Well, the prices for Windows 7 are here and this is how it fares out.
Is Windows 7 cheaper than Vista? YES (thank God). If Microsoft had priced this the same as the previous OS that would have been a seriously stupid maneuver.
Starting today, if you pre-order Windows 7 as an upgrade, the Home Premium Edition (which is what most people would go for) is just a tick under $50. See below.
The full versions start with Home Premium at $199.99. That’s still steep, but it is cheaper than Vista. See below.
What do you not get with Home Premium?
- XP Mode
- Domain Join feature
- Automatic backup
- BitLocker
- Thirty-five language choices
The only one you’d miss is the auto-backup feature, but there are several auto-backup solutions out there to cover that.
See a detailed comparison chart here.
What versions of Windows qualify you for the upgrade?
Windows Vista or Windows XP. Yes, XP qualifies be it Home or Pro Edition. Is says so right on the Office Depot sale page for this product.
A near-60% discount on the purchase of Home Premium means this is the cheapest Windows upgrade we’ve seen in a very long time.
I use Windows 7 RC on a daily basis. It’s stable and solid. And now, thankfully, cheap (at least for the upgrade).
This upgrade offer lasts from today, June 26 to July 11.
Where to get it?
The links go directly to the Windows 7 pre-order page for the respective vendor.
[UPDATE]
Several more vendors are now available including TigerDirect, BestBuy, NewEgg and more.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/buy/offers/pre-order-email.aspx
From Microsoft’s page (followed from an email offer sent to me by Microsoft)
You can get it at Newegg too! I’m with you, I LIKE Windows 7. This is a pretty awesome offer–even if it is just the upgrade disk.
I’ve been running 7 for some time now, and I agree it’s excellent! What’s your advice Rich? Keep using the RC until the bitter end of the trial, or upgrade now? So you think these prices will go up?
I already bought mine from Amazon; the deal was too good to pass up. I’ve been using the RC so it was a no-brainer, but even if you haven’t been, this upgrade is roughly the same price I paid for Windows 95 Upgrade back in 1995! My advice? Unless you want to pay $200 for Home Premium after July 11, get it now.
That’s good to hear, thanks for this article.
Yes that’s all very well for US customers; but look at the con they’re trying to pull off in the UK!
Does that suck or does it suck? – They possibly didn’t get many UK people to buy Vista. I don’t want Vista; even if 7 is free with it, so they can go take a jump, especially at that ridiculous price! (Over $200 US)
I have been using W7 RC1 exclusively( no other OS) on my desktop. My question is can I buy the upgrade or will I have to reinstall XP first in order to use the upgrade or will I have to buy a full version?
I have vista X64, if I buy the windows 7 upgrade can I do a clean install of windows 7 or how does it work?
If you currently have any version of Windows XP or Vista, you can buy any Windows 7 Upgrade and do either an upgrade install or a clean install.
You won’t be able to do a clean install. But you should be able to do the upgrade from Vista. I’m not sure how the X64 comes into play. I actually have Vista Ultimate X64 and I will want to get the Win7 Ultimate.
From the Windows 7 page in tiny print at the bottom (very difficult to see but there):
“Windows 7 Home Premium and Professional packaged product includes both 32- and 64-bit discs.”
Question answered!
I currently have Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit with Service Pack 1. I would like to upgrade to Windows 7 32-bit. Is this possible? Or will it require a clean install?
You shouldn’t have any problems Roy: The upgrade should go ahead, hopefully without issue.
- But: In my experience a reformat and reinstall is always a lot less problematic in the long run than an upgrade. Having said that; technology has moved on somewhat since I last did an upgrade. However I suggest backing up important files and going the reformat/reinstall route… Although the upgrade may well be the more painless way to go? The choice is yours.
I’ve just read your question properly, having already answered… Why the … do you want to go from 64-bit to 32-bit in an upgrade?!?
I’d stick to 64-bit myself.
My last remarks stand anyway, – but with a maybe factor thrown in to cover my ass.
Thank you for your prompt reply. I recently bought a new laptop and had to settle for 64-bit Vista. I then found several programs I like would not run, or not run well under this OS – programs such as uninstallers, firewalls, antispyware, and email notifiers. Even my favorite browser, Firefox, wouldn’t run well (in fact, their site displays an exclaimer that 64-bit is not supported). However, having just downloaded version 3.5, Firefox seems to be running much better on my 64-bit machine – though all the add-ons I want are not compatible. While I expect Windows 7 to be much better than Vista, I assume that I will still run into problems running these 32-bit programs on a 64-bit operating system.
I guess I would have to ask, what is the advantage of a 64-bit OS?
In the main the two most outstanding advantages are the ability to read a file from disk greater than approx. 2GB in size, and the ability to use up to several exabytes (1 exabyte = 1000 terabytes.) of RAM – as opposed toonly around 3 1/2 GB with 32-bit. Read this article from Wikipedia.
Er… I thought it an idea to bring ,a href=”http://ask-leo.com/whats_the_difference_between_an_upgrade_and_an_upgrade.html?awt_l=CC9jV&awt_m=1dRC.YiZWZdfbL”>this article by Leo Notenbloom to your attention. FYI.
FAIL: Syntax error. ‘Try again: -
Er… I thought it an idea to bring this article by Leo Notenbloom to your attention. FYI.
Somehow I still managed to omit the closing . ‘Link works, anyway. I blame swine flu.