Exclusive: Windows 7 UK & Europe Upgrade ERPs Comments

please forgive my ignorance.. but what's the difference between the upgrade version and the full version? what justifies all the extra cash because whether or not you do a clean install the end result is still the same isn't it?

ow wait, is it because if you buy the upgrade edition, you already have a fairly recent windows licence?

Gordon, I don't know how you've managed to get so much information out of Microsoft, but I'm thankful for the continued updates. I'm also glad that I pre-ordered - it's looking a better and better deal, with each new piece of information.

Exclusive: Microsoft shows EU their two middle fingers

I'm glad I got the pre-order in and I'm glad the EU gave them the run around. That meant, for a few people at least, the OS was sold at a reasonable price. If they don't honour the pre-orders there are going to be a massive amount of pissed off customers. They can forget getting any money off me, I'll spend the extra cash somewhere else and move to a Mac.

Will it still have the promo pricing of £80 for the full version between 22/10 and 31/12 as you posted back in June:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/software/news/2009/06/25/Microsoft-Reveals-Windows-7-Pricing---Promotions/p1

I paid good money for Vista Ultimate, only to find it a utter let down in terms of being a complete dog of an OS and never really providing any 'Ultimate' features worth the extra money. Now Microsoft want me to splash out another £199 to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate (and make Vista what it should have been). Talk about fleecing the customer.

Don't mean to start a Windows vs. OS X war here, but a Leopard upgrade to Snow Leopard will only set you back $29 or $49 for a Family Pack, and is equivalent to the 'Ultimate' version.

How can MS justify these high prices when Apple can sell you a full copy of OS X Leopard for £83 (£75 discounted) and a five licence family pack for £126. Estimated UK price for the new upgrade will be £19 for single and £35 for family pack!

MS are really fleecing it's loyal customers so maybe more need to switch to the other side and enjoy the reduced total cost of ownership Apple offers? (Forget the headline hardware price, that is only part of the total picture, I know this from 3 members of my family I have switched, now they never call me.... as they don't have constant PC problems!)

@ Mike B : Was thinking exactly the same thing, the TCO of Apple OS X suddenly looks better than it did yesterday. I know OSX 10.6 has been billed as an upgrade to all the things you don't see, but it would be interesting to have a back-to-back review (or overview) of that and Win7 tested together by TR.

£230 for an operating system -- it's true that a fool and his money are easily parted.

"The downside is the feature has been targeted for business when it would clearly be of great help to the general public at large."

Am I missing something, help with what?. Looking around at the comments on the net when it was first announced the only thing people wanted it do is 3D games - which it can't do. Legacy hardware support is nice, but you would have to install everything twice to get any benefit, and asking joe/jane public to keep TWO OS's up to date with Anti-Virus and Security updates is just asking for trouble!

Hmm, wonder who does Microsoft's Exchange Rate? The Mafia?
HP Upgrade sells for 80 sterling and 120 euro. As of today, 80 sterling is worth 94 euro. Maybe this is Microsoft's way of getting back at the Eu(ro).
Not that I'm bothered, I'm using Ubuntu.

@gurnaik, I can't agree more. It's pretty sad that people are so locked in that they would sooner haemorrhage money into MS's coffers than try better (free) alternatives

I'm pretty sure that XP Mode was made public with the RC. I've been using it at the office for months now, or is it that they've only made it official now?

Very useful feature, a little buggy and could do with some polishing, but I'm sure they'll work it out. It also requires the user to be familiar with setting up virtual PCs, so I don't expect this could ever be a consumer-oriented feature.

@Ben - I`m running the XP virtual plugin on my Windows 7 RC and it`s saved me lots of money. I can`t get drivers for my Zen 20Gb MP3 player for Vista or Win` 7 but can use it on virtual XP. Likewise for an old Epson scanner so for me it`s good news.

@Gordon: Without meaning to get too technical in a comment section, I'm talking about this:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

What I've been using since the release of the RC *is* a virtual Windows XP environment, downloaded from the link above, which I've been running in Windows 7 since the release of the RC. I use it in the office to run some old software we have, and very useful it is too.

@needlegun the snow leopard update is that - a minor update its effectively a service pack that apple are branding as a completely new OS.
@I was looking into getting a mac a couple of weeks ago since overall it worked out in the long run to be nearly twice as expensive as the equivalent windows 7 laptop (assuming there are similarly priced as the vista ones. The mac system (iphone, macbook, time capsule) is very nice and it does appeal to me, however I must disagree and say that overall I believe the windows system is the cheapest, since from my personal experience I haven't had to pay for any repairs etc and the intial laptop was a lot cheaper (read half the price) for the same functionality. Therefore including the upgrade cost I would still be saving about £300 which effectivly means a free netbook or ipod touch.

I dont care how great Windows 7 is, at those prices, its not enticing me to swap from XP quite yet. And it will only encourage hacked versions..

@Gordon
"...Will need to be Vista though as Windows 7 can't upgrade from Windows XP as architectures are too different."

I doubt the similar architectures between Vista & Windows 7 has any bearing on whether an 'upgrade' version of the latter is possible or not? Are you suggesting that a Vista to Windows 7 'upgrade' would leave some of the Vista code intact? Surely it just leaves existing programmes & data intact, but replaces the OS files?

@Andrew Violet - Although to be fair Apple are pricing Snow Leopard a lot lower then previous OS X updates - I think they've acknowledged that it's not yet an essential upgrade. And, if you were to be particularly cruel, you could also say that Windows 7 is just a rebranded, more mature, Vista with a new taskbar (although without the cheaper price-tag).

Apple may charge £30 for Snow Leopard but, frankly, only about 3% of the UK cares. W7 will also primarily be sold on OEM hardware and will be included in the cost as upgrade sales account for less than 10% of MS consumer sales.

What's really hilarious though are the guys saying this is a rip off and that they're going Mac. Have any of you actually seen Apple's operating margins?

There always seem to be these comments on tech sites about costs and switching and they're all, frankly, rubbish. My Macbook isn't any more stable than my Vista Quad Core - because they're both superb - and has it's own share of problems including it's annoying habit of refusing to recognise my wireless network. Don't buy the myth folks - Macs aren't problem free and you do pay a premium for them.

@ gordon.. yes thanks.. However, maybe the versions should be subtitled upgrade and clean. The term 'full' raised the following question in my head.. is there elements missing from the upgrade version. Never mind, thanks for the great updates on W7.

They had it right, £50 for premium (£40 if you shop around) and £80 for professional. The two month promotion sold out in a day! What exactly has to happen to Microsoft for them to get a clue?

Where it says "upgrade price available for full editions of retail packaged product until at least Dec. 31, 2009" Does that mean e.g. the HP Upgrade box will be sitting next to the HP full box both at £79.99 for at least the rest of the year? Hmmm, I think stockists are going to need some pretty fast talking sales people to shift any upgrade copies!