8 reasons to retire XP and upgrade to Windows 8

Windows 8 has been reimagined to focus on your life. The new start screen is smooth, intuitive, and gives you instant access to your people, apps, and stuff, so you spend less time searching and more time doing. The tiles are brimming with content, and they change and update in real time so you can see what is going on and stay on top of things. You can choose whether you want to use touch or mouse and keyboard – both work great. And everything great about Windows 7 is reimagined to be even better with Windows 8.

Apps are the heart of Windows 8. From the moment you turn it on you’ll have a set of built-in apps for the things you do most: email, calendaring, social networking, and sharing photos. Designed for your highly connected lifestyle, these apps integrate with the services you already have. For example, the mail, calendar, and people apps can bring together all your information in one place, from your personal mail (like Hotmail) and your company’s mail (like Exchange).

Windows 8 is also cloud-connected. You sign in with your Microsoft account, and immediately you’re connected to the things you care about most. Your PC comes to life with everything that makes Windows yours, including your personalized themes, language preferences, and even Wi-Fi settings. Your mail, calendar, and people apps stay 100% in sync across all of your devices and the SkyDrive app lets you get access to your files, wherever you are. All of this lets you pick up right where you left off, and stay connected to your people, files and apps, wherever you are. It’s your Windows, everywhere.

When you want more apps, you go to the Windows Store. The store highlights great apps and makes it easy to learn more about each. It was built to help you discover new, popular, and highly rated apps across all the categories really easily. The app descriptions have big, beautiful screenshots, a complete description of what the app does, and ratings from other users. When you want to install, it’s as easy as clicking or tapping on “install” and the app comes down almost instantly. As soon as it’s ready, Windows will let you know.

And when there’s not an app, there is the web. We’ve reimagined browsing with Internet Explorer 10, to give you an experience specifically designed to work great with Windows 8. The Web is as fast and fluid as any app, and with new capabilities in the Windows 8 Release Preview such as “flip ahead,” it is just as intuitive. Every navigation, every action you want to do, is just a swipe or tap away, and it feels instant. But it continues to provide the most trusted browsing experience, helping you keep safe from the real world security and privacy concerns that come with the modern web.

The way people work has changed dramatically over the last decade. People use technology in the home and at work interchangeably. They’re mobile and expect access from anywhere. They increasingly use their personal devices to do work, and vice versa. They want to connect to work files and personal files, all from the same device. They want to be able to get the same apps everywhere. Windows 8 allows them to do all of this – you can be connected everywhere. Features like Windows To Go let IT administrators deploy Windows to USB keys, letting users carry their entire Windows experience wherever they go, using any device they want to. And it’s all still safe and secure, with new security features like Trusted boot and Measured boot and built-in malware resistance, Windows is secure right from the startup. People can be productive anywhere, and connected everywhere.

Windows 8 delivers the same great experience across all hardware, from tablets to laptops to all-in-ones. You get the same start screen, applications, files and settings that you’re comfortable and familiar with. This means you can use Windows wherever you need to, however you need to, whether you’re using touch or a mouse and keyboard you can use whatever is most natural and right for what you need to do.

All of this is built on a solid foundation. Most people don’t think about what’s under the hood, and you certainly don’t need to with Windows 8. You can rest assured that Windows 8 has the flexibility to meet your needs wherever you are running it. It is fast, compatible, and protected. You can also install Windows 8 on the same hardware that powers Windows 7. Your familiar Windows 7 apps and devices are right at your fingertips. If you’re used to working with apps like Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop, they’ll run smoothly with the full power of Windows on the Windows 8 desktop. For businesses, this means the path to Windows 8 is deploying Windows 7 today.