# How do I switch to Windows 8?



## teutoniswolf (Apr 2, 2007)

Hello I have Vista 32-bit Home Premium on a Dell XPS 410. I see that the upgrade is around $40 but what would I have to do to my hard drive currently if anything to get it?


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Have you run this Upgrade to Windows 8 - Microsoft Windows


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## richie01 (Mar 3, 2008)

you don't!

Terrible teribble teribble OS


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Now Now not everyone thinks that (I 'am not over fond of it ) and some even love it


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

Windows 8, on the "Metro" side runs from "ho-hum" to "why did I bother upgrading?". However, Windows 8 behind the scenes works better than its predecessors, and if you stay on the Desktop you won't notice much difference between 8 and 7, other than better performance.

One thing that you will notice right away is that boot times are drastically reduced. 

Also, the file utility (File Explorer now, as many in the past confused Windows Explorer with Internet Explorer) is better and it's easier to manage file and folder tasks as everything is in one place now.

Internet Explorer 10 is much faster now, even the Desktop version, and those who went to another browser to speed things up or in order to have a spell checker might find themselves migrating back to IE.

You can get your Start menu back by the use of a small third-party app (I use Start8 but there are dozens popping up). You can also modify the Win-X menu to perform many startup tasks. 

In the thread below I've documented my sojourn into Windows 8 and have linked some of the 3rd-party programs I've found useful.

http://www.techsupportforum.com/for...made-it-more-like-7-a-672597.html#post3948838 

Bugs in the System:

Windows 8 is not completely stable yet. For one thing, it's highly dependent on the Internet and unless you turn active tiles off if your connection is unstable then Windows 8 will tend to lag. I get the occasional hang or error too but no more than I did with Windows 7 (in fact, less). Most of these errors are actually attributable to 3rd-party programs that haven't gotten their code optimized for Windows 8 yet.

The gist of it is: I could easily go back but there is not need to do so. Where it's better, Windows 8 is much nicer than Windows 7 and for those of us who don't want to learn a new interface, it can be modified to look and act just like Windows 7.


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## richie01 (Mar 3, 2008)

I havnt had much time to play around with it yet but it's good to hear some benefits to it.

First impressions are just so bad because visually explorer looks like a downgrade and the start menu is non existent, metro menu looks kinda nice in a, if i had a touch pad kinda way. First impressions makes you feel like you just bought a touchpad os that downgrades your old windows 7.

First thing I did was install an app to give me a nice start menu back 

It seems like the OS has promise but lacks some simple things that could have been done to cater for keyboard users.

Reminds me of the youtube video before the OS was released titled "Windows 8, it's almost not terrible"

I feel like where back to windows vista and testing out an OS for microsoft so that they can fix it for the next windows and fix all the complaints of the previous.


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## teutoniswolf (Apr 2, 2007)

Do I have to do anything to my hard drive to prep for it?


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Are going upgrade or builder edition


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## sobeit (Nov 11, 2007)

teutoniswolf said:


> Do I have to do anything to my hard drive to prep for it?



You really do not have to do anything to the drive if you are just upgrading. However, in case the unfortunate happens... You need to make sure you have backups for all files you cannot afford to lose and make sure you have serial numbers and keys for all programs you have installed.


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## richie01 (Mar 3, 2008)

If you buy the upgrade version just select keep files and settigs on install and everything will be te same.


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