Win 7 to Win 8 on a tablet? Possible

OK. I am asking about a tablet. Say, I get the any current Win 7/Android device running on x86 architecture. When Win8 comes out, will I be able to uninstall the current OS and put a newly purchased Win8 on the tablet like people do with the Win 8 developer preview instead of Win 7 on their tablets now? Does anyone know if that will be possible? Basically, I am able to upgrade on a x86 tablet the same way I am able to upgrade on a Windows laptop? Thanks.

 

Yes...you will be able to install Windows 8 using a USB Thumbdrive or USB Optical Drive, clean install or upgrade

 

OK, thought so, thanks.

 

OK to rephrase what I finally thought of..say I get something like this:
Intel brandishes Android Ice Cream Sandwich tablet | Nanotech - The Circuits Blog - CNET News
Intel-based Anrdoid 4.0 device. If I don't like the experience, will I be able to replace the Android by Windows 8 by a license when it comes out?

If it is possible, then I think I am getting the first sort of affordable dockable Intel Android device! Lol, now someone just needs to offer one but apparently Intel-based Androids are coming so I am hoping someone makes a keyboard-dockable style!

 

Windows 8 uses UFIE and locked bootloaders, so dual booting may be a challenge, I know there are Linux folks working on the ability and OEMs (Lenovo on their X1 Hybrid) can configure it to dual boot.

 

Can you not remove an Android? If I get Win 8, I won't need Android anymore - obviously a dualboot would be preferable, but can I simply replace Android with Win on a X86 arc? Anything stopping the process? I've never owned Android so I am not very aware of the architecture and its limits. Also is 2 GB the minimum for Win 8 for anything meaningful to be done, as current android devices only come with 1 GB and I guess I will need to wait for something with 2 GB in addition to the dockable config?

 

I do not use Android myself, I guess it depends on how Android is implemented on x86 Architecture (Intel's Medfield is the target). If it is installed via a SSD or HDD then yes it should be feasible, if it is done in a EEPROM like Android on ARM then it could prove difficult.

You are better off purchasing a Windows 8 Tablet next fall.

 

My idea was to save some money if I am okey with Android as they will be quite a bit cheaper than Win 8 ones. Obviously if I am OK with it, I wouldn't try to switch as that costs $$$. Anyway, I guess we will find out when they get the beta out and there are some Medfield Androids on the market

 

I think I saw somewhere that that is only required for royalty oem (offline activation). Basic retail/upgrade discs and those OEM discs you buy without computer activate like Win7 did and it would make perfect sense anyways.

 

Again, we do not know how Android on Medfield IA will be loaded, EEPROM or Disk, lots of unknown. Will Medfield use an embedded implementation? We won't know until we see them in the wild...

 

it does not use locked bootloaders when you install it yourself. that's for the presold tablets. just like nearly all android tablets and phones, and about all other phones.

if you install it on an ordinary system, dual boot will be no problem. so the question is just, does the system allow something else to be installed (not sure, depends on the android tablet).

 

You're going to be waiting for quite a while. It looks like Microsoft is prioritizing the launch of Windows 8 preloaded on ARM devices. It might be quite a while before we see Windows 8 x86 being sold as a retail OS. I'm thinking late 2012 but possibly early 2013.

If you buy something like a current tablet PC, like the X220T, you probably will be able to upgrade to Windows 8, but don't count on it for another year or so. I'd also be fairly skeptical about driver support, even in 2013. It's far from clear that Windows 8 will fully replace Windows 7 for business oriented tablet PCs. There's even speculation that Windows 8 will be so consumer oriented that business users will have to wait until Windows 9 - something to remember since most current Windows tablet PCs are primarily business oriented.

