Nothing’s nicer than a happy ending. Except maybe a happy beginning, which is precisely what you’re looking at above — Microsoft’s new OS captured in all its glory within minutes of completing the installation. What’s more, if you saw the first part of this upgrade diary, then you’ll know I was aiming for a trickier-than-average setup, with Windows 8 Pro running on a brand new and untouched SSD, alongside Windows 7 Ultimate running in dual-boot mode on my old HDD
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Windows 8 upgrade diary: a defiantly successful installation
There were balloons. 
That special moment has come which usually rolls around only once every three years: Microsoft has released a new version of Windows. For the version 8 update , though, the stakes are higher than ever. 
We just got more hands-on time with MSI’s S20 Slidebook , which we first spotted at Computex 2012 . This ultra light (2.3 pounds / 1kg) and thin (0.78-inches / 19.8mm) convertible Ultrabook runs Windows 8 (naturally) and packs an Intel Core i5 processor ( Ivy Bridge ), 4GB RAM and a 128GB mSATA SSD. In front, there’s a gorgeous 11.6-inch 1920×1080-pixel IPS display with a 10-point capacitive multitouch layer plus an HD front-facing camera. 
With Windows 8 Microsoft is pushing manufacturers away from a traditional BIOS to UEFI with Secure Boot . But that poses problems for alternative OSes like Linux, because UEFI requires any software have a signed certificate. 
We don’t often summarize market share in one word, but: ouch. Both Gartner and IDC have trotted out their preliminary estimates for PC market share in the third quarter, and the two agree that this summer was a dire one for the traditional computer. 
If a company won’t use its own products, how can it expect others to? Many customers, especially on the enterprise side of the equation, are understandably a little wary of the drastic change that awaits them when upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8 . 
Google’s fast-track approach to updating Chrome gives a different theme to each update: last time, it was all about visual acuity . For the just launched Chrome 22 stable version, the focus swings to gaming
We dug into Microsoft ‘s recently updated SkyDrive efforts in a review earlier this year, and it looks as if the company’s still intent on improving things based on user feedback. The newest update to SkyDrive for Windows (version 16.4.6003.0710, for the number crunchers) includes quite a few under-the-hood improvements that are said to bolster “performance, reliability, and compatibility.” But beyond that, you’ll also see a much-requested status window; put simply, this guy gives users a glanceable view at whether or not their SkyDrive is in sync, and displays the time at which it was last updated. In the event that a sync is still ongoing, you’ll also see the number of megabytes and files you have remaining to sync. 
Microsoft is still determined to explore every nook and cranny of Windows 8 on its way to the newly official October launch , and now it’s swinging its attention towards File History, its revamped approach to preserving our data. The new component supplements Windows Backup, which Microsoft admits is “not a very popular” app, and is more than a little transparent in bringing OS X’s set-it-and-forget-it Time Machine strategy to the Windows crowd. Not that we’re complaining: the same basic philosophy of getting an automatic, version-aware backup of all our personal files is convenient on any platform, especially when we can get a temporary internal safeguard while we’re on vacation
