By David Glick

I know I am going to be asked this a lot over the next few months to a year. “Should I upgrade to Windows 8?” The short answer is, no, I would not recommend the average computer user upgrade to Windows 8 and here is why: First, this is a huge paradigm shift from previous versions of Windows and getting used to it may be a challenge for you. Secondly, I believe that Microsoft’s philosophy completely ignores the needs of many people using computers, specifically those using them for their business. Tablets are not ready for prime-time in this area – they are not capable of complex databases (think Quickbooks) and they are too difficult to use without a standard keyboard for multiple quick transactions. Sure if you are not in a hurry, the soft keyboard works fine. But don’t expect miracles.

The only reason I would consider upgrading to Windows 8 over 7 is if I were a recreational user that for the most part just uses email, gets on the Internet, and plays games, at least at this time. Microsoft’s theory is that we want our computers to be more like tablets. I disagree – I believe we just want our computers to work properly and provide an easy-to-use experience that does what we want it to do.

If you are looking to upgrade your computer to Windows 8, however, you have two potential choices: 1) Buy a brand new computer (which if you are still using Windows XP may be the best option) or 2) upgrade to Windows 8 and risk loss of your data if something goes wrong or you do a clean install.

There IS a third option that is not as expensive as buying a new computer AND does not commit to any data loss. This option is to purchase a new internal hard drive for the computer and perform a Windows 8 installation on it while keeping the old hard drive. A tech savvy person can transfer the data from the old hard drive to the new one (even if using an external hard drive as a go-between versus performing a direct transfer).

This option gives the best of both worlds while minimizing cost. If you really want the upgrade price you could clone the current OS to the new hard drive (Google “Macrium free Reflect tool”) and then perform the upgrade.

If you are looking to potentially upgrade your computer to Windows 8, feel free to contact us through our contact form or telephone. We will listen to your situation and help you make the right choice for you.

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