" of bloated problem prone technology if MS is true to form. Good thing there are all those MS certified techies out there.

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  2. "cutting edge" You will be closer to that when you get past XP.

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  3. I asked the wiz kid at my local computer store what he thinks of W8 and he did not have kind things to say. He said if it were him, he would not make the change, even for $39.99.

    He did upgrade the RAM TO 2GB for $30.

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  4. I love my Asus $300 netbook as well. No reason to change what works, and I can't justify a tablet for the same reason.

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  5. I don't use Win8 so can't say for sure, but from what I've read it sounds like another one of Microsoft's little jokes on the paying public. Kinda like Millenium and Vista. I really like Win7 on my newest laptop at home. However we have it on the public access computers at the library and XP on the circulation system computers and when patrons are complaining about how slow the PA computers are the XPs are just humming along. It's like when updates are downloading that takes precedence over anything else, no matter what settings I use. I suspect Win7, and Win8 also, work better with some hardware than others. I've had to admit that these business class Dells at the library were a mistake and fromm now on I will go with my own gut and not what any salesman tells me. Much better luck that way.

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