There are any number of reasons why someone might want to download Windows 8, or maybe the newer Windows 8.1. Most obviously, if you don't have Windows 8, getting your hands on the operating system via a download is much easier than buying a boxed copy.
Even if you already have Windows 8 on a computer, most manufacturers don't include a copy, making a clean install of Windows 8 or 8.1 pretty much impossible. Plus, having a copy of Windows 8 makes some kinds of troubleshooting a lot easier.
Finally, maybe you just want to give it a try on a spare computer or on a virtual machine. You've seen the prices for Windows 8 and it isn't cheap. There are probably free copies of Windows 8 floating around somewhere, right?
Windows 10 is the most recent version of Windows available and can be upgraded to from a currently installed Windows 8 or Windows 7 OS. See Where Can I Download Windows 10? for help.
There are several ways to download Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 online, but of them are only a couple completely legal methods.
There is a Windows 8 trial option, as well as some not-so-legal methods of downloading Windows 8, all of which is discussed below.
If you do have a copy of Windows 8 or 8.1 (in ISO format or on a disc or flash drive) and also have that copy of Windows 8 installed and working but you've lost your product key, there may be a way to find it. See How to Find Your Windows 8 or 8.1 Product Key for help.
There are three, completely legal ways to download a full copy of Windows 8.1.
If you're new to Windows 8, purchasing Windows 8.1 (Windows 8 with the 8.1 update already included) is probably the smartest choice. Sometimes you can find a less expensive boxed copy of Windows 8 (before the 8.1 update) from general retailers like Amazon or from an electronics outlet like NewEgg, which you can then update to Windows 8.1 for free after installation.
Your second option, useful if you have experience working with ISO images, is to download Windows 8.1 directly from Microsoft. Please note, however, that unlike buying Windows 8 new, a Windows 8 download from Microsoft doesn't get you the product key you need to activate Windows.
Visit Microsoft's Download Windows 8.1 Disc Image (ISO File) page.
Pick the Windows 8.1 edition you want, and select Confirm.
Unless there's a specific reason to pick another option, most people should select Windows 8.1.
Choose the Windows 8.1 ISO download you want. There's both a 32-bit and 64-bit download option.
Your final option is to download Windows 8.1 or Windows 8 for 'free' as part of a paid Visual Studio subscription (previously called an MSDN subscription), which runs for several hundred dollars per year. You'll get a copy of Windows 8.1 in ISO format, ready for burning to a disc or transferring to a USB device.
This is a professional subscription program available for purchase by anyone, but designed for software developers. You get access to all full versions of Windows 8 & 8.1, including valid product keys, in addition to software and keys for almost every software and operating system Microsoft has ever created.
The Visual Studio subscription program is anything but cheap. Unless you're a software developer or some other professional IT person that needs access to multiple operating systems, a Visual Studio subscription probably isn't a cost effective way to legally download Windows 8.
If you already have a Windows 8 or 8.1 disc or ISO and are only trying to download Windows 8 because you need to install it on a computer without an optical drive, there is a way to get the files from the disc or ISO onto a flash drive. See How to Install Windows 8 or 8.1 From USB for a complete tutorial.
It's important to follow the disc or USB creation instructions linked above if you want to put your Windows 8 download on a DVD or flash drive. You can't boot to the Windows 8 media just by downloading the ISO directly onto the disc or drive. A very specific process, explained in those links, is what you need to follow to make the Windows 8 download bootable.
Any other free or incredibly inexpensive Windows 8 or 8.1 download you find online is almost certainly illegal, including Windows 8 ISO files you might find on torrent sites. Legal issues aside, these Windows 8 downloads, unlike the official ones from Microsoft, run the very serious risk of containing a surprise or two.
For example, a number of Windows 8 & 8.1 downloads available from unofficial sources are 'cracked' versions of Windows 8 installation discs, meaning that they've been changed for one reason or another and could easily contain malware. It would be very unfortunate to install Windows 8 on your computer and be automatically infected with a virus.
Please know that when you pay for Windows 8, what you're actually paying for is the product key used to activate Windows 8. In other words, even if you do download Windows 8 from someone other than Microsoft, whether it's a clean and legitimate copy of Windows 8 or not, you'll still need a valid Windows 8 product key to use the operating system.
A much better option for those of you with lost or broken, but valid, copies of Windows 8 or 8.1 is to order replacement media. In your case, there's no reason to pay full price for another copy of Windows 8 or risk being infected with malware.
If Windows 8 came preinstalled on your computer, and you did have DVD or flash media but now it's damaged or lost, contact your computer maker for a replacement. Depending on their policy, your computer maker might provide you with Windows 8 media for free or a small fee.
If you purchased a retail Windows 8 DVD, you can contact the Microsoft Supplemental Parts team and request a replacement. Open octet stream file.
