Windows 8 Pro is Now Free (by Mistake)

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]Supertrek32[/nom]It's sad... I'm not even TEMPTED. I just don't care. Had this been Vista and I was on XP, I'd want to do it. But Win 7 to Win 8? Not even the slightest desire.Windows 8 uses a UI that lacks windows. Uh... That's kind of a key element of your operating system there, bud. I mean, it's kinda the name of your software...Oh and about boot times... Just use Sleep mode on Win 7. Your computer will draw just enough power to keep your RAM (like 5 watts) stable. And it will boot up in all of 2 seconds. Maybe 3 on a slow computer. Take your Windows 8 boot times and shove it.[/citation]

Lacks windows? That's wrong. Windows 8 has a Windows desktop. Metro is there too, but if you don't want to use Metro, then simply don't use it. Windows 8 does not lack Windows, they're simply not the only UI that you have available by default. Also, the computer draws much more than 5W for most people because that's about what is necessary usually for a single DIMM or thereabouts and most people have more than one. Also, there's PSU efficiency to consider which is generally quite poor with such a low load. More like 15-25W is a much more realistic estimation IMO.

 

[blazorthon]

Still not going to install Win 8 desktop. I'm quite happy with my Win7 64-bit. I wonder if this is just MS's desperate way to trying to get free hype?

Win ME horrible, Win XP good, Win Vista bad, Win 7 excelent, Win 8 go away, Win 9 yay?

You're ignoring a few Windows releases, partially wrong on some of your examples, and if anyone is giving into hype, it's you here. You're ignoring the fact that XP pretty much sucked at first, older versions of Windows and Windows 2000, Windows XP x64, and that Windows Vista isn't bad at all right now just like XP isn't bad anymore either because Vista's problems were mostly the drivers and bloat compared to 7 (which still isn't too bad compared to 7, although 8 can have a serious advantage in this).

 

[blazorthon]

And what are YOU going to do when Windows9 is nothing more than Metro...? The end game is that "Windows" is just in name... Look at "WindowsRT"... its not Windows 98/NT/XP/7 compatible.

MS doesn't care. Eventually, their idea is that people will eventually stick with MS, no matter. what.

So if YOU want power over your computer, Linux will be it.

Yeah, the extreme unlikelihood of that is overwhelmingly not in your favor. MS would be committing business suicide by cutting off most of their customer base if they did that. Windows RT is a completely different product and you show your bias and failure of logic by using a truly tablet-oriented OS as an example for desktop/laptop systems. RT isn't even a truly x86 OS, it's an ARM OS. Of course it doesn't support x86 programs, it's not even an x86-compatible system!

Even if Windows 8 was free it wouldn't that my time to download that piece of crap software!

Considering the fact that 8 is an overall more stable, efficient, and less bloat-heavy OS than 7, it's technically a superior piece of software. If 8 is a piece of crap, than 7 is a horrid piece of junk. I don't consider either to be true.

 

[asalikus]

It was always free for me

 

[mehta23]

Where can I get a Win 8 Pro ISO from?

 

[mykebrian]

if they would pay me to install windows 8, i might think about it.

 

[Bewildered 1]

I signed up , made my comment , and your site seems to dislike it , so , I'm un-subscribing !.

 

[deksman]

[citation][nom]randomizer[/nom]There are still a few seconds between them. There's only so much you can cut boot time so I think they did a pretty decent job. What really matters is how much the boot time blows out over time because Win 7 is still highly susceptible to this. After a couple of years it had pretty much tripled for me. Hopefully that isn't the case for Win 8, but it probably will be.Now if only they could cut my POST time as well...[/citation]

What did you do to your Windows 7 to have caused 3x increase in boot times?
My boot times have remained consistent for 2 years now - despite installing and removing various software.

Have you made sure to remove all instances of previously installed programs via for example Ccleaner?
Also... what are you allowing to boot up with Windows?
Apart from Microsoft Security essentials, Google update (for Chrome) and my touchpad drivers, nothing else boots (everything else starts when I need to use it).

Have you also checked the amount of startup services?
Some programs after installing lodge their own services into Windows at startup.
This wouldn't show up as programs that boot with Windows, merely as services (which I monitor after installing new programs).
3d Studio Max tried to do this by putting in 2 services (which I disabled) along with a few others.

Boot times are pretty fast (in the range of 35 to 40 seconds) and I'm on a 7200rpm 2.5" HDD.

This 'myth' that Windows slows down over time seems a bit bunk to me.
I found a friends XP laptop that had a bunch of software on it installed after 6 years... and of course, it was slow (and had some viruses to boot).
After cleaning up the viruses and removing ALL excess programs, XP returned to its original boot times.

Cleaning the registry does little to nothing for boot times, BUT, it CAN help in keeping the database clean so to avoid potential clashes when installing new drivers for your hardware (and Ccleaner has been the only reliable software thus far to be used for that purpose).

 

[deksman]

Oh and one more thing...
While from a personal point of view, I don't particularly enjoy Windows 8 new UI, should it become necessary, then I will use it down the line (as I'm not necessarily averse to it).
For now, I see no reason to switch seeing how Windows 7 is just fine for everything I need it to do.
Right now, it seems like a needless expense.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]mehta23[/nom]Where can I get a Win 8 Pro ISO from?[/citation]

Plenty of sites offer free downloads for it, not the least of which being MS's own download sites. You can freely download any and all MS operating systems and so long as they're not cracked, it's perfectly legal AFAIK, especially if you use a real key to activate them.

 

[Guest]

I tried but it is giving error -
seems they are now not provoding keys

 

[mpdahaxing]

Lol can this exploit still be used? Surely MS has fixed the issue.

 

[danwat1234]

"That said, Windows is required to be reactivated every 180 days should you use this method. Each individual PC needs a unique key, so multiple users won't be able to activate the OS through the same key."
KMSnano version 19 lets you reset the 180 day restriction permanently on windows 8. It emulates a windows server on your PC and activates that way.

 

[Dashkatt]

FREE? No thanks, it's too expensive.

 

[Guest]

it;s cool

 

[yongchoi]

everything is dust on the window

 

[yay]

Not to troll, but if boot times are a comparison point for a lot of you, try ubuntu 13.04 on an SSD. It literally boots in less than 1 second for me.

 

[eroote]

Been using win8 for quite a while and I found that it works perfect and what I like most that windows explorer is more comfortable and easy to use with more features found on the toolbar. I mean that one windows explorer can do all the job that u can access the all com easier.

 

[AlCar]

You've got to wonder if this was done intentionally to increase the number of copies in the field.

 

[nukemaster]

It was a bug and does not even work at all anymore.

This is a very old thread.