New PC Owners To Be Offered Windows 8 For Under £10

Customers who purchase a Windows 7-based PC in the next couple of months will be able to upgrade to Windows 8 for just $15 (£9.35) when the latest version of Microsoft’s operating system is released later this year.

The move is an attempt to encourage customers not to wait until the expected debut of Windows 8 later this year to buy a new PC, according to Paul Thurrott’s Supersite for Windows.

Customer reassurance

The promotion is set to begin on 2 June and roughly coincides with the release preview that Microsoft has promised will land next month. While Microsoft will be offering two versions of Windows 8, users who take advantage of the offer will automatically receive the pro edition of the OS.

Microsoft is believed to be in a position to finish Windows 8 by this summer ahead of an October release and has pledged that the operating system will work equally well with tablets and traditional PCs, with users able to switch between a tiled Metro interface and the more traditional desktop mode.

Slow sales of PCs have encouraged Microsoft to focus on tablets and it hopes this dual system will give the company a potential inroad into the market. Windows 8 will support machines running both ARM and Intel architectures as part of Microsoft’s long term mobile strategy.

It has also been revealed that Microsoft will provide in-the-box upgrades to Windows 8 that will allow users to obtain the features of Windows 8 Pro and Windows Media Center. These will replace the old Windows Anywhere Upgrade system and will be available through the new ‘Add Features to Windows 8’ option.

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