[deanhills]

For Question 1:

Never ever ever install anything from a pre-burnt disk! The chances of it being outdated are insanely huge! And trust me, you would NOT want to install a billion windows updates due to the fact that you installed an old image. Go with the DVD you’ve burnt the latest iso on.

Good point and one I immediately considered.  Until I read somewhere during my research some having issues with product keys that didn't want to work with up to date downloads.  Hence why I asked, but I'd imagine you wouldn't have emphasized this as much if you hadn't come across the product key incompatibility, so maybe those who came across this problem are in the minority.

I've downloaded and burnt the latest version to disk.  Latest in inverted commas of course given that Windows 8.1 is not actively supported by Microsoft any longer.  Possibly the "latest" version on their download site is not as up to date as it used to be.

I have to say, I’m quite impressed by how much research and thought you’ve put into this. I usually go by the “install it without thinking it through, see if you like it. If not, go back.” approach. It works, but not everyone’s a fan of said approach haha.

Guess it's more a case of procrastination and dithering on my part to be honest.  I'm hesitating as I still love my Windows 7 and it hasn't given me any issues yet.  That I know off anyway.