This article was published on July 2, 2012

Microsoft to offer Windows 8 upgrade for $39.99, or $69.99 if you still have a DVD drive


Microsoft to offer Windows 8 upgrade for $39.99, or $69.99 if you still have a DVD drive

If you’re looking to upgrade your PC to the snappy Windows 8, you can do so online for a pretty fair price of $39.99. If you still like shopping in stores and have one of those old-school DVD drives, a Windows 8 upgrade will set you back $69.99. Once again, we’re being reminded that physical media is dead.

We still don’t know when the OS will be available to consumers, but it’s nice that Microsoft is giving us all the heads up on its plans for distribution.

Here’s what the Windows team at Microsoft had to say about the upgrade process today:

We believe that your upgrade experience in Windows 8 will be a breeze by offering a faster experience, a single upgrade path, and compatibility from prior versions of Windows. We’ve continued to listen to our customers and have expanded the ability to download to over 100 countries and 37 languages. We have simplified the Windows upgrade experience with the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant which supports you during your upgrade with everything from selecting your language to pausing your download to built-in compatibility checks – it’s seamless. And if you’re an enthusiast you will have the flexibility to download and control how you upgrade.

If you were to compare the cost of the Windows 8 upgrade to that of an OS X iteration, it’s only about $10 more. I’ve been able to play with the consumer preview of the operating system and it’s different than anything you’ve seen before on your desktop or laptop. In other words, I think it’s worth every penny.

The company says that this is just a promotion, and you will have until January 31st, 2013 to get those prices. Best part is, you’re even covered if you’re upgrading from XP, which is the best version since ’95 in my opinion.

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