Users can upgrade to Windows 8 and still retain customizations, personal data and applications. (Photo: Betanews).
Specifically, users can:
Upgrade to Windows 8 from Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic and Windows 7 Home Premium. Customizations, personal data and applications will be preserved.
Upgrade to Windows 8 Pro from Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate. Customizations, personal data and applications will be preserved.
Upgrade to Windows 8 Enterprise from Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise. Customizations, personal data and applications will be preserved.
Upgrade to Windows 8 from Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic and Windows 7 Home Premium. Customizations, personal data and applications will be preserved.
Upgrade to Windows 8 from Windows Vista (no SP1 installed), only personal data remains the same. If the user has installed SP1, both system customization and personal data will be preserved.
Upgrade to Windows 8 from Windows XP SP3 or higher but only personal data is retained.
However, users cannot upgrade or retain customizations, personal data and applications if the " cross-language" setting is installed. This installation type is only available when using Windows 8 Setup. In addition, Microsoft does not allow to upgrade the system from one platform to another, for example from 32-bit to 64-bit.
According to Engadget , Microsoft has just provided an upgrade program called Windows Upgrade Offer earlier this month. Software firm that allows users to buy Windows 7 computers from June 2, 2012 to January 31, 2013 is allowed to buy Windows 8 Pro for $ 14.99 as soon as the latest Microsoft operating system hits the market. As expected, Windows 8 will be taken to hardware manufacturers in July this year.