Instant Microsoft Windows 8 Pro for Free

Instant Microsoft Windows 8 Pro for Free: 

Uptake of Microsoft's new Windows 8 operating system has reportedly been a hit for microsoft; tho making it free will help things along ?

The Media Center upgrade promotion now running until January includes a security that will allow for Windows users to upgrade to the full version of Windows 8 for free.

This loophole may allow software to get their hands on Windows 8. Microsoft ditched the volume key approach with its latest operating system. Users can no longer install multiple versions of Windows using the same code. Windows 8 requires a different code for each Windows 8 install.

A Media Center upgrade, however, might help them out. In May, Microsoft said it would ditch DVD playback support for Windows Media Player in Windows 8. Those who wanted it, though, could purchase Windows Media Center to get DVD functionality, Microsoft said at the time. As part of a Windows 8 promotion, Microsoft is currently letting users receive that Windows 8 Media Center Pack product key for free viaMicrosoft.com.

Microsoft, however, is also offering a 180-day free trial of Windows 8 for enterprise users via its Key Management Service (KMS). When you request the Windows 8 Media Center product key, Microsoft will send it and install a non-trial version of Windows 8 - even if you're still using the trial version of Windows 8 and haven't paid for the upgrade.

"Due to the fact that the WMC upgrade process does no checks for the validity of the activation, any activated copy of windows are upgraded to a valid version of Windows 8 via the WMC upgrade.

Microsoft Surface Pro:

Microsoft has released US pricing details for the Pro version of its Surface tablet, which will make its debut in January.

The Surface with Windows 8 Pro will be available in two options: 64GB for $899 or 128GB for $999. Both versions will come with a Surface pen with Palm Block technology and support Microsoft's Touch Cover or Type Cover, which come in at $119.99 and $129.99 respectively.

Palm Block only recognises the touch of the included pen, so handwriting will not be interrupted if you accidentally put your palm on the Surface's screen.

The Surface Pro runs the full version of Windows 8, whereas its Surface RT counterpart - priced between $399 - $559 - runs on the more economical ARM processor, and is not compatible with the majority of existing software made for Windows 7 and XP.

On the outside, Surface with Windows 8 Pro uses the same familiar elegant design principles as Surface with Windows RT including the Dark Titanium VaporMg casing, dual 2x2 MIMO antennas designed specifically for Surface and of course the kickstand.

However, the Surface Pro will run an Intel Core i5 processor, which Microsoft said will provide a graphics boost for the 1,920 x 1,080 display. There is also a full-sized USB 3.0 port, while the Mini DisplayPort can push an external display to 2,560-by-1,440 resolution. Surface with Windows 8 Pro will run your current Windows 7 desktop applications – it's a full PC AND a tablet.

Microsoft follow-ups:

The sticker gunk is barely off all those fresh new copies of Windows 8 being shipped and downloaded all over the world but Microsoft is reportedly already deep in the development cycle for its new operating system's successor.

That's not totally surprising—after all, the software giant didn't get to where it is by sitting around twiddling its thumbs. More intriguing is the word trickling out of Redmond that Microsoft is implementing a whole new approach to rolling out new Windows updates on a much more frequent basis, possibly even with free versions available.

Building on an August ZDNet reportpointing towards a new edition of Windows with a revised pricing structure being readied for mid-2013, The Verge on Wednesday cited unnamed Microsoft sourcesas saying that a standardised Windows product development approach code named Blue was being implemented across Windows and Windows Phone in an effort to provide more regular updates to consumers.

The first Windows Blue release will be priced at a low cost or even free to ensure users upgrade, according to the tech site, which said the upgrade will include UI changes from Windows 8, as well as other alterations to the entire platform. Microsoft wants to make Windows Blue the next OS that everyone installs," hence the super-low or even free pricing, but is also building in defences against piracy. The price may be minimal to upgrade to Windows 8's successor, but users will need a genuine copy of Windows to upgrade to Windows Blue and built-in apps and the Windows Store will cease functioning if a copy is upgraded that is pirated, according to The Verge.