 

where do you get that idea? you got that "developer preview" "consumer preview" and "business preview" thing totally wrong.

that's just the beta (good enough to show everythign that'll in there, so it's good enough for a consumer), and the release candidate (good enough for businesses, as server version and all stuff are ready to learn and teach and explore).

windows 8 will be released on arm and x86 at the same time. nothing yet states otherwise. there won't be devices based on the beta, there won't be a release of win8 in any form in february except for the beta. launching arm early would bring nothing, as there's no app world out yet. that'll start to grow thanks to the beta.

i run win8 on an x86 tablet already. will be all at the same time for sure.

i might be wrong, of course. but this is the most basic and thus most microsoft-kinda behaviour. everything else would be very strange and unexpected. not something you see from them much.

 

I haven't seen news for ARM before X86...where did that come from? If something makes sense it is X86 before ARM. I know desktop/tablet X86 is promised for 2012, so it can't be later than October-November 2012 if they are to catch any of the holiday sales. I'd be more than happy to wait until early 2013 to switch as long as I will eventually be able to.

And I never said I need it for business-use only. I enjoy the current version of Win8 as it is both consumer and business oriented on the same platform. Same can't be said for desktops but that's a different story altogether. So you guys reckon Android X86 -> Win X86 will be possible or not as that was my second question?

 

it depends if the android device is locked down enough to not be able to actually install an os at all. but if you can install something (boot from usb, boot over network), then yes, there's nothing blocking you from installing win8.

i can not guarantee at all if you can do that on an android device, though..


the op spread those rumours, and he definitely mixed up consumer/business and arm/x86 with each others.


but if you have a device of interest, wait till after the win8 beta (or consumer preview) will come out next month. you'll sure find info about people trying to install it on your device of choice, and see if they succeed.

 

You're essentially asking about retail x86 Windows, so even if we see a RTM and volume licensing date of October or November 2012, that would me a Retail release around the beginning of January 2013. Microsoft has missed holiday sales before. The Vista retail launch was January 30, 2007 - and I think we all know what a flop Vista was.

Microsoft is apparently prioritizing the preloaded ARM market over x86 retail sales with Windows 8. Who can blame them? The consumer PC market is in steep decline, business users have finally taken to Windows 7 and ARM smartphone and tablet are hot. Microsoft apparently has lost confidence in the ability of Intel to compete in the smartphone and tablet space, although we will start to see the first modern x86 smartphones this year. So Microsoft is oriented toward ARM touchscreen devices, to the extent that a lot of people are questioning whether Windows 7 will continue to live in the desktop market until being replaced by Windows 9.

As far as Android x86, feel free to play around with a visualization, or better yet, try AVD Manager as part of the Android SDK Toolkit. I know everyone's really excited about Ice Cream Sandwich, but I really don't see Android 4.0.3 as being a viable, generic x86 operating system at the moment. I didn't even have very much luck with AVD Manager when I tried screen resolutions that would typical of a tablet PC.

There are Android x86 disk images out there, but the most recent ones seem to be device specific. If you really need touchscreen support, Ubuntu apparently has some level of Wacom driver support, although I'd hate to buy a new tablet PC and count on a Linux distro. In short, don't buy hardware for what you hope it might become, but it for what it is.

Personally, I don't see a future for touchscreen x86 devices, unless Intel makes a real breakthrough in Atom power consumption, or consumers suddenly decide it's fun to have a really heavy tablet PC that blows hot air.

 

what a load of wrongness..

intel showed an x86 PHONE with atom. if that's not enough to prove that atom powered tablets will come, don't know what is. x86 and arm will be released at the very same time.

other than that, i'm having a core i5 tablet and even that has quite a nice battery life (and intel improves on that, too, of course).

the missing of december was not the issue with vista (nor did it have ANYTHING to do with microsoft per se. blame nvidia and manufacturers. oh wait, microsoft already did and sued them).

there is NOTHING showing ANY delay in win8, so there's no sign that they will be late (january) at all.


win7 will be replaced by win8, and THAT will be replaced by win9. win7 will live as long as every windows os before in terms of support (another region where you don't have a clue), and people will continue to use it, like they did and do with vista, and did and still do with xp. and some even with 2000 and 98 (yes, i even meet those).



so in short: personally, i see NO future in non-x86 touchdevices. this arm fad has to die quickly as it will not provide any gain. we're right now at the meeting point of arm getting so big and inefficient and x86 getting so tiny and efficient that there's no difference on what to use. and then, compatibility is what matters. and the fact that x86 can go much much faster than what arm shows (everything > atom for example).

