Just an FYI - when installing Windows 8, be prepared to live without your computer for a few hours and keep an eye out for the impressive screen color changes in the setup process. I think I wrote that same program on my TRS-80 as a kid.
And with all respect to my parents, Windows 7 will be their last operating system. They will never be comfortable enough to exclusively open email and Facebook in this version. I may grow to like Windows 8 in time, but for now it feels like Microsoft operating systems are like Star Trek movies. Every other one is not so good.
An Update . . . Upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8 had limited success. Virtually all of the Metro apps failed to open. The end result of my troubleshooting was a complete clean loading of the OS. The UI is growing on me, but there is certainly a feeling of living in two different worlds - the metro world and the desktop world. There is really limited integration between the two. I hold out pretty high hopes though for the Windows 8 OS on tablets and touch laptops. I predict in a year, you'll be hard pressed to find a laptop without a touch screen.
