Recommended Posts

just buy an ultimate OEM copy, it will be much cheaper but without the fancy box. no way im paying what they want for retail and no one knows yet if we can do a clean install from an upgrade disk.

Well, if I can come across an Ultimate OEM copy, then I'll probably spring for that.

But honestly, Professional edition seems fine for me. I'd probably even settle for Home Premium if it's cheap.

I believe the standard argument is that the taxes are higher over here. Also, UK prices seem to reflect the cost of developing all the other European localised versions although it's not clear why that's the case.

You could argue that various features like Media Center require a lot of development for local markets but that's pretty hard to justify when you consider how long it takes to get them to develop something that's compatible with TV over here :angry:

The taxes aren't enough to account for a 40% price difference though ($49.99 vs ?49.99) but really this issue is a double edged sword. People in the EU upgrading get ripped off, but people in the EU buying a new copy get a fantastic deal if what I heard is true about ?49.99 being the price of a retail edition, with no upgrade option offered.

Also, can someone more in the know than me confirm if the E editions of Windows 7 being released in the EU will still have IE8 offered via Windows Update, it is kind of annoying to me that European citizens don't get the choice of whether they want IE in their install or not.

Yeah, here's where I see the problem and confusion. MS is offering "upgrade" pricing but hasn't as-yet explained the requirements for one to be able to "upgrade." I am running XP on an OEM license. I have no XP disc whatsoever. I have nothing but an HP restore disc which is just an image of the original system. So what happens on Oct 22 when I pop in that Win7 "upgrade" disc that I bought six months ago for 50 bucks? Is it going to read my OEM license from the registry somewhere before it erases my entire HDD and reformats to do a clean install? Is it going to ask for my XP disc (which I don't have)? Is it going to ask for an XP license which I should be able to find on an OEM label somewhere on the machine, as someone else suggested? Those are all questions that I would like to have answered before I plunk down money for an "upgrade" disc. If I just have to type in a product code during the install for the prior XP license, that's fine.

Damon

Here are the pre-order upgrade prices:

* US: Windows 7 Home Premium ($49.99) and Windows 7 Professional ($99.99)

* Canada: Windows 7 Home Premium ($64.99) and Windows 7 Professional ($124.99)

* Japan: Windows 7 Home Premium (?7,407) and Windows 7 Professional (?14,073)

* UK: Windows 7 Home Premium (?49.99) and Windows 7 Professional (?99.99)

* France and Germany: Windows 7 Home Premium (?49.99) and Windows 7 Professional (?109.99)

Check out the "Pre-Order Windows 7 Cheaply" section of the Ars Technica article for exact windows of when these prices are available in your country.

One the first page you say that it is the full install, not upgrade. It saying "Pre Order Upgrade prices" throw me off.

The taxes aren't enough to account for a 40% price difference though ($49.99 vs ?49.99) but really this issue is a double edged sword. People in the EU upgrading get ripped off, but people in the EU buying a new copy get a fantastic deal if what I heard is true about ?49.99 being the price of a retail edition, with no upgrade option offered.

Also, can someone more in the know than me confirm if the E editions of Windows 7 being released in the EU will still have IE8 offered via Windows Update, it is kind of annoying to me that European citizens don't get the choice of whether they want IE in their install or not.

i guess you can blame your council for taking away that 'choice'

I've never done this so forgive me if I'm wrong but I believe the process to do a clean install with an upgrade disk goes something like this:

- install Windows Vista/7 from the upgrade disk (format destination drive at this point)

- Windows will be installed but you won't be able to activate it because it's just an upgrade version.

- pop the installation disk back in your drive and upgrade the installation that you just performed.

- You can now activate Windows Vista/7

I'm assuming that 7 will work the same as Vista based on Paul Thurrott's advice. This should allow you to do a clean install and you won't need an XP/Vista disk.

The taxes aren't enough to account for a 40% price difference though ($49.99 vs ?49.99) but really this issue is a double edged sword. People in the EU upgrading get ripped off, but people in the EU buying a new copy get a fantastic deal if what I heard is true about ?49.99 being the price of a retail edition, with no upgrade option offered.

One other cost that Microsoft have quoted in the past is the cost of running their UK office out of REading and the taxes that attracts. The taxes include all sorts of things like corporations tax, CGT, VAT and so on. I agree that it seems unfair that prices are so high over here but those are the reasons they give.

Personally I think they keep prices high in the UK because the pound has been worth so much up until lately. It makes sense to take us much as you can in a country with a strong currency.

One other cost that Microsoft have quoted in the past is the cost of running their UK office out of REading and the taxes that attracts. The taxes include all sorts of things like corporations tax, CGT, VAT and so on. I agree that it seems unfair that prices are so high over here but those are the reasons they give.

Personally I think they keep prices high in the UK because the pound has been worth so much up until lately. It makes sense to take us much as you can in a country with a strong currency.

I disagree with that, if anything it should be priced lower to keep pricing in line. At current rates, $49.99 = ?30.53, vs the actual price of ?49.99 is a 39% price hike for UK users. Quiet unacceptable IMO

So as per usual US users get all the gravy and UK / European users get ripped off? have to say I am pretty disappointed by that

Yes, that's how it normally is :crazy:

However, this time it's different: The EU gets the full version for the price listed, while the others get only the upgrade version :p

^-- or just turn off IE in your every-other-version-of-Windows version using Turn Windows Features On or Off. If hiding access (Vista & IE) wasn't enough for you, IE-as-an-optional-component should meet your desire if you don't have an 'E' version. And if you need it back to test some HTML/page you're working on, or if Firechromefari breaks, it's easy to add back in.

