Last week, Microsoft released details on their new operating system named Windows 7. Pre-orders are now being taken and for those buying a new machine or upgrading from an older operating system, you are in luck.
The options available start off with Free Upgrades which if you buy a PC from last Friday (26th June 2009) you will/should be eligible for a free upgrade plan. The “should” was thrown in there due to manufacturers having to allow this on their systems of which, most if not all are. The upgrade you get matches the version of Vista you get. For example, you buy Vista Premium then when you upgrade you will be entitled to Windows 7 Premium. Vista Business will get you Windows 7 Professional and Vista Ultimate will get you Windows 7 Ultimate. The upgrade will be obtainable on the 22nd October when Windows 7 is launched.
If you want to pre-order Windows 7 as an upgrade but have a PC older then last Friday then you are in luck if you live in the US, Canada or Japan as you will be able to buy the upgrade at around half price (this does not include Ultimate).
The discount offer is not a permanently running deal and could be pulled at any time by Microsoft. The deal here is that they have a pre-determined amount of licences they want to shift at 50%+ discount and when that number is met the price will jump back up again. Some have estimated that this will happen early July.
Europe Windows 7 Deals
If you live in France, Germany or the UK then you are in bad luck it seems due to the banning of MS preinstalling IE8 with their new OS. This has forced Microsoft to only allow a fresh install rather then an upgrade due to IE7 potentially having compatibility issues with both MS software and 3rd party software.
Euros who buy Win 7 will be forced to perform a clean install, and migrate their data and apps over any way they know how. The logic is that, while the Windows team can do a clean install without IE8, there’s not enough quality assurance on what an upgrade install would be like without IE8, with assorted HTML rendering apps co-existing in the OS already. Could be messy, says Ybarra. “We don’t want to break anyone else’s software, we don’t want to break our own software, and we don’t want the customer on the phone with support.” That funky deal is supposed to run through December.
Windows 7 Full Price
Windows 7 Home Premium will cost $120 for the upgrade and jump up to $200 for the full version.
Windows 7 Professional will cost $200 for the upgrade while the full version will cost $300.
Windows 7 Ultimate will cost $220 for the upgrade and $320 for a full version.
From what I have seen of Windows 7 it seems like it’s everything that Vista should have been (but wasn’t). If you are wanting to upgrade then look in to it now while the discounts are going.
Via: Gizmodo
