The answer is absolutely YES.
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I'm a cheapskate.
Errr..kind of, really.
Anyways, i've recently bought a desktop pc as my aging 3 years macbook is running out of space (even my external hard drive is full too and getting another hard drive was not worth the money) and getting slower day by day. Also, battery is a problem as it wont last an hour with wifi on and the audio jack is broken- so yeah, a valid reason to buy one.
I bought a desktop without installing an OS and it costs me roughly £350. Adding the new windows 8 OS would cost me another £85 and that's almost a quarter of the cost of my physical new desktop- I had to find another cheaper option.
Here's what I did. (If you already have an OS- original/jack sparrow on your desktop/laptop, you could skip to step 3)
1. I bought a 32 bit windows xp professional software from ebay (costs me £17.50-you could buy yours from any retail shops or participating outlets).
2. Installed 32 bit windows xp- installation didn't take long, a mere 15 mins and everything was ready. As my desktop has 16gb physical ram, 32 bit windows registered only 3.25 ram- (one of the reasons why you should upgrade to 64 bit if you intend to upgrade your ram; 64 bit fully utilizes your ram)
3. Went to microsoft store and bought windows 8 pro upgrade. (£24.99)
Ok, here's the important bit. When i've bought windows 8, I installed the OS and windows upgrade assistant will prompt for the 32 bit installation instead of 64 bit. (I had windows 8 32 bit running on my desktop before I remove it)
If you want the 64 bit installation, you have to find a computer which has a 64 bit operating system because windows upgrade assistant will give you the installer according to the bit of the OS installed.
4. I used my friends desktop, who had a windows 7 64 bit professional installed and I opened my email account. I opened the microsoft email and jot down my windows 8 key and clicked on the button where it says "If you need to download Windows, write down your new product key and enter it here"
5. Downloaded the 64 bit windows 8 installer and clicked on Install By Creating Media. I clicked on the USB flash drive. I used my 16gb kingston pendrive and you need atleast 8gb if you want your pendrive to be a "bootable drive". Using this method is also the easiest, as you won't be using any .iso converters and image.
After installing the windows 8 installer to your newly "bootable drive", you are now one step closer in upgrading your windows.
Back up all your files (use an external drive, etc)- as doing this would ultimately remove everything inside your previous OS, because this is termed as a "clean" installation.
Once you're ready, kiss your laptop/desktop and tell her that you loved her and it's time to move on.
The previous image shows how does your pendrive looks like when the installer has been installed in your bootable drive.
6. Inserted the bootable drive to my desktop and restarted my OS, when the BIOS start up appeared, I pressed F12 to prompt the bios setup. Found my bootable drive, pressed it and there would be a windows 8 installer popping out.
(That's the 64 bit installer by the way) and just follow the instruction given. Installing windows 8 this way would remove everything previously installed in your laptop/desktop. So be prepared and don't be hasty when doing this sort of stuff.
Andddddd that's it! I hope you guys enjoy my simple tutorial. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask, I'll try my best to answer them if I could.
P:S// Nothing feels more satisfying than doing a custom installation and save £40. Feels like a bawse mangggggggggg.
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