Upgrading Windows 7 to Windows 8

Suthish Nair
Dec 20, 2019

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Introduction

Here I will share my experience of upgrading Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 8 Pro.

I was planning this new version upgrade for a long time but the idea was extended due to the pricing confusion. A couple of times I tried with the beta version upgrade but failed and OS got corrupted every time. Last week, I received an mail from Microsoft about new pricing offers for upgrading to the new operating system. The mail subject says "Make Windows 8 your own" and the mail body contains "Get the latest version of Windows for $39.99 through January 31, 2013", with two happy smiling faces.

Are they really happy?

After clicking on Upgrade now, the page is redirected to the Buy Windows 8 web page. The price listed there is around $39.99, but when you visit the Microsoft Home page the amount shown is £24.99. But again, as soon as I started the registration process and reached the billing screen, the price changed to Rs. 1999. Why are they creating so much confusion (as usual)? To clarify this, I reached out to the MSDN Forum and posted it there. Here is what Andre Da Costa (MSDN Community Moderator, MVP) says...?

So there is a price difference based on various locations, but at the same time, I searched the Microsoft websites and was unable to find this pricing information anywhere. Typical Microsoft style J.

Ok, while moving ahead and clicking on the Download Pro button, a 5 MB installer file began to be downloaded in the background, the "Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant" (Windows8-UpgradeAssistant.exe). Once the download completes and before running the installation file, remember to take a backup of important files of the C Drive and then run the installer.

The installer starts with a compatibility check which scans your entire system that includes hardware, connected devices, etc. Then it produces the compatibility report; you can compare the report list for more information here.

Next, the screen will allow you to place the order (includes buy, download and install). You can select the option for "Backup DVD" also if required. Both download (Rs. 1,999) and Backup DVD (Rs. 1,060) costs total Rs. 3,339 (which includes shipping price also). After login with your Outlook account and entering the shipping and billing address using only available payment mode (Credit Card), you will receive the Windows 8 order details in your Outlook inbox. So the Outlook account is mandatory for a Windows upgrade. The mail includes the Windows 8 product key, which you need to enter into the next screen and accept the license terms.

The next step will ask you to "Choose what to keep" option like:

Keep Windows settings, personal files, and apps
Keep personal files only
Nothing

Select the required option and move ahead. Then the installer will do a background check if any unwanted software needs to be removed before starting the installation. For example: If you are using Microsoft Security Essentials (Windows Defender is new in Windows 8) or other third party software which is supportable then it needs to be uninstalled before proceeding. When Windows 8 is ready to install, finally the "Install" button will be available. On clicking Install, a file about 2 GB in size is downloaded.

During installation, the system will be rebooted multiple times. Once the installation completes, the system will ask you to set up username, password, and redirect to personalize set up, where you can set up the look and feel of your Windows screen.

Here we go; Windows 8 is ready to fly. Unfortunately I have to wait for a touch screen to experience the great beauty of Windows 8. Anyway I am happy now, the "Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant" rocks, and the installer takes care of everything.

What is "Windows.old" in C Drive?

Since you are upgrading, your old Windows folder is renamed to Windows.old. This folder includes the following folders. Note: Those manually created folders will be removed and moved to new respective folders.