Better buy myself a few OEM disk now.:banana:

Windows 9 had better be great - out of the box.

Typical Microsoft to force everybody to upgrade. There really is nothing wrong with Windows 7. What happened to the support for it that was supposedly past 2015?

Well I sure as hell won't be buying Windows 8 again. I have Win7 on my PC and Win8 on my ultrabook and I absolutely hate Win8. The only thing I like about Win8 and I mean the ONLY thing, is that u can type a word on the desktop and it immediately searches for what you type. If they added that feature to Win7 then Win7 would be perfect. Definitely gonna wait for Windows 9.

Typical Microsoft to force everybody to upgrade. There really is nothing wrong with Windows 7. What happened to the support for it that was supposedly past 2015?

They aren't stopping support, they are stopping new licenses of Windows 7. Either they will have Windows9 available by that point or are going to have to embark on a world beating marketing exercise to convince people that Windows8 is fixed and usable or they wont be selling a lot of copies of Windows after October!

Windows 9 had better be great - out of the box.

+1 I haven't read any article at all about Windows 9, i do know though that Microsoft are working on it. (I will look it up though since i am interested to read about Microsoft next move) Right now i am on Windows 8.1 and i am loving it.For me it's much faster and more responsive than Windows 7 for my daily tasks. With start8 installed,it feels and acts like a fully optimized and lightweight version of Windows 7, with better multicore management and utilization. The only negative thing about it from my point of view is the whole crap Metro interface that is completely useless for a desktop pc. I really need to read up on the new updated OS as i have no idea if Windows 9 internals are based on Windows 8/8.1, with Microsoft working on tweaking the whole user interface for desktop pc's and getting rid of the useless Metro ui. From the article: Windows 8 is the most poorly received version of Windows since Windows Vista, and there are fears that if Microsoft doesn't fix this OS through a series of subsequent FREE updates, it may trigger a further decline in PC sales. If Windows 9 is not FREE for current Windows 8.1 owners. I will go back to Windows 7 and M$ can go and ---- themselves.

PC sales are going to continue to decline regardless to what Microsoft does. The writing has been on the wall for a while. Most of the major analyst companies have been predicting this since 2006. Hell even Bill Gates essentially called this during the early 2000's when Microsoft was touting smart houses and TV's and natural input devices. I haven't had to pick out a laptop or desktop for family members in ages. Most of them just use their phones or iPad/Tablet to do all computing. Microsoft made the right choice in trying to unify its OS between tablet, PC, phone. They just executed it poorly. While I have no issues using Windows 8's interface, mostly because I do everything by keyboard, I can see why some people are put off by it. They simply should have done a better job on allowing the UI to conform to the device it's installed on. I highly doubt Windows 9 is going to be free, but I'd like to see a similar price to when 8 launched. $40 for Windows 8 Pro was a hell of a deal.

Windows 8.1 aint that bad. It is definately better than Windows 8. The winkey search is now usuable and you can customize the start screen a little bit. I wish there would be more customization options but it is now usable. There's still lot of works to be done to make it great tough. RT apps are definately bad tough. No they are terribad. The mail app doesn't support pop 3. Skype RT UI is so unintuitive. If you return to the desktop without pressing the back button it stops the call. Once you are on the desktop the only way to return to the video call is to re-open the full screen RT app and go back to the call. It is a 3 clicks step. Also it is really easy to miss a call with Skype RT if your speakers are turned off. The photo app is a joke. The video app should be burned with fire. Both are not even worth talking about. I think it took me 15 minutes to figure out how to delete a painting in Fresh Paint ... ArtRage is like 100 times better. Skype and Skydrive RT should have systray icon the live tiles and notification center are not enough for desktop use. I don't use any of the RT apps right now and it's sad that i have to install outdated Live apps. When you stay in the desktop and use kb shortcut Windows 8 aint that bad. But the Metro UI and Apps imo needs a lot of work.

Yeah the WinRT/Windows Store Apps are garbage. If I needed any of the apps, I'm better off picking up my iPad instead.

My Windows 7 install is getting a bit creaky so I may just bite the bullet and go over to windows 8.1. Minor thread hijack: if anyone can advise me on the cheapest place to get a genuine key, shoot me a quick PM. Thanks guys.

I haven't had to pick out a laptop or desktop for family members in ages. Most of them just use their phones or iPad/Tablet to do all computing.

