Thanks all for the replies so far. I hadn't seen the note re using the 8 rather than the 8.1 M$ upgrade assistant. However, having tried that, it also claims I have insufficient memory. I cannot therefore proceed and purchase the software. My concern is, if I purchase a boxed upgrade and the set-up routine does the same check and comes up with the same result, it will refuse to install (possibly after having formatted the drive, as I believe you cannot do an upgrade as such, it formats and does a fresh install) and I'll be left with a totally non-functional PC.
Yes, more memory could be purchased - but with finances as they are, that would rule out purchasing the software
