Microsoft’s Windows 8 on its way

Customers with PCs and tablets that run Microsoft’s operating system are one step closer to upgrading.

02/08/12 4,974 Views 30 Comments

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talking about the new OS

Image: AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File via AP

IF YOU’RE A Windows user and are looking to upgrade your operating system (OS), some good news has emerged.

Microsoft’s Windows 8 team announced that they were one step closer to releasing their latest OS, the inventively titled Windows 8.

The abbreviation-heavy announcement declared that the OS had been released to manufacturing (RTM), which basically means that it has been made available to original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, so that they can start to load it onto the computers they wish to sell.

The announcement came after over 16 million people, or more precisely, computers, participated in running – and testing – early versions of the software.

Microsoft affiliates and those who need to update applications or software to work with the new OS can hope to get access to the finished product from 15 August.

Everyone else will have to wait until 26 October.

The news comes just days after Apple released the latest version of its own OS called Mountain Lion and at a time when Microsoft posted its first ever loss.

To say that they have a lot riding on the success of Windows 8 is an understatement.

Read: Confused about the new version of Windows? Here’s everything you need to know >

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Comments (30 Comments)

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Will Hourihan 02/08/12 #

9 42

I have been using the early beta release and it takes a bit of getting used to. I think I’ll stick to windows 7 for a while longer.

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- Ted Nugent 02/08/12 #
  
  3 26
  
  Me too. Been using it a while now. More fiddley to use than 7.
  You have to really root around to find stuff. I suppose after a few months we will be up to speed and won’t look back?
  
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- Dietrich Död 02/08/12 #
  
  5 19
  
  I’ve been using it too, I’m not entirely sold on metro, the lack of a start menu is pretty frustrating for an ordinary desktop user, also they don’t seem to have done much to improve the appearance outside of metro, I’ll wait and see what the finished release looks like, won’t be in a rush to upgrade, more interested in the new office
  
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John K Gallagher 02/08/12 #

28 56

Looking forward to it. Hope it lives up to hype and does well

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- Dmc 02/08/12 #
  
  61 50
  
  I converted to Macbook Pro. Great decision!
  
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- LeeKelly 02/08/12 #
  
  12 17
  
  After years of constant disappointment and malfunction with rehashes of money for old rope products I now happily run on Ubuntu Linux and have never looked back. It undoubtedly wont live up to the hype as the company seems to be run on a shoot in the dark and hope for the best approach,
  
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- Paul Mallon 02/08/12 #
  
  21 25
  
  After endless wifi problems on my macbook pro (with the issue ignored completely by apple), I installed windows 7 and everything works perfectly.
  Windows 8 looks impressive, I haven’t looked at Mountain Lion yet, and probably won’t. Apple’s complete ignorance on this issue means I won’t be buying another Apple product for a long time.
  Windows 8 on a touch screen laptop sound’s like a nice option to me!
  
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Too Trueleft 02/08/12 #

18 37

Could be a disaster by Microsoft terms. After the clusterf**k that was Vista, they actually put a decent OS together. Now, instead of doing the sensible thing of refining and improving 7 they come up with metro UI. They’ve learned nothing.

For me personally, I’ll be switching to OSX, or sticking with 7 until its reached the end of its useful life and then switching to OSX anyways.

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Flaming_Troll 02/08/12 #

2 9

Go back to the glory days of Windows 3.1 and DOS 5…

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Declan Mannix 02/08/12 #

38 34

nice picture of Steve there………..he is even showing the blue screen we will all encounter at some stage normally just as your about to click ‘save ‘ on some important document.

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- Dietrich Död 02/08/12 #
  
  11 54
  
  I’ve been using windows 7 since it went to manufacturing and I’ve never once seen a blue screen, that joke is getting old
  
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@emcg53 02/08/12 #

10 12

XP support ends April 2014 so let’s see how many stick with it when there’s no monthly patching to fill the security holes. Hopefully MS will get back to the glory days of Windows 2000. That OS was the definition of stability. OSX looks nice just like Kim Kardashian.

