{"id":63144,"date":"2012-10-26T01:08:48","date_gmt":"2012-10-25T23:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=63144"},"modified":"2012-10-26T08:26:48","modified_gmt":"2012-10-26T06:26:48","slug":"windows-8-upgrade-version-confusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/software\/63144-windows-8-upgrade-version-confusion.html","title":{"rendered":"Windows 8 upgrade version confusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlike previous versions of Windows<\/a>, Windows 8 will not have retail copies that can be installed without owning a license for an older version of Microsoft\u2019s operating system.<\/p>\n

This is according to the business lead for Windows at Microsoft<\/a> South Africa, Colin Erasmus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Erasmus explained that all the retail versions of Windows 8 on sale all over the world, be it Best Buy<\/a>, Amazon<\/a>, Newegg<\/a>, or closer to home at Incredible Connection<\/a> and Groupon<\/a>, are upgrades.<\/p>\n

Based on information supplied by Microsoft, this means that users will need a version of Windows XP with Service Pack 3, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 to use a retail pack bought on launch day.<\/p>\n

Users that are unable to use the upgrade for whatever reason, will need to\u00a0\u00a0buy a \u201csystem builder\u201d (OEM\/DSP) version of the operating system. This has different licensing terms to normal retail copies, as system builder copies of Microsoft\u2019s software are licensed to a computer, not a person.<\/p>\n

According to the Microsoft website, users are allowed to upgrade most hardware without it being considered a new computer. When switching out a motherboard that isn\u2019t defective, however, Microsoft considers a machine a new computer that needs a new OEM license.<\/p>\n

This means that the understanding that Groupon\u2019s special on Windows 8 Pro for R599 was a \u201cfull retail\u201d copy was incorrect.<\/p>\n

The deal is still R100 cheaper than the offer announced by Incredible Connection for R699.95 for the Windows 8 Pro upgrade.<\/p>\n

According to Groupon, the normal price of these upgrades will be around R2,000.<\/p>\n

This is in line with the pricing reported by Best Buy and Amazon who also have Windows 8 Pro available at introductory pricing of around $70, with the normal retail price listed as $200.<\/p>\n

Related articles<\/h3>\n

Windows 8 Pro special price extended<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Cheaper Windows 8 Ativ tablet from Standard Bank<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Windows Store in SA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Xbox Music for SA imminent<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All retail versions of Windows 8 are \u201cupgrades\u201d for Windows 7, Vista, or XP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":63146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[13975,2228,35,2664,123,451],"class_list":["post-63144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-software","tag-colin-erasmus","tag-groupon","tag-headline","tag-incredible-connection","tag-microsoft","tag-windows-8"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63148,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63144\/revisions\/63148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}