Do you need Windows 8? Despite a sizeable list of improvements and changes in Microsoft’s new operating system, it’s hard to point to any of them with great urgency. There’s a new app store and there’s built-in support for social networking. You can sync your user account now across multiple PCs and a new version of Windows Explorer makes it easier to move files around with less confusion. These are nice features to have, but in the short term they are also easy to do without.

Windows 8 App Store

Your best bet is to simply wait until you need to buy a new computer where Windows 8 will be included for free and you can avoid the still-complicated task of upgrading an older system.

The most valuable features, such as an effective system reset process, are geared more towards power users who have already played with the preview version of Windows 8 and likely know where they stand on it, and to Microsoft’s next wave of smartphone and tablet devices which will now share with home computers touchscreen gestures and tile-like icons for apps and pinned content. Unless your current computer has a touchscreen, these features offer little use to you.

Unlike with PCs, Microsoft won’t charge for the mobile version of Windows on smartphones and although their new Surface tablets are powered by the same Windows software as on PCs, it’s likely to be free there too in order to compete with the free operating systems offered by Apple and Google on their tablets.

Many features of Windows 8 were designed with the Microsoft Sruface in mind. 

While past editions of Windows had to resolve issues with security and performance that users were looking to be addressed, Windows 8 has to help Microsoft stay relevant in a business world where tablets and smartphones are the new focus and where Microsoft is no longer a major player. That’s Microsoft’s issue, not yours. For the $69.99 cost of the Windows 8 Pro Upgrade there’s no need to rush towards Windows 8, instead I recommend waiting for the update to come to you.