 

I referenced the likelihood of the first modern x86 smartphones premiering this year, although Intel is about 5 years late into a market where ARM has a near monopoly.

Is it a fanless design weighing less than 1.5 pounds with a battery life of over 10 hours? Is it? Didn't think so.

The general consensus is that Windows 8 is most definitely delayed. Microsoft has avoided providing ship dates, so there's likely to be further slippage. Right now, the smart money is on an early 2013 on-sale date for retail boxed x86 Windows 8, but Microsoft is desperate to see ARM devices preloaded with Windows 8 for calender year 2012.

No future in ARM? Really?

It really comes down to the fact that the x86 instruction set is fundamentally inappropriate to energy efficient portable devices. It turns out that RISC was always "the way of the future," except that it took that future a very long time to get here. At this point, I really don't see Intel dominating the mobile device space in the same way they dominated the desktop space for decades. I would hope that Intel could an x86 processor that would be cost, performance and energy consumption competitive with ARM, but so far, we haven't seen anything close.

 

I see no point in having an ARM-based Windows device. It doesn't interest me as it can't run normal Windows software. I might as well grab the cheaper Android software, which by then should be smooth enough. I guess the only thing I can do for now is wait, which is not a bad thing considering there isn't anything fully functional on the tablet market that is worth the money.

semi-expert:Microsoft hasn't said anything on Win8 release except it will come in 2012 (in devices, nothing on boxed as far as I know), so all that you said is just assumptions. Windows may pop up in August, only MS and manufacturers probably know that...even October is just speculation. 1 or 2 months doesn't matter anyway as long as the Intel + Win8 combination works performance, battery and price-wise. I have a bad feeling about the price-wise thing and that is why I am considering back-up options.

 

So where exactly are you recieving your FUD from? Those of us who know are not able to say due to NDA, but you are really...really off base, that is all I will say.

 

I can see from your sig that you have a great deal of enthusiasm for very rare x86 tablets PCs and from your reference to a "NDA" you apparently have some sort of personal stake in the success of Windows 8.

I'm completely impartial when it comes to Microsoft. I also took the time to test Windows 8 "developer preview" immediately after it was released, and I'll probably do the same with the "consumer preview" in another month. Needless to say, I was shocked by how rough and unusable the "developer preview" was, by any standard. The fact that it took until January to add mouse support speaks volumes about the mess at Microsoft.

 

Is that the best you can do? You see that I use Windows Tablets and am under NDA so you dismiss me....awesome...

You misunderstand what the Developer Preview was for, it was intended for developers to create Metro Apps (before the next preview). Metro is a "Touch First" Interface and the Developer's Preview focused on that scenario, Mouse and keyboard support where in other builds as MS demo them, but the build released focused on Touch Apps.

Microsoft knows their implementation of Mouse and Keyboard works and since traditional apps will only be available on x86 (according to Intel), it was fine to focus on the area where the Windows Developer Community is weaker, touch apps.

You say you're impartial but dismissive attitude speaks otherwise...

 

No, I'm just suggesting that you might have a vested stake in the success of Windows 8 as a touchscreen x86 platform, so you might lack the impartiality or the perspective of an impartial source?

I understand exactly what Microsoft was trying to accomplish back in September with the Windows 8 "Developer Preview." I might have actually been impressed if they'd managed to put out a somewhat functional ARM image, but instead we got the x86 turkey that was so incomplete that it took a keyboard shortcut to close a touchscreen Metro app.

That still doesn't explain why it took ALT-F4 to close an app or shut down Windows 8 developer preview? A keyboard shortcut was necessary on a supposed touchscreen oriented OS? So much for touchscreen interface development at Microsoft? Would it have been so difficult to implement a means of closing a program, or even shutting down the OS, into the GUI?