So wins all around there here for IE haters. :)

(IE user myself, but to each their own.)

No, you can not upgrade from Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Professional. Please see the Windows 7 Upgrade Test Matrix document for more information: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en

I should clarify: I always do clean installs, so whether or not I could do an in-place upgrade is not my concern. I was wondering, from a licensing perspective, if MSFT allows going from Ult->Pro with the "upgrade" disc.

......If I just have to type in a product code during the install for the prior XP license, that's fine.

Damon

I am in the same boat as you and I have asked the same question of Jeff. He said (in a prior post) he was waiting to hear back about the details of an upgrade, but I don't see anything yet. It would be nice to know for sure soon, like before July 11.

Here's hoping typing in the product code will work, because I if I have to get a full-priced version, I might as well just suck it up and get a new system with it preloaded. Which will only be bad for an already tight budget.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Anthropic pulls Fable 5 and Mythos 5 after US export control order by Pradeep Viswanathan In April this year, Anthropic launched the Claude Mythos Preview frontier model with state-of-the-art cyber and coding capabilities for a select set of companies around the world. After preparing appropriate guardrails, early this week, Anthropic launched Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5, its most capable AI models. Claude Fable 5 is for general users and comes with strict safeguards, while Mythos 5 is designed with fewer safeguards for cybersecurity and biology use cases. Today, Anthropic abruptly suspended access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI models for all customers after receiving an export control directive from the US government. The company received the directive from the government today at 5:21 p.m. ET, and the received letter did not provide any details regarding the national security concern. Anthropic understands that the government became aware of a method to bypass, or “jailbreak,” Fable 5, which might be the reason behind the directive. The order was issued under national security authorities and requires the company to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether they are inside or outside the United States. The restriction also applies to foreign national employees working at Anthropic. As a result, the company has disabled both models for all customers to ensure compliance. Access to previous Anthropic models like Opus and Sonnet is not affected by this government order. The company highlighted that it had developed strong safeguards to reduce the possibility that Fable is misused for tasks related to cybersecurity. In fact, many developers are complaining that the safeguards are going overboard. Additionally, the company worked with the US government, the UK AISI, multiple private third-party organizations, and internal teams to red-team Fable’s safeguards for thousands of hours. Finally, Anthropic noted that no testers have yet been able to find a universal jailbreak on Fable 5. As expected, Anthropic disagrees that a narrow potential jailbreak should lead to the recall of a commercial model used by hundreds of millions of people. It warned that applying this standard across the AI industry could effectively halt new frontier model deployments. Anthropic concluded by mentioning that it is working to restore access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 as soon as possible and plans to share more details within the next 24 hours.
    • Brave Browser 1.91.172 is out.
    • Any Video Converter Free 9.2.3 by Razvan Serea Any Video Converter is an All-in-One video converting tool with an easy-to-use graphical interface, fast converting speed and excellent video quality. Any Video Converter supports all popular video formats and converts your videos to different video formats including MP4, MOV, MKV, M2TS, M4V, MPEG, AVI, WMV, ASF, OGV, WEBM, and more. It supports converting videos to customized percent (50%, 100%, 200%, and more) or resolution (480p, 720p, 1080p, 4K, and more); It supports encoding videos into x264, x265, h263p, xvid, mpeg, wmv, and more. Any Video Converter Free key features: Compatible with Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 (32-64bit) User interface are available in 14 languages Convert all kinds of video formats including high-definition videos Extract audio from any videos and save as MP3/WMA for your mp3 player Take snapshot from any videos and build your own picture collection Support high-definition for both input and output Batch add videos from hard drive and batch convert Customize output parameters completely as you like Manage your output videos files by group or output profile Merge several video files into a single and long one Clip a video into segments Free Audio Filter: Adjust audio volume and add audio effects Crop frame size to remove black bars and retain what you want only Adjust the brightness, contrast, saturation Rotate or flip or add noise/sharpen effects Produce output video with subtitles of your own dialogue and much, much more... Any Video Converter Free 9.2.3 changelog: Fixed video download engine auto-update failures. Added custom speed control support in the speed change tool. Added support for downloading YouTube AI-generated subtitles. Added support for preserving original audio stream in the format convert tool (e.g., Dolby Atmos, DTS:X). Fixed other bugs and improved overall performance. Download: Any Video Converter Free 9.2.3 | 7.6 MB (Freeware) View: Any Video Converter Free Home Page | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Not sure what country you’re in but in many countries you can absolutely jail the sellers behind businesses… in fact I’d say in most countries you can do that
    • I guess we are done since you refuse to read my comment you replied to or my other comment in another thread you were also a part of here.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Dedicated
      jordanspringer earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • Rookie
      Rimplesnort went up a rank
      Rookie
    • One Year In
      Markus94287 earned a badge
      One Year In
    • One Month Later
      Markus94287 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Markus94287 earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      505
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      175
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      155
    4. 4
      ATLien_0
      90
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      79
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!