As of February 1st, the cost of a Windows 8 upgrade rises substantially from $40 to $200.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t see too many paying out that kind of money for a product that is known to be difficult and not altogether reliable, certainly in Modern UI colours. My guess is that Microsoft is well aware that most of its user base will be running pre-installed OEM Windows 8 on new machines.

The promotion got Windows 8 out into the wild quickly, which is a good thing. Had Microsoft also included a full desktop, there would have been less resistance. Amazingly, more than a few don’t trust the 3rd party Start menus and yet will quite happily install an invasive 3rd party anti-virus solution which makes no claim to Windows 8 compatibility.

The reliability issue is obvious from the MS Community forums, and is something that I did not see coming. Microsoft have work ahead if Windows 8 is going to avoid becoming another Vista. It is already part way there.