That, or their PCs/laptops that are built from 2004+ can still serve all their needs: Facebook, email, web search, office programs, simple games and Youtube. Most people don't even need anything after XP/Vista for the little things they do with them. Same with hardware. As far as PC sales in the future, we may one day soon have retail stores that only carry tablets- those same stores being what average people got their junky PCs from to start with (the ones made to be thrown out rather than easily upgraded). Workplace environments though, I can't see them going fully tablet less you can still plug a mouse and keyboard in. And there will always be situations which the more customizable PC will be more favorable or just simply is more powerful. Basically, we weren't ever mainstream and never will be. The types like us who do build PCs will have a strong market still.

men thios is normal. win8 is new and 7 is old now like the XP(nearly), noboy wants or should hav to use the old OS even if it still works. 7 was good but it gettin time to have it in a bed now an let 8 parade around town with us until it gets old too! am glad to see moer men switchin to the windows 8 like hallryue it can only mean god things ahead! i no i did a long time ago! (hallryu try ebay for a key?)

Windows 7 is erotic.

That, or their PCs/laptops that are built from 2004+ can still serve all their needs: Facebook, email, web search, office programs, simple games and Youtube. Most people don't even need anything after XP/Vista for the little things they do with them. Same with hardware. As far as PC sales in the future, we may one day soon have retail stores that only carry tablets- those same stores being what average people got their junky PCs from to start with (the ones made to be thrown out rather than easily upgraded). Workplace environments though, I can't see them going fully tablet less you can still plug a mouse and keyboard in. And there will always be situations which the more customizable PC will be more favorable or just simply is more powerful. Basically, we weren't ever mainstream and never will be. The types like us who do build PCs will have a strong market still.

...and for the entrepreneurial types, there is a market for trade-in deals to be had: clunky pc's people bought for 90% of the usage can now be used in a tablet or smartphone.

As far as PC sales in the future, we may one day soon have retail stores that only carry tablets-

It is already sort of happening. The Future Shops where i live have far more tablets on display than PC. They really have only a few PCs on display and a few monitors. The rest is laptops and tablets. And the size of the tablets display is getting bigger and bigger. Last fall when i went there to buy a new monitor a clerk tried to sell a laptop to an approx 50yo woman. She left the store with an iPad.

Well my whole point was that you can't just attribute slumping PC sales to Windows 8 being disliked. There is a **** ton going on in the industry right now and most of it is driving users to mobile.

what we need men is smaler PCS that fit in a pockets an get rid of main big pc, nobody want that anymore ecept maybe 2 ppl. we need like tablet but little bit better (with kb on mouse) so we can play the game even away from home or when we out with the guys on the wown. u cant do that wit big massiv pc which need a plug for a start! club owners wont say 'oh yes men jus plug ur pc in overe here' it wont happen and is awkward 🙁

Ugh, how can anymore prefer an ipad to a desktop or laptop? HOW? I have used an ipad extensively, and its a peice of crap, makes me wish I had a laptop for mobile use instead of a god awful tablet. especially the ipad, apple makes the WORST tablets in the world.

Ugh, how can anymore prefer an ipad to a desktop or laptop? HOW? I have used an ipad extensively, and its a peice of crap, makes me wish I had a laptop for mobile use instead of a god awful tablet. especially the ipad, apple makes the WORST tablets in the world.

Because the vast majority of the world probably doesn't do what you do on a computer. My sister/brother in law for example has two laptops, a Toshiba from 2009 and a Lenovo 2011. I don't even know why they bought the Lenovo because they never touched the Toshiba. I haven't seen either laptop move in years. My sister reads EBooks on her Kindle and browses some Home & Garden thing on the iPad, along with checking various sites about the shows she watches and facebook. My brother in law, while rarely home, uses the iPad to look at Fantasy and facebook. Other then that they have no interaction with a computer while at home. The iPad suits them just fine.

There is a **** ton going on in the industry right now and most of it is driving users to mobile.

Exactly, but these people were never hardcore PC users really. **** 'em, let mainstream store bought PCs dwindle- most that stuff was junk anyway. I don't see how those types ever impacted us in the slightest- they never upgraded a damn thing in their lives less they replaced an entire thing. I'm just making discussion for types (and I used to be one of them) who slightly worried us as being PC builders would suffer. I don't think we will, we've got a nice market going for us even if it's not mainstream.