Is there a version of Win 8 for this?

1. I dont believe they differentiate versions based on the number of times it can be installed. In my experience, Ive never had an issue re-installing Windows (7). Ive heard that you may have to call a MS Customer Service rep IF you hit some kind of limit...and they will open it up again.

2. IIRC, they DO NOT have any Windows 8 Family Packs

Cheers Mate!

you need to get windows 8.1 corporate but it is very expensive

1. If you buy and install Windows 8, you can reinstall as many times as you want, on whatever hardware you want. Only one PC at a time. Which leads us to...

2. There does not appear to be a multi-license pack as there was with Win 7 for a while. One license, one PC.

Last I checked on the licensing for Win8 when I heard the changes, is
A) Windows 8 (as compared to any previous Windows before for CONSUMERS - Business is much different) can be moved between any number of computers. Moving computers is referring to hardware that is significantly different, say different Mobo and CPU for example.
B) there is a 'LIMIT" of THREE uses, when you hit THREE, you need to call Microsoft every time from three forward to reinstall the OS (I have that problem now with my W7Pro that I had to reinstall 4 times due to bad HDD then a upgrade to SSD). It will fail on the 'auto' authentication and require the long number series (UGHS).
C) One licensed copy of Windows PER PC for CONSUMERS. OP what you were referring to was a BUSINESS license, which is much different and YOU / Your company violated the TOS when they 'gave you' Windows to use as you wanted. They were charged for each 'time' the OS was used on a blanket license copy (Windows Corporate Edition or VLK - Volume License) . Under the new terms I seen for Windows 'per seat' licensing this seems to have potentially been tightened up to prevent such use, and seriously costs a company.
D) I have the Win7 Family Pack, and yes they did sell them as 3 computers per Pack, which is how I installed on the kids PCs Win7. Again though that hits a limit on the times I can 'reinstall' (not 'keep installing indefinitely' like a Volume license provides) as I mentioned. Not seen that offered yet from Microsoft, but you can check your local Staples, Best Buy, etc. and se if they have something new out

For your "B)" - Nothing in the licensing mentions that limit of 3.

The dividing line is how you obtained the license. Whether installed by someone else, or bought and installed by you.

Go here and click through the maddeningly slow interface to check out the licensing:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/IntellectualProperty/UseTerms/Default.aspx

"How is the software acquired?" is the relevant question.

Well first I was addressing the OPs question "But I like to continuously upgrade"
Which http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/why-activate-windows says "If you made substantial hardware changes to your PC, such as replacing your hard drive or motherboard, you need to contact support to activate Windows by phone."

I was also providing from personal experience and talking to that very same Microsoft Support mentioned above, and they told me that same policy over the phone about the "max 3 rule" for consumers. It is different for Business and VL people of course.

Right. You may need to contact and activate via phone. But nothing in the licensing says "only 3 times', etc.

I've had to do this. Reinstall 8 Pro, and then try to apply the Media Center Pack I had purchased.....had to call and do the phone thing.
Upgrade to 8.1 and try to apply the same Media Center...had to actually talk to a human.

Win 7 and earlier was different.

If Win 7 is running fine, leave it. No real reason to upgrade.
For a new PC, sure..Windows 8 or 8.1.

I don't see one, since any patches will be based on 8.1 code being installed, and won't 'patch' your PC until you do that upgrade first. Personally I wouldn't risk NOT upgrading, I know alot still 14 years later smarting over Windows 2000 SP5 and such, but it has been decade since Microsoft Updates were not reliable.

Actually I was part of that whole Y2K work actually, and the reason it was 'nothing' was because of the work we did. The problems were minor (calculating off by .001) but usually when applied to larger scale (.001 error times $1,000,000,000 in transactions is a error of $1,000,000) but quantifiable when the calculations were based on broad but stupid ranges of dates (for example only programming from 1960 to 1999, with anything for 2000 resetting back to 1900 causing the 'calculations' to show they owed the customer millions instead of the customer owing the company thousands).

It was real on the scale of not doing anything about it would result in any number of issues, but conversely the cost of doing it would be alot less., when you consider the calculations were done every second and it takes hours / days for humans to notice/stop the issues (humans too slow) that would irreputably damage things. As a example, if you watched the movie about the fiscal meltdown on Wall Street, The Fed, and all the investment firms, did you know that the U.S. Economy in a matter of HOURS could turn from what it is now to that of the Russian Rubble (10,000R equal $1US or think about $1 DollarStore suddenly costing $10,000 LOL!).

If you weren't aware, at the time critical parts were still running on 8 Bit and 16bit code, like DOS that no one had a 'idea' existed or knew whom made it / what was programmed on it and couldn't extrapolate the 'Has to be 100% 24x7x365 never a stop performance' models. This made it even more costly as to plan around somehow to minimize the 'cost' of a outage. For example no one had in the big plans that the critical FED required weight scales used to check the bags of money that are brought in, out, and then checked that no one messed with was running a customized unique no backup DOS machine, which used the calculations of the 'date' to ensure the mini database of entries was accurate and 'un-modified' (i.e. someone changes a value because they stole money and blames it on where the money came from as the thieves). Well it couldn't calculate the year 2000 forward, and caused the database (which had no backup) to corrupt as it 'wrote over' the 'old' entries with the new one, for example, as the date rolled back to 1900.

So yeah there was some issues, but no I don't know of any Nuclear Plants melting down or Electronic grids tripping then refusing to turn bakc on because of how it calculated usage based on the date value.

Same here. I personally rebuilt/replaced 3 applications that would have died on the date changeover. Tested, and seen to die on Jan 1.

It seemed like 'nothing', because of all the behind the scenes stuff many people did for specific applications.

I don't know if you noticed, but around 1995/1996, there were reports of new issue credit cards with expiration dates 5 years out...2001...being turned down as invalid for being 95 years out of date. 1901

Those were type of issues that were quietly fixed behind the scenes.

One of the main issues was a 2 digit year vs 4 digit year. Back when these systems were built, saving memory space was a key factor. Built in 1975, no one thought that it would still be used 20+ years later.

"01" vs "2001". The "19" was 'assumed'. Hence, a credit card with an expiration date of "Aug 15, 1901". And now expired. So some guy like me fixed it.

The news media, as always, played the panic card.

I am, yes.
The credit card thing was just one visible part. Hundreds of millions of lines of code got rewritten/replaced. Just not all at once.

I was the 'implementor' for the mod, where the workers using the systems would be modified, changed, replaced to meet the new setup configuration. In my case I was migrating all of Wells Fargo from W98 locked down Novell networked PCs to Windows 2000 on a Windows 2000 Domain, and Exchange email system. Until we came across some 'onesee twosee' issues, like the DOS based Weight Scales.

If the system currently has Windows 7, there is little need to change.
If you're coming from Vista or XP, or building a whole new system, there is little reason not to install 8/8.1.

IMHO, of course.

Basically Windows 7 / 8 are the ONLY supported consumer OSes per Microsoft. So this also is what the other 'makers' also are inline with (games, apps, hardware, PCs, etc.). Agreed with Mod, on the desktop/laptop if you have 7 you don't need to worry yet. Otherwise if you want a touchscreen/mobility yes W8 is a solution for that new problem. If your doing a whole build it yourself, you really have no choice but to get W8 as W7 is no longer 'sold' by Microsoft nor through its channel partners (BestBuy, Walmart, etc.).