I think we all know that Microsoft was desperate to entice developers for Windows 8, and that those efforts are yielding very mixed results, which is about as favorable as I can be at this point.

If you've got something to offer as far as the release date for the retail x86 version of Windows 8, feel free to do so. Otherwise, vague intimations and references to a NDA aren't helpful.

I was simply trying to help and inform the OP. Is there going to be a retail launch of x86 Windows 8 in Q1 of 2012. Most definitely not. Q2 of 2012? Nope? Q3 of 2012? Unlikely. Q4 of 2012? That seems to be the consensus, but Q1 of 2013 is the only entirely safe estimation.

 

I do not recommend Win 8 for now not completely bug free

 

I can agree that there is absolutely no point in owning an ARM-based Windows device, which might go a long way towards explaining the commercial failure of Windows-branded phones in 2011 and finally extinction of the Zune MP3 player.

Of course, that's not to suggest that there isn't role for ARM-based touchscreen devices, as demonstrated by the dominance of ARM processors in the smartphone and tablet markets.

Just remember that an ARM tablet isn't meant to be a general purpose computer, and that Microsoft is dead set against ARM devices becoming general purpose computers, to the extent of mandating locked down boot loaders in the ARM version of Windows 8.

If you want a general purpose computer, you'll have to stick with x86, at least for the immediate future.

If you're buying now, make sure you can comfortably make use of your Windows 7 touchscreen PC, with Windows 7. Don't simply count on Windows 8 because it isn't here yet and a lot of things can happen between now and the final retail release. Even if Microsoft doesn't "pull a Vista," there might be specific driver issues well into 2013.

If you really want something like a convertible tablet PC, something like a Thinkpad X220T, and you can live with the compromises, go for it. However, I'd be very reluctant to suggest any Windows touchscreen device without a keyboard. If you'd installed Windows 8 "developer preview" to a touchscreen only device, you'd have had absolutely no way of closing an app or even shutting down the OS without the keyboard short-cut ALT-F4. Scary, isn't it?

 

I wouldn't recommend using Windows 8 in anything other than a virtualization. I managed to get Windows 8 running in Virtualbox on the very first day, but it wasn't exactly a fun experience.

I'd advise anyone who's interested in next month's Windows 8 "consumer preview" to stick with virtualization for now and not to go with a physical install.

 

I understand exactly what Microsoft was trying to accomplish back in September with the Windows 8 "Developer Preview." I might have actually been impressed if they'd managed to put out a somewhat functional ARM image, but instead we got the x86 turkey that was so incomplete that it took a keyboard shortcut to close a touchscreen Metro app.

Windows on Arm (WoA) is OEM only and any Metro App that is compiled using the WinRT will work on both WoA and Windows x86, so no need to release an ARM image that early in the dev cycle. Rumor OEMs and select developers will get WoA Images and/or Ref Machines in February...

That still doesn't explain why it took ALT-F4 to close an app or shut down Windows 8 developer preview? A keyboard shortcut was necessary on a supposed touchscreen oriented OS? So much for touchscreen interface development at Microsoft? Would it have been so difficult to implement a means of closing a program, or even shutting down the OS, into the GUI?

Metro Apps are controlled by Desktop Application Monitor (DAM) and do not need to be closed, DAM will suspend the process until it is re-invoked by a swipe or metro tile launch, memory management as you are looking for is a legacy model only available in classic decktop mode (x86 only)



If you've got something to offer as far as the release date for the retail x86 version of Windows 8, feel free to do so. Otherwise, vague intimations and references to a NDA aren't helpful.


All I said is those that know can't say anything....


I was simply trying to help and inform the OP. Is there going to be a retail launch of x86 Windows 8 in Q1 of 2012. Most definitely not. Q2 of 2012? Nope? Q3 of 2012? Unlikely. Q4 of 2012? That seems to be the consensus, but Q1 of 2013 is the only entirely safe estimation.[/QUOTE]

Again, you are speaking of rumors (what consensus???) that have no truth, nobody expects Q1 or Q2 of C2012, Q3 makes sense as that would be 3 years from Winows 7....