Windows 7 Family Pack prices, Anytime Upgrade details
The upcoming Windows 7 Family Pack
will be priced at $149.99, and it will be available for purchase in
stores upon the operating system's Oct. 22 launch, Microsoft said this
morning.
The Family Pack, which will let PC users upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium on up to three existing Windows Vista or XP computers, represents a discount of more than $200 from buying the Windows 7 Home Premium upgrades individually.
It's one of a series of steps Microsoft is taking to make the new operating system more affordable. The company is trying to pull off a successful Windows 7 launch, reviving its flagship product, in the middle of the turbulent economy.
"Our goal is to make sure customers can easily move up to Windows 7 Home Premium on a bunch of different PCs," said Microsoft's Michelle Haven, a product manager in the Windows business group.
Microsoft today also announced pricing and details for Windows 7's implementation of Windows Anytime Upgrade, which lets people with a lower-priced Windows 7 edition shift subsequently to a Windows 7 edition with more features, without having to use an installation disc.
For example, upgrading from Windows 7 Starter Edition to Windows 7 Home Premium adds features including Media Center PC capabilities and advanced Windows graphics. Going from Home Premium to Professional adds business-related features.
In many cases, Microsoft has reduced the price of the Windows Anytime Upgrade for Windows 7 when compared to shifting between similar Windows Vista editions. For example, going from Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Ultimate will cost $164.99, about 17 percent less than moving between comparable Windows Vista editions. Moving from Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Ultimate will cost $139.99, about 12 percent less, and going from Windows 7 Professional to Windows 7 Ultimate will cost $129.99, about 6 percent less.
Shifting from Windows 7 Home Premium to Professional will cost $89.99 through Windows Anytime Upgrade, and going from Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Home Premium will cost $79.99.
See this earlier post for details on standard retail pricing for the new operating system.
Windows Anytime Upgrade takes advantage of the fact that various editions of the operating system are contained in what's known as a single "image," creating the ability to unlock more-advanced editions by purchasing a product key online or in a store. The previous iteration of Windows Anytime Upgrade, introduced with Windows Vista, required the use of an upgrade installation disc.
"This is really taking a lot of the feedback we heard with Windows Vista, and improving the process with Windows 7," Haven said. "We're pretty excited about how simple it will be for any end user to go get it."
In a demonstration this week on Microsoft's Redmond campus, Haven showed how to upgrade from Windows 7 Starter Edition to Windows 7 Home Premium on an Asus Eee PC netbook computer in less than 10 minutes after purchasing a product code online. In some situations, the process could take slightly more than 10 minutes, she said.
In either case, that's significantly less than the 60 to 90 minutes that it can take to use Windows Anytime Upgrade to go from one version of Windows Vista to another.
In Windows 7 Starter Edition, the Start menu will contain a shortcut to the Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade service for a limited time after the lower-end version of the operating system is installed. Users of higher-end versions, such as Windows 7 Home Premium, will be able to find Anytime Upgrade by searching from the Start menu.
Read more of Todd Bishop's posts at TechFlash.com, and follow him on Twitter @toddbishop
dude on August 01, 2009 at 04:18 PM
Microsoft must be kidding. They sell me a bunch of junk in vista and they immediately turn around, fix a bunch of it and then charge me for the pleasure.
No wonder people are going to linux and open source, they are tired of being ripped off.
AndyJ on August 01, 2009 at 04:28 PM
Is there a similar plan for Vista... I have XP on several home computers because Vista was reported to be too buggy. Now Mossberg's column says that Vista will upgrade from XP and leave personal files intact. Then Windows 7 will upgrade from Vista leaving personal files intact. BUT if I wish to go from XP to Windows 7 I must back up all my personal files as the hard drive will be wiped clean. It's not fun to back up everything on one computer but to do it on several is daunting. Am I left in the land of XP an orphan or must I buy Vista for a one-time load then upgrade again-?
C on August 01, 2009 at 05:14 PM
I think it is wrong that Ultimate costs so much. Isn't Ultimate just Home and Business combined?
It doesn't make sense. You pay $80 to upgrade to business, but you lose the features you already had with home premium or you pay $130 to upgrade to Ultimate and keep the features you had with home premium.
If you upgrade from premium to business, then you should get to keep the features in home premium along with business.
C on August 01, 2009 at 05:21 PM
Disregard last post. Apparently, editions in Windows 7 are different from Vista dramatically. In Vista, Business had some features Premium didn't and Premium had some features Business didn't and Ultimate combined the two. In Windows 7 Ulimate, you just get Bitlocker and the ability to switch languages. Windows 7 Business has all the features of Windows 7 Premium plus the domain networking tools you expect.
Randy Rager on August 01, 2009 at 05:44 PM
I've a far better plan: My next computer will be a Mac, and Gates et al. can go pound sand.
No Thanks on August 01, 2009 at 05:48 PM
XP works fine thanks. If they GIVE me W7 I don't want it. If they PAY ME to switch, I don't want it.
Terry on August 01, 2009 at 05:59 PM
I'm still perplexed as to why MS thinks it's a good idea to have more than two versions of their OS... it's a royal PITA to figure out what options you want before buying.
I'm an IT pro and I've grown up on everything you can imagine, and I'm not some Windows/Mac/Linux bigot - I love/hate them all.
I've run Windows 7 betas and the RC, and I am impressed - the OS has grown up, this is the best Windows ever. Everything that was right in Vista and fixed, and none of the crap that turned Vista into the worst OS since Windows ME. BUT... how stupid of them to cripple some features in an effort to complicate their packaging and marketing. Somebody in MS' market department needs a swift kick in the nuts.
I'll put Windows 7 on my PC, but I still have a Mac and Linux box... this only makes up for the disaster that is Vista, it does not push into the other markets that I buy from.
Upgrade Vista Ultimate to W7 Family Pack? on November 02, 2009 at 02:54 AM
Can I upgrade my Vista Ultimate SP2 using the $149.00 Windows 7 Family Pack Upgrade?
Thanks,
kerry
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