All of this would supposedly happen on an extremely accelerated schedule by Microsoft's platform development standards, all in an effort to better compete with rivals Apple and Google. When Windows Blue comes out next year, the Windows SDK will be updated to support the new release and Microsoft will stop accepting apps that are built specifically for Windows 8, pushing developers to create apps for Blue, the site quoted its sources as saying.

One potential bit of confusion for consumers thrown into all of this - it wouldn't be Microsoft if there wasn't some of that - is that the company will supposedly retain the Windows 8 name for its flagship operating system even as it rolls out more frequent and comprehensive updates on the new Windows Blue schedule.

Windows 8 sales figures:

Microsoft announced this week that it has sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses since the OS launched on 26 October, but new stats from NPD claim that the updated operating system has not helped boost laptop or tablet sales just yet.

Since the launch of Windows 8, sales of Windows devices in the US have dropped 21 per cent compared to the same time period last year, NPD said. Notebook sales dropped 24 per cent, but desktop sales fared a bit better with a smaller 9 per cent decline.

After just four weeks on the market, it's still early to place blame on Windows 8 for the ongoing weakness in the PC market, Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD, said in a statement. We still have the whole holiday selling season ahead of us, but clearly Windows 8 did not prove to be the impetus for a sales turnaround some had hoped for.

About 58 per cent of the Windows-based devices purchased in the last month were Windows 8 gadgets, NPD said. When Windows 7 launched in 2009, about 83 per cent of gadgets purchased in the same time period were for the new OS. NPD described sales of Windows 8 tablets as almost non-existent, making up less than 1 per cent of all Windows 8 devices to date. But NPD said that its stats do not include sales of the Microsoft Surface.

The bad Back-to-School period left a lot of inventory in the channel, which had a real impact on the initial sell-through rates for Windows 8, said Baker.

The touch-based Windows 8 laptops offer some reason for optimism, Baker said. These products accounted for 6 per cent of Windows 8 notebook sales at an average price of $867 helping to re-establish a premium segment to the Windows consumer notebook market.

Asus and Acer about consumer demand for Windows 8:

Microsoft said this week that licenses for its new Windows 8 operating system are selling like hotcakes, but some Asian computer manufacturers are telling a different story, according to The Wall Street Journal. Demand for Windows 8 is not that good right now, David Chang, chief financial officer for Asus, told the WSJ. The newspaper also reported that Acer executives were uncertain how Windows 8 would be received by consumers.

Those doubts expressed by Asian OEMs come on the heels of Microsoft's own report that it has sold tens of millions of Windows 8 licenses since the next-gen operating system was released last month.

The journey is just beginning, but I am pleased to announce today that we have sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses so far, Microsoft CFO Tami Reller said at the Credit Suisse 2012 Annual Technology Conference earlier this week.

In afollow-up blog post, Microsoft said that its new PC platform is outpacing Windows 7 in terms of upgrades. We built Windows 8 to work great on existing Windows 7 PCs. And we also set out to make upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8 super easy."

The emphasis on upgrading to Windows 8 from Windows 7 may go some way toward explaining the seeming inconsistency between Microsoft's numbers and the reports trickling out from PC companies like Asus and Acer. If the early stages of the Windows 8 rollout are seeing more upgrades on existing Windows machines than sales of new PCs, both narratives could be accurate.

On the other hand, Microsoft has been known to trumpet record-breaking initial sales of preceding versions of its operating system like XP, Vista, and Windows 7, only to have those numbers come under scrutiny later. For example, when Redmond released Windows Vista several years ago, the software giant said it had sold 20 million licenses during the first month of availability. But watchdog site Microsoft Watch quibbled with Microsoft's numbers, claiming the company used a Vista-versus-XP comparison to bolster its Vista gangbusters sales claim and that Vista is actually off to a slower start than Windows XP, using real world comparisons.

Microsoft released Windows 7 in October 2009, and claimed to have sold 90 million licenses by March 2010. CFO Peter Klein then said at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference that Windows 7 was "the fastest selling operating system in history.

Again, critics were sceptical. NPD reported that Microsoft moved more stand-alone Windows 7 software units in its first week than it did with Vista, but that Windows 7-based PC sales were not as high as they'd been with the previous OS.