Questions about $40 W8 Upgrade mechanics

[tmathews]

I'm looking to pick up a W8 license or two while the $40 offer is available but I'm not quite sure how to do it. I've got a couple of XP Home licenses that I'd like to upgrade to W8 Pro 64-bit with Media Center.

My biggest question is: how does the upgrade pick up the key from the old XP? Do you have to enter it when you activate the upgrade license? Does it pull it off the installation being upgraded? Do you enter it once and never again?

Do I have to (get to?) choose 64-bit at download time or can I defer the 32-/64-bit choice until I'm ready to install? Or does trading in a 32-bit XP force me into a 32-bit W8?

I also read somewhere that if you purchased the download from an XP machine that you wouldn't get the "Install from meda" option to burn an install disk. I'll probably make the purchase from my Vista Business machine, but I want to keep that license and will use a different machine if the process wants to "help" me by grabbing and invalidating that key automatically.

Sorry for all the questions and thanks for the help.

[K A Hall]

I'll try but I might get some of these wrong as I just went through this and have been doing some reading as well.

Originally Posted by tmathews I'm looking to pick up a W8 license or two while the $40 offer is available but I'm not quite sure how to do it. I've got a couple of XP Home licenses that I'd like to upgrade to W8 Pro 64-bit with Media Center.

Media Center is not included in any version of Win8 but can be purchased as an upgrade/add on for $9.99 from MS.

Originally Posted by tmathews My biggest question is: how does the upgrade pick up the key from the old XP? Do you have to enter it when you activate the upgrade license? Does it pull it off the installation being upgraded? Do you enter it once and never again?

You won't have to enter your XP keys as far as I know. You can upgrade and the process will save your files but you will have to reinstall all programs when upgrading from any version of windows other than 7. You would be better off just doing a clean install with the upgrade disk by the way. Which can be done..can I say that here glc? Maybe not so no details on how but it's easy to find.

Originally Posted by tmathews Do I have to (get to?) choose 64-bit at download time or can I defer the 32-/64-bit choice until I'm ready to install? Or does trading in a 32-bit XP force me into a 32-bit W8?

I don't know. I bought my upgrade retail and it had both versions in it.

[GaryRouth]

Hi all -

Regarding the 64-bit or 32-bit availability for the $40 online upgrade offer:

It matters what computer you download Windows 8 from. If you download from a 32-bit version of Windows, you will receive the 32-bit version of Windows 8. If you download from a 64-bit version of Windows, you will receive a 64-bit version of Windows 8.

After the download is completed, you can create a bootable DVD or USB flash drive with it, and install it on a machine of that has a matching 64 or 32 bit depth. It doesn't invalidate the license of the machine it is downloaded from, only the machine onto which it is installed.
__________

I can't say that I'd recommend Windows 8 on hardware older than two or three years. To really enjoy Windows 8, I'd think a new touchscreen device with at least 4gb (6gb or 8gb would make things more fun) would be the ticket.

The Upgrade Advisor is a little buggy - I've seen it run on the same machine several times, and give different results [since we tested the beta extensively, we figured we'd test the updgrade advisor after the final launch, too]. The differing results are repeatable, and generally only two or three sets, but they are often far apart in reporting compatability. On one PC, the first results only showed two incompatibilities (no UEFI Bios was one) - and the incompatibilities weren't anything that would make the upgrade unworkable (just a feature or two might not be available). Later results were hilariously higher in reporting incompatibilites -- nearly 90 items (simple things like motherboard devices that were found compatible in the first results). --- But even so, I'd recommend running the Advisor to avoid hitting an incompatibility "wall". If you are upgrading a major-brand PC, you can visit its support page on their website to see if it's likely to be reasonably compatible or not. For home-built systems, you'll visit the motherboard manufacture's website for info & driver availability.

__________

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[tmathews]

Thanks for the input. I don't remember offhand whether the Vista Business license is 32- or 64-bit. If there's no way for me to select 64-bit W8 from a 32-bit platform I guess I'll have to buy the upgrade disk.

I'm planning to install one of the W8 upgrades on a VM. I suppose I should check for driver availability for the virtual hardware but I can't imagine I'm the only one wanting to do this so I'd expect drivers to come out soon if they're not available already. Nothing much gets kept from an XP->W8 upgrade so I'd do a clean install anyway.

Are the keys specific to 32- or 64-bit or can they be used for either at install time? Can a key purchased online be used with install media purchased retail and vice versa?

[GaryRouth]

Hi again.


As you know, both the 32-bit & 64-bit DVDs come in the retail upgrade package. Only one key is given, but it will work with either version. It can only be used on one computer, of course.

Only one product key is given with the download, too: and when downloading you only receive one version or the other (32-bit or 64-bit), and not both. But I'd imagine that if you were able to borrow a higher or lower bit version, you might be able to use your own product key to install and activate it. [For example, you could install a 64-bit version using a borrowed DVD, even though you downloaded a 32-bit version --as long as you use the product key you purchased with the download]. Microsoft is mostly concerned with the "one license per computer" rule for the single-license versions.

The product key comes into play twice during the installation process. Once at the start (you can't install Windows 8 at all without first providing a key), and then again after installation, when it's time to activate. It is at the activation stage that the difference between upgrade product keys and full-version retail product keys becomes important. The full-version OEM licenses are running about $120 on sale, I think (upgrades are ~$70 for DVD, ~$40 for the download).

Enjoy your installation project, it's always an adventure.
. . . Gary

[tmathews]

I would expect that Microsoft cares about the license, not whether you install it 32- or 64-bit. (Actually, they'd probably prefer that everyone move to 64-bit so they don't have to support both flavors.) I saw in one blog that the license terms don't allow using an upgrade version on a VM: now I get to add the OEM key and media into the mix to stay legal if that's correct. I remember issues with trying to reinstall XP Home Upgrade with the client's (incorrect) XP Home OEM disk: does the media still have to match the key or has that been relaxed over time?

[GaryRouth]

Hi again.

The OEM licenses that you receive with major-brand PCs are generally tied to the hardware (they are "non-transferable"). When the Dell, Lenovo, Sony, Acer, Samsung, Asus, Hp, etc. computer ages and dies there is no more use for that license = it dies with the machine [in the strictest legal interpretation]. This is often reinforced by the OEMs only providing system-images rather than operating system installation files to use for reinstalling. The recovery programs often check the hardware before performing the reinstallation, to make sure that the system is a match.
_______________

What greatly annoys me about the current retail DVD of Windows 8 Pro Upgrade version is that Microsoft does not allow it to be used to create a dual-boot system (unless you happen to have two full retail licenses of prior Windows versions on a computer, and can do without one of them).
_______________

Equally awful, as you mention:
Microsoft's restriction that the upgrade version is not to be used for a virtual machine installation also strikes me as being antagonistic (or downright hostile) to their customers.
_______________

Truthfully, I might not be using Windows 8 at all if I didn't run a repair business. I enjoy using all sorts of operating systems, but I find that the pricing for Windows is strangely high, especially compared to other offerings (Mac OSX was $20? - but of course you have to have pricey Mac hardware already ... and there's always many-flavored Linux at no cost). I've enjoyed using Windows 7 these last few years, and don't see why I shouldn't be able to have a dual-boot at the $70 price point [the "System Builder" Windows 8 Pro runs between $100 and $130).

_______________

Maybe we'll get lucky, MS will panic that Win8 sales are too sluggish, and they'll drop the price!

Now there's wishful thinking . . .
. . . Gary