This morning, Microsoft revealed the last major missing ingredient to Windows 7, the upcoming replacement for the flawed Windows Vista: what it will cost.
A post on the Redmond, Wash., company’s Windows Team Blog outlined four possible prices home users can pay in the United States:
* Starting tomorrow, if you buy a computer with Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate from a vendor participating in Microsoft’s Windows 7 Upgrade Option program, you’ll pay “little or no cost” for an upgrade to 7 when it ships Oct. 22. (In other words, if you were going to buy a new PC today, wait until tomorrow.)
* Also starting tomorrow, you’ll be able to pre-order an upgrade copy of Windows 7 Home Premium for $49.99 (with an upgrade of 7 Professional going for $99.99). But this pre-order deal only runs through July 11 or “until supplies last” in the U.S., whichever comes first. How many copies will be available before these supplies run out? That’s an excellent question…
* Otherwise, the upgrade edition of Windows 7 Home Premium will cost $119.99, $10 less than the $129.99 Microsoft charges for an upgrade to Vista Home Premium today. Upgrades to 7 Professional and 7 Ultimate will run $199.99 and $219.99. The usual upgrade path will be from Windows Vista to 7; published reports have indicated that Microsoft will also allow Windows XP users to buy 7 at the upgrade price–but they’ll have to wipe their hard drives before installing 7 and then reload their data and programs. (Run Microsoft’s free Upgrade Advisor application on your PC before contemplating any upgrade to 7.)
* A full, non-upgrade copy of 7 Home Premium will cost $199.99, with full copies of 7 Professional and 7 Ultimate going for $299.99 and $319.99.
Customers in the European Union, however, will face an extra wrinkle. In response to inquiries from EU regulators about including a choice of Web browsers in Windows 7, Microsoft decided to excise its Internet Explorer browser from the European version of Windows 7–which it’s now calling Windows 7 E. Today, Microsoft announced that it will sell a full version of 7 E at upgrade prices.
