November 6th, 2009

Seven perfectly legal ways to get Windows 7 cheap (or even free)

Posted by Ed Bott @ 6:21 am

Categories: Licensing, Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Windows 7

Tags: Microsoft Developer Network, License, PC, Student, Microsoft Corp., Subscription, Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems

Only suckers pay retail.

If you’ve read any reviews of Windows 7, you’ve seen references to its price list, which ranges from $120 for a Home Premium upgrade to $320 for a fully licensed copy of Windows 7 Ultimate.

Well, guess what? You don’t have to pay that much. Most people have much better options available, if you know where to look. As I’ve detailed here, the best deals go to PC manufacturers, which you benefit from if you buy a new PC.

But there are plenty of other discounts available as well. In this post, I’ve researched deals in three separate categories: upgrade offers available to anyone, special deals just for students, and subscriptions intended for technical professionals and developers.

Most of the details I include here apply to Windows customers in the United States, but some offers are also available in other countries. Where possible, I have tried to track down those details and include the names of countries where equivalent offers exist. If you live outside the U.S., follow these links to find prices and terms for your country.

My goal in this post is to point you to deals that customers legitimately qualify for. I am not trying to encourage attempts by anyone to get away with something you’re not entitled to. If there are restrictions for a specific offer, I’ve noted them here.

[Update 6-Nov 1:00PM PST: Several people in the comments have asked why I didn't iunclude the Microsoft Action Pack in this post. Two reasons: First, it is available only to bona fide system builders, and that's a fairly small group of people. Second, and more importantly, the licenses it includes expire and must be decommissioned if you fail to renew your MAP agreement each year. Every other example I have here includes Windows licenses that are good in perpetuity. I will cover System Builder pricing and licensing in more detail next week. Stay tuned.]

Ready to get started? Pick a category and go.

Page 2: Upgrade offers You can save as much as 58% off the regular cost of a Windows 7 upgrade if you know how to buy smart. I’ve found three options.

Page 3: Special deals for students If you’re enrolled in a college or university, even taking a single course at your local community college, you can get Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional for $30. Students in technical or design majors can get Windows 7 (and many other Microsoft programs) for free if their university or college is signed up for the right programs.

Page 4: Windows (and much more) by subscriptions Are you an IT pro, a Windows enthusiast, or a professional developer? For a surprisingly low annual fee, you can get access to a staggering amount of Microsoft software, including every version of Windows or Office. There are some restrictions, so be sure to read the details carefully.

Next page: Easy (and cheap) upgrades –>

November 3rd, 2009

What Microsoft won't tell you about Windows 7 licensing

Posted by Ed Bott @ 6:41 pm

Categories: Licensing, Windows 7

Tags: Volume-license, License Agreement, PC, Upgrade, OEM, Microsoft Corp., Copy, Edition, Windows Activation, Full Package Product Product

Microsoft offers many ways to buy Windows 7. You can buy the operating system preinstalled on a new PC, upgrade an existing PC using a shrink-wrapped retail package, purchase an upgrade online, or build a PC from scratch and install Windows yourself. In each of these cases, you can also take your pick of multiple Windows editions The price you pay will vary, depending on the edition and the sales channel. There are different license agreements associated with each such combination. Those license agreements are contracts that give you specific rights and also include specific limitations.

This might sound arbitrary. Indeed, a common complaint I hear is that Microsoft should simply sell one version of its OS at one price to every customer. That ignores the reality of multiple sales channels, and the fact that some people want the option to pay a lower price if they don’t plan to use some features and are willing to pay a higher price for features like BitLocker file encryption.

If you’re not a lawyer, the subject of Windows licensing can be overwhelmingly confusing. The good news is that for most circumstances you are likely to encounter as a consumer or small business buyer, the licensing rules are fairly simple and controversy never arises. But for IT pros, enthusiasts, and large enterprises knowing these rules can save a lot of money and prevent legal hassles.

I have been studying the topic of Windows licensing for many years. As I have discovered, Microsoft does not have all of this information organized in one convenient location. Much of it, in fact, is buried in long, dry license agreements and on sites that are available only to partners. I couldn’t find this information in one convenient place, so I decided to do the job myself. I gathered details from many public and private sources and summarized the various types of Windows 7 license agreements available to consumers and business customers. Note that this table and the accompanying descriptions deliberately exclude a small number of license types: for example, I have omitted academic and government licenses, as well as those provided as part of MSDN and TechNet subscriptions and those included with Action Pack subscriptions for Microsoft partners. With those exceptions, I believe this list includes every license situation that the overwhelming majority of Windows customers will encounter in the real world.

