Windows 8.1 Prices Revealed: Upgrades are Full Versions

News
By Marcus Yam
published

Windows 8.1 is coming out in a month and this is how much it will cost.

Windows 8.1 will be officially released in a month on October 18, 2013 (that's actually 12:00am on October 18th in New Zealand, so 4:00 a.m. PT 7:00 a.m. ET on October 17). Those who are already running Windows 8 will receive the upgrade to 8.1 for free, but those will on Windows 7 and below will need to pay for the pleasure to use the new Start Screen.

Pricing for Windows 8.1 will be the exact same as for the version before it: $119.99 and Windows 8.1 Pro will be available for $199.99. What's different from Windows 8, however, is that upgrade versions will be full version software.

"This shift allows more flexibility for customers in specific

technical scenarios and is in response to feedback we’ve received," Microsoft Brandon LeBlanc wrote. "It will be easier for those consumers who want to build PCs from scratch, run Windows 8.1 in Virtual Machine (VM) environments, or run Windows 8.1 on a second hard drive partition."

New PC owners with Windows 8.1 can upgrade to the Pro version for $99.

Those making the jump from Windows 7 can do an upgrade, but will have to reinstall desktop apps such as Office. Those upgrading from Windows XP and Vista will have to start clean as files, settings and programs will not transfer.

Furthermore, Microsoft recommends those upgrading from XP or Vista to purchase a retail boxed copy and perform a clean install.

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Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
60 Comments Comment from the forums
  • bee144
    Microsoft really needs to start listening to it's customers while it still has some. 8.1 is a step in the right direction but it is still lacking.
    Reply
  • soldier44
    Will wait it out for Windows 9. More than likely what 8 should have been in the first place.
    Reply
  • hannibal
    11555122 said:
    Will wait it out for Windows 9. More than likely what 8 should have been in the first place.

    Are you sure, that it is a worth of wait to have win9 aka win8 with transparent tiles? But if you allready have win7, sure no need to upgrage but if you have XP, win 8.1 is about as good as win9 will be. What win9 will bring are aero upgrade to tiles (transparent tiles...) and new disk operation system (this one can actully be important! But support to that will take some time). It is really needed when win10 (aka skydrive version) is out.
    Reply
  • dimar
    11555124 said:
    The real question is.. what is the difference between 8.1 and 8? Are we talking about no more of those stupid tiles? I NEED TO KNOW THX IN ADVANCE!!

    I think it's even more of those stupid tiles..
    Reply
  • JD88
    Please just give us a toggle switch for the Metro start page and let us run metro apps in windowed mode. Thanks.
    Reply
  • slomo4sho
    $199.99 for 8.1 Pro... $19.99 for Apple OS X 10.6... Ubuntu 13.04 is absolutely free... It is funny how the price of the software is inversely proportional to its quality...
    Reply
  • qlum
    Microsoft please look at the name you have given your os (Windows) if you really intend to lock everything behind your windowless prison, running all games in full or split screen just drop the name windows as it really doesn't apply anymore.
    Reply
  • edogawa
    11555218 said:
    $199.99 for 8.1 Pro... $19.99 for Apple OS X 10.6... Ubuntu 13.04 is absolutely free... It is funny how the price of the software is inversely proportional to its quality...

    Windows 8 will have a much better price if you buy it from Amazon. Also no, it is not proportional to it's quality, It's a fantastic operating system despite what people think about the "metro" interface.
    Reply
  • softplacetoland
    "This shift allows more flexibility for customers in specific technical scenarios and is in response to feedback we’ve received,"

    Microsoft, feedback, response - do these go together at all? Till now not so much. And if they did then it was in totally wrong fields. At least I can say guy has sense of humor. I give him that. Even if Microsoft and the guy itself take it seriously.
    Reply
  • tomfreak
    good thing I spend just a tiny amount of $14.99 on 2 copies of Win 8 pro MEDIA PLAYER edition, lol instead of 199.99 with win8 pro only. @ current price I wouldnt even buy it.
    Reply