It is a stretch calling the change from XP to Win 8 an “upgrade”! XP—>Win7 maybe.
I have Win7 on a VM on my MacBook Pro currently for all my windows needs. While Win7 has some quirks compared to XP, I am generally happy with it.
Win 8 on the other hand, not so much. Nothing about that OS is usable to me. Nothing makes any sense about where to click to accomplish a task.