Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Last week, Microsoft finally announced that there would be six editions of Windows 7, just like there were for Windows XP and Windows Vista. The company will release Windows 7 Starter (worldwide only via OEMs), Windows 7 Home Basic (only in emerging markets), Windows 7 Home Premium (retail and OEM), Windows 7 Professional (retail and OEM), Windows 7 Ultimate Edition (retail only during promotions and OEM), and Windows 7 Enterprise (volume licenses).
However, as part of its initiative to simplify the lineup, the software giant will only market Home Premium and Professional to average users. Most will be getting Windows 7 with their next purchase of a desktop, notebook, or netbook. (Speaking of netbooks, Microsoft also noted last week that all editions of Windows 7 will work on netbooks and it will be up to the OEM's discretion as to what editions they want to offer on each product.)
If you won't be going through an OEM, you'll either want to purchase a full retail copy of Windows 7, a cheaper upgrade edition, or the OEM version (usually the cheapest and best way). While Microsoft has not given details on pricing for any of the three, the company has agreed to offer upgrade options to both Windows XP and Windows Vista users, and they are worth outlining in detail.
From Windows XP to Windows 7
Information here is still a bit murky because Microsoft has not specified which XP editions will be eligible. The good news is that the company has confirmed that users currently running Windows XP will be able to buy the cheaper upgrade option of Windows 7. However, they will only be able to perform a clean install. The hassle of backing up applications and user data will fall on the user; the upgrade process will not backup anything.
That may come as a shock to some, but Microsoft typically lets users purchase the cheaper upgrade option by owners of the last two releases of Windows (in this case XP and Vista) but the older of the two operating systems usually require a clean install.
From Windows Vista to Windows 7
Microsoft will only allow the following upgrade paths to Vista users. For example, users who purchase an upgrade copy of Windows 7 Professional and have Vista Home Premium will only be able to perform a clean install. Here's the migration list:
* Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium
* Windows Vista Business to Windows 7 Professional
* Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate
If you are performing an upgrade installation from Windows Vista, the base language must match the target Windows 7 language, you must have about 9GB of free space for the installation, and the installation can only occur on the same partition that holds Windows Vista. Existing applications and user data will be automatically migrated to the new Windows 7 installation.
Clean installs will require about 16GB for the installation process. Unless the user chooses to repartition or format the current partition, Vista's files from C:\WINDOWS will be preserved under C:\WINDOWS.OLD, just as when upgrading from XP to Vista. Clean installs will also have to be performed when upgrading from a 32-bit version to a 64-bit version.
Windows Anytime Upgrade (WAU)
Once you have some edition of Windows 7 on your system, whether you purchased it via an OEM or just upgraded from Windows XP or Windows Vista, you will be able to upgrade to a "more premium" version of Windows 7 by purchasing an upgrade key to unlock additional features, just as in with Vista. For example, you could start off with Windows Vista Home Premium, upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium, and then later choose to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional.
As with Vista, the same DVD includes the various editions. Unlike with Vista, every edition of Windows 7 is a superset of the previous edition, so you will not lose any features when upgrading.
Windows 7 for free and Ultimate Extras
Some users have argued that Microsoft should release Windows 7 for free to everyone, while others suggest that only Windows Vista users should get Windows 7 for free. Finally, a third group says that Windows 7 should be the final Ultimate Extra that Microsoft gives out to Windows Vista Ultimate users. All three are unlikely scenarios, though I do have something to say about the last one.
Last week, Microsoft noted that there would be no Ultimate Extras in Windows 7 Ultimate. Currently, if you upgrade Vista Ultimate to the Windows 7 Ultimate beta, your Ultimate Extras disappear. When I asked Microsoft if this was the expected behavior, I only got an "it's still in beta" response. In terms of the fate of Ultimate Extras on Vista, a spokesman told me the software giant still hasn't decided whether Microsoft Tinker was going to be the last Ultimate Extra that the company releases.
Assuming that Windows 7 will not end up an Ultimate Extra for Vista, the only way to get Windows 7 for free will be to buy a Vista computer after July 1. In other words, if you purchase a computer with Vista preloaded on it, from July 1, 2009 through January 31, 2010 (OEMs can choose to have an even shorter time frame within the one Microsoft gives), you will have the option to upgrade to Windows 7 for free when it becomes available.
According to a draft of the Windows 7 Technical Guarantee Program that Tech ARP acquired, the January 31 date may still change, depending on when Windows 7 is released.
As you can see, Microsoft is offering many options for moving to Windows 7 on the consumer side. But if the upgrade won't be free, what will it cost? There's still no word on pricing, but Microsoft is certainly aware of the state of the economy; let's hope the software giant doesn't lose its business sense at a time like this.
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