Students offered absurd deal on Windows 7 and Office 2010

Jacqueline DiOrio 16 Jun, 2010 at 5:09pm ET Article published in Tech

Microsoft has recently announced a promotion that reduces student pricing for the Windows 7 Professional Upgrade to just $29.99. While Microsoft has offered a student discount on Windows 7 since its October 22 release, the $29.99 price tag is the largest offered to date.

The Windows 7 Professional Upgrade sells for $199.99, though retailers reguarly place the bar a little lower. $29.99 is absurdly low, however, and it’s not the only deal Microsoft has.

Office Professional Academic is also being offered to students for just $79.95, which is nearly 50% off the MSRP of $149.99. Office Professional Academic also offers virtually the same features as Office Home and Business 2010, which is $279.99.

To prove student status, users will need a valid e-mail address from a U.S. educational institution. Microsoft may also require proof of active enrollment. Not all schools qualify, and users should have copies of XP or Vista to take advantage of the upgrade license.

There is no word on whether or not this is a limited time offer, but in case it is, students best get moving and buy their upgrade now.

Comments

16 Jun 2010 ~ 5:19pm shwaip I've had the office 2007 student "ultimate steal" for a while. It's a great deal, and it's nice to have bought the software too

Probably going to pass on this because I have plenty of copies of win7 through MSDN:AA and office 2007 is good enough for how much i actually use it.
16 Jun 2010 ~ 6:02pm RyanMM This is a problem. The Win7 Professional Upgrade can only upgrade Vista Business. Users of Vista Home Premium, Vista Basic, and Vista Ultimate would be required to blow away their Vista install in order to put on 7. It's a horrible idea, because students are by and large not likely to be running Business. If they were going to do this right, they'd offer Ultimate, since Ultimate is the only version that can successfully upgrade from every mainstream version of Vista. But in typical Microsoft fashion, even when they're trying to be helpful, they completely fail.
16 Jun 2010 ~ 7:20pm drasnor Don't be silly. Everyone knows you don't need a previous OS to install the student Windows 7 Upgrade on a bare drive.
16 Jun 2010 ~ 7:28pm Leonardo

you don't need a previous OS to install the student Windows 7 Upgrade on a bare drive

Yup. Five upgrades on five different computers, all with freshly formatted drives, all upgraded with "Upgrade" Windows 7 versions.
16 Jun 2010 ~ 8:23pm pigflipper This offer has been around for a long while now and you can even download, then call Microsoft and they will send you the DVD free of charge.

Also, I only paid $29.99 for Win7 Pro 64 back in October...
16 Jun 2010 ~ 10:19pm DrLiam Is this largely only offered to the US or is there a list of international schools this will be available for?
16 Jun 2010 ~ 11:48pm Paul Thank you Ubuntu for keeping the competition on its toes.

I think the discounted version will stem the loss to Operating Systems like Ubuntu.

I wonder what Google Chrome will make them offer!
17 Jun 2010 ~ 12:45am Thrax I'm fair certain neither ChromeOS nor Ubuntu have the influence on Microsoft pricing that you are proposing.
17 Jun 2010 ~ 5:02pm Garg I'm irritated there's no upgrade version of Office. I just bought copies of 2007 a few months ago, and the beta 2010 has some UI changes that make it a lot less painful to use.
18 Jun 2010 ~ 9:45am student Students of Kaplan University get windows 7 free. Not sure why other students can't get in on that.
18 Jun 2010 ~ 10:16am PirateNinja

student wrote:

Students of Kaplan University get windows 7 free. Not sure why other students can't get in on that.

Kaplan is a for profit University, it's a whole different dynamic than regular universities where they can form special partnerships. The reason it is free is because somehow its a win-win business decision for both sides of the coin.
18 Jun 2010 ~ 10:26am RyanMM

drasnor wrote:

Don't be silly. Everyone knows you don't need a previous OS to install the student Windows 7 Upgrade on a bare drive.

I'm not being silly. That's a fresh install. What I'm saying is you can't do an upgrade installation.
20 Jun 2010 ~ 10:24am Color_Napkin What this article is missing is what the programs included in this student version of Office are.

I assume Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook?
24 Jun 2010 ~ 1:38pm drasnor

RyanMeray wrote:

I'm not being silly. That's a fresh install. What I'm saying is you can't do an upgrade installation.

I see what you mean. Still though, you can get Win7 Home Premium through the same program.
24 Jun 2010 ~ 1:40pm RyanMM

drasnor wrote:

I see what you mean. Still though, you can get Win7 Home Premium through the same program.

Ah, I wasn't aware of that. Thanks.