Upgrading from 7 to 8

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Will any applications need to be reinstalled when upgrading to Windows 8?

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I don’t think that anybody can answer that question until W8 is released!

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You can upgrade install to a Windows 8 DP and probably have all your programs preserved too.
You will be confined to upgrade to a Windows 8 DP of the same bit type as your current Windows 7 installation.

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So far I haven’t found any app that I use on Win 7 that does not work appropriately on Win 8 DP. That does not mean there are none, just that I haven’t found any. There is a list of compatible apps started at Win 8 Forums. This is by no means a complete list.

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Sounds promising. Thanks for the replies.

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I think I read in the early days of Win 8 Developer Preview that one could not upgrade from it to later releases of Win 8, nor downgrade back to Win 7. So I would advise caution until that’s clarified. Ted has more experience on Win8 than I so he may be able to confirm.

Either way, dual boot or running inside a VM is the way to go until it has stabilised later in the year.

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It would seem obvious, to this Auld Fahrt anyway, that to really see how Windows 8 is going to work on a real computer, with its warts, wrinkles and all, it should be installed on a clean HD, as the only OS on the computer, just as if you were installing on a brand new computer.

Maybe I’m wrong in this, but like Dirty Harry said, “It works for me!”
And, in my house, that’s what’s important.

I’m enjoying the heck out of my Windows 8/DP, now running GREAT on a seven year old, Single Core, 32 bit, Compaq desktop PC.

I know this is just a test and not a permanently installed OS, so I won’t be wailing when the Beta version comes out and I have to
blow off the DP version and install the Beta Test version.

Cheers!

The Doctor

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I’m also looking forward to Win 8 CP on Feb. 29th. I am going to attempt to install over Win 8 DP to see if the windows.old thing is still there and still works as anticipated.

I also can’t answer whether an upgrade from Win 8 DP to Win 8 CP will work as expected. I would not however ever “Upgrade” from Win 7 to Win 8 DP or Win 8 CP. These are beta releases and are not the final version. The easiest way to back out of Win 8 (either version) is to create an Image of the original OS prior to installing Win 8 (either version). This way it will take about 10 minutes to restore your original OS (whether Win 7 or and earlier version).

If you did not create an Image prior to installing Win 8 (either version), then you are in for the long haul of a total reinstall of your original version.

In my case I left Win 7 in place and created another partition and dual booted Win 8 DP. As stated I will download the Win 9 CP iso file, burn a DVD then attempt to install directly into the Win 8 DP partition. I will create a complete HD Image of my PC before attempting the installation. This is easy, cheap insureance that a person would be nuts not to take IMHO.

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