Windows 8 was officially released yesterday and information technology's now time to make up one's mind whether you desire to upgrade or non. If yous accept decided to upgrade a Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 machine to Windows 8, you probably want to make sure your system can support Windows 8 earlier you buy the upgrade.

To check if your PC is compatible with Windows viii, yous can download and run the Windows viii Upgrade Banana. The upgrade banana will go ahead and scan your hardware, programs, and even any connected devices to make sure they will work with Windows 8.

Windows 8 requires certain CPU features like PAE, NX, SSE2, etc, so it's a skilful thought to use this tool if your computer is a bit on the older side.

The tool will also give you a compatibility study for your programs and let you know whether you demand to uninstall the programme or update the program before upgrading. Once you lot download it, install it and run it, the programme volition automatically commencement scanning your computer for apps and devices.

upgrade assistant

It volition and then tell yous which apps are uniform and which apps you lot need to review.

compatible apps

There are some new features in Windows eight like secure boot, snap, and fast startup. Upgrade assistant volition notify you if any of those items are not supported past your system:

windows 8 upgrade

If yous didn't already know, Windows eight does not include congenital-in software to play DVDs. If you want that feature, you'll accept to purchase the Pro pack and get Windows Media Center. Note that if you already have Windows 8 Pro, yous can become Windows Media Centre Pack for gratuitous until January 31st, 2013, so go information technology fast!

Likewise, Microsoft Security Essentials is being replaced by Windows Defender in Windows 8. Information technology's basically the same thing, simply for whatever reason they are including Windows Defender built into Windows 8. So if you have Security Essentials installed on Windows vii, you'll have to remove it before upgrading.

You also go a list of compatible software and hardware that will work with Windows eight:

compatible software

When you click Next, you'll be asked what you would like to keep. This will decide which version of Windows eight will work best for you lot.

what files to keep

Note that depending on what version of Windows you have, you lot tin only upgrade to certain editions of Windows 8. For example, if you lot have Windows 7 Ultimate, you can only upgrade to Windows 8 Pro.

If you have Windows 7 Pro, you can upgrade to Windows 8 Pro or Enterprise. If you accept Windows 7 Enterprise, you can only upgrade to Windows 8 Enterprise. Bank check out the Wikipedia article for more details.

In my case, since I have Windows vii Ultimate, any option I selected gave me the aforementioned result: Windows 8 Pro for $39.99.

windows 8 pro

That's about all there is to the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant. It's more often than not useful for figuring out which hardware and software will not work on Windows viii. It's also useful if you take an older PC and you're not sure if your CPU is going to be supported past Windows 8. Savor!