Microsoft has announce the official pricing system for Windows 7. Thankfully, the new OS isn’t going to cost more than Vista, as was rumored, and it is actually the most inexpensive version of Windows ever produced.
That being said, There’s definitely still room for improvement. The pricing system for Windows 7 is as follows:
- Home Premium Full Version – $199.99
This is the version of Windows 7 that most people are going to get. It offers all features of Windows 7 except for automatic backup & restore, XP emulation, and BitLocker encryption. - Professional Full Version – $299.99
Professional adds the ability to emulate Windows XP (very handy for business professionals who cannot afford to have software incompatibilities), and make automatic backups. - Ultimate Full Version – $319.99
Ultimate adds BitLocker on top of the Professional features. Ultimate is, overall, a ripoff that Microsoft should not be offering anymore. Don’t buy it unless you desperately need BitLocker…
Compared to Windows Vista’s $239.99 for Home Premium, that’s pretty good. However, the real discounts come with the upgrade versions, for which Microsoft currently has a promotion running so that Home Premium and Pro are half off:
- Home Premium Upgrade – usually $119.99, now $49.99
- Professional Upgrade – usually $199.99, now $99.99
- Ultimate Upgrade – $219.99 (no promotional discount for Ultimate)
Considering how much better Windows 7 is compared to Vista, these prices are just right. Of course, it would be great if Microsoft could be more like Apple and release one version of their OS with all of the features for $29.99, although Snow Leopard admittedly adds less to Leopard than Windows 7 does to Vista.
You can buy Windows 7 at Microsoft’s Store. Act fast, the promotional prices won’t last forever!