Anyone Download $39.99 Win 8 yet?

I have downloaded Windows 8. After the assistant runs you can then download the OS. After that downloads you have 3 options. A) install now. B) create iso file and burn to DVD. C) copy to USB drive to install later.

does it give you the option to choose whether you want to download windows 8 64 bit or 32 bit?

i have vista 32 bit and want to upgrade to 8 64 bit. i can't figure out if i can use the download or i have to buy the disc.

thanks

From what I've read, even though it's an Win 8 Pro "upgrade" you can do a clean install if you burn the iso or use a USB drive to install. I hope that's true, I hate overlapping OS installs.

You can not install 64 bit onto 32 bit; it's not that simple. You will need to make several changes to your PC first.

How can you speculate that if you don't even know his hardware specs? I was messing Win 7 32-bit for awhile til I switched to 64-bit.


Anyways, no it does not give you an option to either download 32-bit or 64-bit. I went from Win 7 64-bit, used the Upgrade Assistant, end up doing a fresh install, and now I'm on 64-bit Win 8.

Can anyone confirm if you can indeed to a clean install on a freshly formatted disk with just this? The reason I ask if I got a 1 of the Lenovo Yoga's yesterday, that came with win 8 on it, but a terrible hard drive allocation with the partitions. If you can do a complete fresh install I'd buy the 8 Pro ypgrade for $40, download it on my 7 desktop, but save it 2 a flash drive and wipe the Yoga'drive and install it fresh onto there (Not installing it on the desktop at all). That would let me get the 8 Pro upgrade I'd eventually like anyways, and save me $30 buying it this was as oppose to the $69 upgrade from home. (Who at Microsoft thought it made sense to make the upgrade from XP/Vista/7 Home to 8 Pro cheaper than the upgrade from 8 Home to 8 Pro anyways?)

I have got Windows 8 with the $39.99 option for both of my AMD FX rigs and the $14.99 upgrade for my Asus Laptop since it is only 2 months old. Will most likely do that for my intel rig when I rebuild it but I have not ordered the FX-8350 and motherboard for it yet. So far Windows 8 is doing great in the 3 systems I am running it on. Will be very happy when I finally get rid of my intel build it has never lived up to my expectations and am really tired of messing with it to get it to run stable.

He doesn't have to speculate. You can't upgrade in-place from a 32bit OS to a 64bit OS. It requires a complete re-install to change between the two.

I've got it, and yes you can do a clean install (so long as you had an activated copy of XP, Vista or 7 beforehand). Run the upgrade assistant, buy the software and once the download finishes you can burn the DVD. Boot from it and install.

As to the OP, anything since Vista would be basically useless on a partition as small as 20GB since you'd barely have anything left after the OS and basic programs. In light of this and considering the sizes of modern hard drives it's quite understandable they'd enforce a limit like that.

There was no option for 32- or 64- bit but it seems the upgrade assistant is smart enough to detect which you had beforehand and I guess it automatically selects the corresponding version of Win 8 (it automatically selected 64 bit for me)

But if you were trying to do it on a freshly formatted drive then you would not have an activated copy of XP, Vista, or 7 on that machine when you tried to boot from it?

The installer needs to see a previous copy of Windows which a blank drive wouldn't porovide. There were alternatives to the "double install" for earlier versions of Windows but I haven't heard if they work in Win 8.

i downloaded it, and then i discovered its "not compatible" with ava. i will never buy windows 8 again, as long as i live.

A clean install IS on a formatted drive... this is friggen confusing. I want to know if I can take a blank friggen drive and install windows 8. Why are there so many people beating around the bush. I hate overlapping installs and if I buy a new hard drive, I don't want to install windows 7, just so I can format it and install windows 8. That's stupid! I downloaded it with the intent to one day not have to have windows already on the drive.

No, what I mean is if the drive is formatted BEFORE the windows 8 upgrade installer is booted it won't activate. The upgrade can be booted from a PC with Windows on it and you can then format from WITHIN the installer (creating a fresh install this way). By then the installer will already have detected the previous version of Windows and allow the upgrade key to activate.

There's no way to just enter a valid key code for the previous version of windows during the install if using a pre-formatted drive??

The only code it asks for is the Windows 8 code. It seems Microsoft has deemed that it's not enough to demonstrate a valid code but prove that code is the one pre-installed on that particular machine. Allowing users to enter the code that way would seem to allow a new avenue to fraud.

So, what you're saying is... I have to install Windows 7, start Windows 8 install, format, THEN actually install the OS?

So essentially, anyone that wants to buy an HD/SSD for a new build and wants Windows 8 has to also buy Windows 7/XP/Vista?!!?!

That's the method Microsoft mandates. Windows 7 will have to be activated before you do the upgrade too.

Great, so now I have to call MS every friggen time I want to install my OS because my Win7 key NEVER friggen works even though I bought it from them.

See when you upgrade using the $14.99, could you post whether or not you get any choices of installation after the download? I was given no choice other than 'Install now' or 'Later from the desktop'... that was on the £14.99 UK offer... perhaps save yourself the hassle and use a disk from one of the other packages as I had to!