For most of us, installing a new operating system in a PC is foreign experience. After all, the majority of users only migrate to an upgraded OS when they buy a new computer, meaning the operating system comes fully installed.
Meanwhile, those who would prefer to upgrade to a more advanced OS rather than buy a new PC face additional deterrents, such as increasing system requirements and hardware compatibility issues, not to mention the monotonous and often complicated task of completing the upgrade on their own.
The end result is that not many people bother with upgrading existing devices when a new Windows OS comes out. Microsoft acknowledged this in a recent blog post, and plans on making it a much less painful experience for Windows 8, set to come out next year.
Christa St. Pierre, a member of the Windows Setup and Deployment team, makes two main points in his blog post. First, Microsoft (News 
- Alert) has drastically improved the upgrade process by significantly reducing the number of steps it takes to complete the job. Second, the company has developed the new OS to work in concert with legacy hardware, meaning it will operate as designed, even on older PCs.
For Windows 8, users can complete the entire upgrade process online, or they can go through the traditional method of using an installation disc or USB. The addition of a completely online registration and installation process is clearly a huge bonus as it will eliminate the need to go get the physical disc. Microsoft also removed the need to enter the 25-digit product key, which will save some extra time as well.
In addition, Microsoft folded four different web and client experiences – which took users 60-pages to wade through in Windows 7 – into a single, integrated experience. The end result is that the entire installation experience can be completed in just 11 clicks. Not bad.
"We have integrated what was once many separate steps for people to perform when preparing and starting their setup into a streamlined user experience, with a fast and reliable setup engine under the hood," St. Pierre noted.
Microsoft has also made a concerted effort to maintain compatibility and keep system requirements low for Windows 8. This means that the upgrade will be made available to millions of users who probably thought their system was too outdated.
"Looking just at Windows 7 customers, there are currently more than 450 million PCs that will be able to run Windows 8, but we expect that many systems running Windows Vista and even Windows XP will also be eligible," St. Pierre added.
At the end of the day, the new improvements should encourage more users to go through the upgrade process rather than putting up with the less-than-ideal performance of their current OS.
Beecher Tuttle is a TMCnet contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Rich Steeves