While not a replacement for Windows 8, please know that you also have the option to create a Recovery Drive for Windows 8 using a friend's Windows 8 PC, all for the cost of a small flash drive. Your Recovery Drive can be used to perform all the diagnostic and repair functions that a full copy of Windows 8 can. See How to Create a Windows 8 or 8.1 Recovery Drive for instructions.
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If you’ve recently upgraded to Windows 7 or Windows 10 and are wondering what happened to HyperTerminal, you’re not alone! HyperTerminal was a sweet little program that let you connect to other computers, Telnet sites, host computers, BBSs, etc. using your modem or Ethernet connection.
In Windows 7, Vista, and 10, you will no longer find the HyperTerminal program. If you need HyperTerminal to control serial devices, there is a way to get it back! Also, there are several new alternatives to HyperTerminal that are probably better for secure shell access and troubleshooting modems.
Firstly, if you only need remote shell access, you can use the new Windows Remote Shell command line option in Windows 7/8/10. To learn more about using WRS, simply open a command prompt and type in winrs /?.
It’s basically a SSH replacement that allows remote command line access over an encrypted connection. It also uses the SOAP protocol. You can also check out the Microsoft doc on winrs that gives you some examples.
If you were using HyperTerminal to troubleshoot modems, you can now use Phone and Modem Options to do this. Go to Control Panel, click on Hardware and Sounds and then click on Phone and Modem Options. If you don’t see it there, click on the drop down by View items and choose Small icons or Large icons.
All you have to do is provide information about the Country/Region, Area Code, Carrier Code, and Outside Dial Number to access the dialog box. Once you do that, you can troubleshoot your modem in Windows 7 or Vista.
If you don’t want to use all these alternative methods, you can still use alternative programs for HyperTerminal. Here are some of my favorites.
HyperTerminal Private Edition – This is a commercial terminal emulation program that you can use to communicate with serial COM ports, dial-up modems, and TCP/IP networks. If you need a good HyperTerminal program for Windows 10, then this is your best option.
TeraTerm – TeraTerm is an open-source terminal emulator and SSH module that supports IPv6, SSH1, SSH2, Telnet, serial ports, and file transfer protocols (XMODEM, Kermit, ZMODEM, B-PLUS, etc).
Putty – Another free Telnet and SSH implementation for Windows. It also is an xterm terminal emulator. This is probably my favorite alternative to HyperTerminal.
If you just can’t live without the original HyperTerminal in Windows XP, you can actually extract two files from your XP installation and copy them over to Windows 7/8/10.
The two files you will need are hypertrm.dll and hypertrm.exe. Simply copy those files into any directory on your machine and it will work. You should be able to find hypertrm.exe in C:Program FilesWindows NT and hypertrm.dll in C:WindowsSystem32.
If you have the Windows XP CD, you should be able to find both of these files in the i386 directory on the CD.
So that’s about it! Even though HyperTerminal is no longer in Windows 7/8/10, it’s really not needed since you have a lot of great alternatives like Putty, etc. If you want it simply because you’ve been using it for a long time, either download the Private Edition or copy the files from XP. Enjoy!
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I need to do some communication between 8051 micro-controller and PC . There used to be a hyper terminal for this purpose in windows XP. I m using windows 8 now. So can anyone suggest me some equivalent of hyper terminal in windows 8 for the purpose of serial comm. between micro-controller and PC.
This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:
PuTTY, surprisingly enough, can act as a full-featured serial terminal. It supports full-blown VT-102/VT-80 command codes too.
There is Termite, which is a very nice, no-installation 200K exe:
Parallax also has a nice serial terminal.
HTerm is a gem!
I highly recommend you give it a try. While not being a pure terminal, it supports some nice features like (optional) concurrent display of Ascii, Hex, Dec and Bin. Its very straightforward to use and consists of a single exe file without any special dependencies.
I've used this on WinXP and Win7 without problems.
I'll just add TeraTerm in and hTerm in case you're really going low-level, but mainly I use PuTTY.
I use ScriptCommunicator. It has many features and a very useful script interface: http://sourceforge.net/projects/scriptcommunicator/
main window:
example script GUI:
I like Terminal. It has a very easy to use interface, macro capability, and quick graphing tools.
I generally use RealTerm. However I have had problems sometimes with it locking up in Windows 7, particularly with virtual COM ports like USB.
So I got a copy of HyperTerminal Private Edition, by Hilgraeve Inc. which is the company that wrote the original HyperTerminal for Microsoft. They indicate it works with Windows 7, 8, and Vista. As others have said, it isn't that great a terminal program but it was able to connect to a virtual COM port in Windows 7 on a development board that RealTerm was unable to.