More good news from Microsoft: Windows 8’s upgrade process won’t be like a mythological Greek hell punishment. Through clever software design, Windows 8’s setup will blow Windows 7 away — 82 per cent fewer clicks and massively cut install times.
Detailed at the MSDN Blog, the Windows team explains how little manoeuvres like transferring entire folders at once — rather than file by file as in previous versions — will make an enormous difference. On the largest simulated system, for example, it’d take over eight hours (!) to install Windows 7. It’d take Windows 8 less than one. This speed also owes largely to Microsoft’s push to sell Windows 8 as an optimised online update, rather than a physical medium pile of code goop.
Gone too are the dizzying number of setup options we’ve come to equate with using Windows — number 8 will have one wizard for everyone, seen above. Eleven clicks, as opposed to a carpet bombing of installation windows. It’s streamlined and informative, letting you know what programs will work on your new install, which won’t work, and what you can do about the latter. All of these small things are (probably I hope?) going to make Windows 8 unlike distended iteration before it. [MSDN Blog]