Its in my 1st post (Windows Upgrade Assistant)

Bill

Donny ... Bill (abacus) has a link in his post (up a few from here) to Windows upgrade assistant ... here is a link to what the 'assistant will do for you ...
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-8/upgrade-to-windows-8#section_2

wow now I'm more confused then before!!

TALK TO A TECHIE IN THE STORE!!! ... if in a store like Best Buy, talk to one of the Geek Squad guys ... tell them what you've got, what software you run, revisions if possible, etc. and tell them what you NEED the PC to do ... they are usually a lot of help ...

go to near the top of that page in the link - use the blue highlighted download the tool and run.

Jeez man for someone so savvy with using the internet and links etc etc, you sure are having problems

Pretty simple, no geeks needed!!

Donny,

You'll quickly discover, as I and many others did, that there will be a large number of older programs that will NOT be compatible with Windows 8. Same holds true for Windows 7, which I now use. Most of the recording software will not run, even in the legacy mode. Additionally, the older tax programs were not compatible, therefore, I had to do some fancy conversions at tax time - not a good thing.

Stick with the XP - it works just fine and far fewer glitches,

Gary

Actually Gary I totally disagree, and I can start citing many reasons, but time an place, etc etc...Started with Windows 7, and W8 is even better...albeit radically different on the surface only, but underneath it has enhanced and improved upon W7 in many many ways.

However it is understandable that some older folks do find it hard to break away from what they know

Bottom line is the software. A computer and its OS is simply a TOOL. What you do with it is what matters!

Make a list of all the music software you regularly use. Research whether newer version for newer OS's are available, and research whether users are having problems with the new versions. Then you can calculate what is the most modern OS that will run everything you use.

Now, if there is only one or two apps that are forcing you to use a much older OS, research whether there is a functional replacement that will run on the newer OS's. Try to find users that switched from what you use now to this new app. See what they think.

But don't concentrate on the OS... concentrate on what you want to DO with it!

Dennis,

You can disagree all you wish. In my case I'm talking about practical experience. Just going from XP to 7, which I did not want to do, cost me a lot of time and money. I had to purchase a new version of Quicken, Quick Books, spent endless hours on the phone with Intuit's customer service department solving Turbo-Tax and Quicken problems, then I still could not use my time tested music programs. Yeah, right. They were not compatible with Windows-7 and would not load in the new PC. The only reason I purchased a NEW PC was because the previous tax and bookkeeping programs were no longer supported by Windows.

My PC is not just for music - I run two businesses and the PC is used for a multitude of tasks, bookkeeping, billing, tax returns, and a host of other small business tasks. About twice a day, though, I log onto the Synthzone, PSR Tutorial and Sailnet sites. I usually find something interesting to read. Keep in mind that I've been working with computers since 1960, long before some members of this forum were born. I'm NOT computer illiterate, I am usually able to solve my problems without the aid of customer service, and my son is a computer programmer for one of the largest software companies in the nation. So, as Diki stated above, "Don't concentrate on the OS - Concentrate on what you want to DO with it."

Beside the business aspect of the PC, I use the PC for learning new songs, downloading the lyrics, downloading tab sheets, and email. Currently, about 5 percent of my email comes from clients, the rest consisting mainly of joke forwards. I, personally, consider email one of the slowest, most expensive, least effective forms of communications on the planet. In the time it took to type this response, and I'm a relatively fast typist, I could have mixed a couple Margarettas.

There's an old saying that I adhere to more often than not: "If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it." Makes perfectly good sense to me.

Gary

I just ran the compatible test on my XP pro desktop, for upgrade to Win8...The results..98 programs compatible..34 are not, and naturally all installed programs have to be re-installed..


BTW: I am one of the few that likes Vista..for me it was a great improvement over XP..