European Windows 7 preorders are live

Robert Hallock 16 Jul, 2009 at 4:32pm ET Article published in Tech

As a reminder to our readers on the citrusy side of the pond, Microsoft opened the floodgates on discounted Windows 7 preorders last night. Chuffed to bring home a piece of l’action? Read on to find out exactly what you need to know.

Pricing

It’s true that Windows 7 is cheaper than Vista in most cases, but waiting until the October 22 launch makes you a dummkopf. Preordering can net you a discount of up to 70%, depending on your version and currency.

Euros

Pounds

Answering a few questions

Q: Are these prices for the upgrade version, or the full version?
A: As Microsoft cannot yet offer upgrade SKUs in the region, European buyers will be treated to a full copy of Windows 7, not an upgrade.

Q: Why can’t Microsoft offer upgrade licenses?
A: As a result of an ongoing anti-trust dispute between the European Commission and Microsoft, Microsoft has pulled Internet Explorer 8 from European copies of Windows 7. Microsoft never performed QA on upgrade procedures that did not include Internet Explorer, so the company cannot be sure if these upgrades would even work. The firm expects to qualify and release upgrade SKUs by December.

Q: So I can’t perform an upgrade install with a copy of Windows 7 purchased in Europe?
A: That’s correct; European users must reformat and perform a clean installation.

Q: How many computers can I install this copy of Windows 7 on?
A: Each Windows 7 license is good for just one PC at a time. The license may, however, be transferred to another PC as long as the new PC holds the sole installation for that license.

Q: Okay, where can I preorder?
A: Your best bet would be Amazon UK, Amazon DE or Amazon FR.

Comments

16 Jul 2009 ~ 4:57pm SPIKE09 picked up 2 preorders last night from Staple's, very few place's have the decent prices left :bigggrin:
17 Jul 2009 ~ 3:17am dEVIANT Picked up mine from http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/566020

Â£44.99 for Home Prem.
17 Jul 2009 ~ 3:40am Shorty I have mine too. Windows 7 professional. I actually believe in this OS.
17 Jul 2009 ~ 10:40am patrickcabenjamin what the hell
I can't afford that
17 Jul 2009 ~ 11:14am Shorty

patrickcabenjamin wrote:

what the hell
I can't afford that

Then don't buy it.
17 Jul 2009 ~ 12:44pm Snarkasm Methinks Patrick must be having some money problems lately, between bitching about OS upgrade pricing and ad-removal pricing.
18 Jul 2009 ~ 5:41am Richard The preorder for professional is revised to 189.99 quid and not 89.99 :-(
18 Jul 2009 ~ 6:42am CyrixInstead Got mine. Amazon were out of pre-orders after only one day, as were Tesco Direct. I got mine from Dixons of all places!

Can't refuse a whole new OS for Â£44.97, makes it incredibly cheap over its lifetime. I imagine that many, many of the Windows XP pirates will not be able to refuse such an enticing price, so Microsoft know exactly what they're doing!

~Cyrix
18 Jul 2009 ~ 6:43am CyrixInstead Oh, and eBuyer has the Professional edition for only Â£80!

~Cyrix
18 Jul 2009 ~ 2:54pm MJO Is it possible to preorder an Ultimate Edition with a nice discount?
I really want an Ultimate Edition, but it seems that it is not available for preorder.
18 Jul 2009 ~ 3:14pm Thrax There is no ultimate edition pre-order, nor discount. Is there any reason why you want Ultimate? It's pretty useless. Do you need disk or USB encryption that badly? Those are the only "major" advantages it has over Professional.
18 Jul 2009 ~ 3:18pm patrickcabenjamin

Snarkasm wrote:

Methinks Patrick must be having some money problems lately, between bitching about OS upgrade pricing and ad-removal pricing.

I'm still a teen

I can't afford much

my pocket money is low

leave me alone
18 Jul 2009 ~ 4:21pm shwaip

Thrax wrote:

There is no ultimate edition pre-order, nor discount. Is there any reason why you want Ultimate? It's pretty useless. Do you need disk or USB encryption that badly? Those are the only "major" advantages it has over Professional.

Do you have a link to a feature comparison between the different editions?
18 Jul 2009 ~ 4:29pm Snarkasm
18 Jul 2009 ~ 4:34pm shwaip tbh, it looks like i'd be fine with home, as long as I threw vnc on all my machines. Any other dealbreakers that are in pro but not home?
18 Jul 2009 ~ 4:35pm Snarkasm XP Mode (single-window XP virtualization) is on Pro, but not Home.
18 Jul 2009 ~ 4:37pm shwaip Thanks!

XP mode in it's current implementation is terrible. I assume it'll get better, but even so I can just use VPC07 (which doesn't require a hardware virtualization-capable processor) for the _one_ program i have that doesn't run on 7.