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Harry Hudson-Taylor 02/08/12 #

25 18

They’re years behind Apple and Google. Microsoft, Monopoly type companies sit on their asses for years because they don’t want to take any risks. Things are good for the share holders so they do nothing bold or daring. They had/have the money to be ambitious and be at the cutting edge but they haven’t been and aren’t. It’s not about PC Vs Mac, it should be about doing what the customer wants. Microsoft always think they can just force products on the general public.

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- Dietrich Död 02/08/12 #
  
  7 20
  
  I think Kinect and WP7 are both pretty interesting, won’t buy another xbox though for the same reason I don’t use apple… Too closed
  
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- Andrew Brennan 02/08/12 #
  
  2 23
  
  The fact that XP is still in use over ten years since its release, despite Microsofts best efforts to migrate enterprises to later versions shows they can’t much force anyone to do anything.
  
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- Harry Hudson-Taylor 02/08/12 #
  
  1 5
  
  Alright. Fair point… Still, they’ve been so quiet for far too long. They could’ve gone mobile years ago!
  
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- Paul Mallon 02/08/12 #
  
  5 11
  
  They’re not that far behind Apple, where does OSX beat Windows 7??
  Not very many places I can see.
  Apples instance on only supporting the latest software versions in some of their pro products is ridiculous – when shelling out over €700 for a piece of software you shouldn’t be forced to upgrade every time Apple adds a new cat name to the OS.
  
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Ciaran McGrath 02/08/12 #

54 24

Yes, I can’t wait… to be even more smug for using a mac

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- Too Trueleft 02/08/12 #
  
  9 36
  
  Don’t forget the black turteneck…..
  
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- Stephen Hayden 02/08/12 #
  
  20 34
  
  If I bought a macbook I’d put windows on it and buy a mouse that fits the shape of my hand and has more than 1 button because I’d like it to be usable rather than just look good.
  
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Alan Murphy 02/08/12 #

0 0

Can you upgrade win7 to 8 or do you need to go out and buy the whole thing?

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- Jeff Rudd 02/08/12 #
  
  0 1
  
  You can upgrade.
  Microsoft will be making available a cheap upgrade price.
  See here for example: http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2012/07/02/upgrade-to-windows-8-pro-for-39-99.aspx
  
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- Alan Murphy 02/08/12 #
  
  1 0
  
  Why charge when apple do it for free. Surely they should be encouraging people to stay with them as much as they can?
  
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Jeff Rudd 02/08/12 #

0 1

For the likes of tablets, I like it.
For my PC’s – I don’t.

* For the PC, looking for stuff can be a right pain in the arse especially for those that delve into the control panel for simple or complex items.
* For the PC, you have no way to reduce (yet?) size of the large on screen boxes – so unlike a screen in Win7 that can have many icons (which with tweak tools, you can reduce more so their size) , with Win8 your stuck with the large blocks across your screen.
For those that like to have icons in the foreground and wallpaper (even family pics, etc) in the background as the default (without having to press buttons to see them), then Win8 is going to be disappointing – if not a pain in the backside!

There ARE many improvement in Win8 – including speed in some cases. For tablets, it will be a joy – for some PC users, some changes, visible and in the background have become a right pain to find, use and even close down!

I will not be moving to Win8 for my PC’s.

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alan 02/08/12 #

59 22

i was using 7 but it was so unreliable i shifted to firefox

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- Riaran Coarty 02/08/12 #
  
  4 46
  
  LOL.
  
  I did take you seriously at first though. Like people who ask for Nokia credit.
  
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- Will Hourihan 02/08/12 #
  
  2 10
  
  Lol ;-)
  
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- Conor Power 02/08/12 #
  
  1 1
  
  I hope you are talking out boot to Gecko!
  
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- Damien Moore 03/08/12 #
  
  0 1
  
  I see what you did there…
  
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Richard Fennelly 02/08/12 #

1 0

why?

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Microsoft’s Windows 8 on its way

Customers with PCs and tablets that run Microsoft’s operating system are one step closer to upgrading.