Want to take advantage of Microsoft’s $40 upgrade offer to get your hands on Windows 8 this fall? It turns out you don’t necessarily need a computer running Windows 7, Vista, or XP to upgrade. You can also upgrade from the Windows 8 Release Preview which was released to the public in May.

Here’s why that’s a little surprising. The Windows 8 Release Preview is available as a free download. That means you can basically get yourself a full Windows 8 Pro license later this year for just $40. All you need to do that is to download and install the pre-release version while it’s still available and then use the Windows upgrade tool when it’s available.

Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant

ComputerWorld confirmed with Microsoft that computers running Windows 8 Release Preview would qualify for the $40 upgrade deal which will run through January.

Admittedly, this probably won’t affect a ton of people. If you’re reading this, odds are you already have an operating system such as Windows, Mac, or Linux on your computer. If you’re a Windows user, you already get to upgrade for $40. If you’re not… then you probably don’t care much about Windows 8 anyway.

Still, this is good news for anyone that’s already running Windows 8 Release Preview as their primary operating system and doesn’t want to switch back to Windows 7 just to upgrade.

It’s also a pretty good deal for anyone looking to build their own PC from scratch or looking to install Windows on a Mac using Boot Camp.

Unfortunately upgrading from Windows 8 Release Preview to Windows 8 Pro using Microsoft’s tool won’t preserve your apps and settings — just data files stored on your computer.

via SlashGear

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11 replies on “How to get Windows 8 Pro for just $40”

  1. It would be nice to finally own a version of windows is… I’m going to sign up. Thanks for the heads up Brad. Linux is great but I only use it as a hobby.

  2. Lubuntu boots on older PC I can get for free, Lubuntu is FREE, and boots really fast on SSD. Only need new SSD. Do the math, and use the money for a new SSD not for another Windows OS that is just a repaint only of what they did before.

  3. I’ll take advantage of the $40 Pro license but I’ll probably install Windows 8 (at least as a main OS) sometime later next year. I’m going to wait on how major software vendors treat the Metro UI and how long they’ll take to make stable Windows 8 software. Whether they’re just going to make dumbed down Metro apps targeting both high and low (ie. Atom, Fusion, ARM, etc.) performance devices or retargeting their software from the desktop to Metro is something I have to wait for.

  4. Good if you are building a new system or are on a mac and want to use parallels or boot camp for the first time. Better than $100 for a new license.

  5. Even for $40, I don’t want Windows 8. Sticking to Windows 7 for the foreseeable future.

    1. Don’t think you can be sure of that as MS makes profit off non-MS products too, because of patents and licenses.

        1. Maybe but they tap all kinds of products, even Linux and Chrome laptops.

          Though they’re hardly the only one playing the patent royalties scam.

          Like Google, via Motorola, wants 2.25% of Microsoft Xbox gaming console net sales as royalties for its patents. Along with a long list of other companies doing the same…

          We really need patent law reform…

      1. Not if I buy my Laptop without any OS. I don’t think any manufacturer would pay MS for that

        1. MS has hardware patents and manufacturers do pay them licensing fee for using those technologies.

          Look up examples like “InstaLoad battery contact technology”.

          All the big companies seem to be playing the patent portfolio game these days and it’s hard to say exactly what they don’t have in their arsenal.

          Though those licenses cost companies very little. So you can probably get well below a $1 to MS, maybe even only pennies, which is at least a lot less than the alternatives.

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