Read the rest of this entry »

August 17th, 2009

Windows 7 customers still paying for Microsoft's Ultimate mistakes

Posted by Ed Bott @ 9:27 am

Categories: Licensing, Windows 7, Windows Vista

Tags: Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Ed Bott

Three years ago, when Microsoft was in the final stages of getting Windows Vista ready for its launch, I looked at the official price tag for Vista Ultimate edition and concluded:

“Yes, Microsoft really is price-gouging…. anyone who’s eyeing Vista Ultimate has every right to feel like they’re being ripped off.”

And even when Microsoft slashed Windows Vista prices last year, I still found them “higher than any sane person would pay.” That was especially true for Ultimate edition, which was your only choice if you wanted certain combinations of features, like Media Center and Complete PC Backup.

Now, as Windows 7 approaches its official launch date, will Vista Ultimate users get another gouging? Or is Microsoft getting ready to unveil another “special deal”?

Read the rest of this entry »

July 1st, 2009

Microsoft to offer Family Pack for Windows 7 Home Premium

Posted by Ed Bott @ 9:40 pm

Categories: Apple, Licensing, Windows 7

Tags: Apple Inc., Agreement, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Ed Bott

Update: A few small retailers have inadvertently leaked details of Family Pack and Anytime Upgrade pricing. See my follow-up here: Windows 7 Family Pack, Anytime Upgrade prices leak

—

In two recent posts (Windows 7 versus Snow Leopard: How much do upgrades really cost? and Do you need more than Windows 7 Home Premium?), I took a closer look at the differences between Windows 7 editions and their counterparts from Apple. In the Talkback section of both posts, several commenters noted that Microsoft is still far behind its archrival in Cupertino. Until Microsoft comes out with a Family Pack license, they say, Apple will continue to have the upper hand.

Well, maybe the wait is over.

Thanks to a tip from Kristan Kenney, I took a close look at the agreements embedded in the License folder of the latest leaked builds of Windows 7. This is no longer a beta license agreement and is presumably very close to the final agreement that customers will accept. The agreements for retail copies of Windows 7 Home Premium contain this eye-opening clause:

If you can’t read the screen shot, here’s the relevant section: “If you are a ‘Qualified Family Pack User’, you may install one copy of the software marked as ‘Family Pack’ on three computers in your household for use by people who reside there.” (And a proofreading note to Microsoft Legal: Fix the typo in the last sentence of that clause before RTM.)

When I first wrote about Windows 7 pricing last month, I speculated that Microsoft was likely to have a program like this up its sleeve:

What else can we expect to see? Back in early 2007, Microsoft offered a so-called Family Discount for Windows Vista, which allowed anyone with a Vista Ultimate license to purchase two Home Premium upgrades for $49.99 each. I expect to see an improved version of the Family Discount this time around. If Microsoft wanted to aim directly at its archrival Apple, it could sell three Home Premium upgrade licenses (to be used only in a single home) for $199 or less.

I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that Microsoft prices the Family Pack at $189, which is $10 less than Apple’s Family Pack (although Apple’s license is good for five Macs in a single household).

By the way, these same terms are also contained in the license agreement for Windows 7 Home Premium E (the one sold in Europe, sans Internet Explorer), as well as the N, K, and KN Home Premium versions, which are also deliberately gutted of one or more features to satisfy antitrust authorities. The Family Pack language  is not included in the license agreement for any other Windows 7 edition.

Just as with Apple’s Family Pack license (PDF), the deal will apparently be restricted to users in a single household and is not available for business users. Apple’s agreement specifically says: “The Family Pack License does not extend to business or commercial users.” No such clause is in the Windows 7 license agreement, but it’s probably contained in the definition of a “Qualified Family Pack User,” which is referred to in a link that isn’t yet live.

In some respects, this is an extension of Microsoft’s licensing efforts with Office 2007 Home and Student edition, which is licensed for use (PDF) on up to three computers in a single household. In that case, the product carried this restriction: “The software is not licensed for use in any commercial, non-profit, or revenue-generating business activities.”

Update: My colleague Mary-Jo Foley asks some interesting questions about the the Vista predecessor:

Microsoft ended up offering a Family Pack for Vista, but wouldn’t confirm its existence until just before the worldwide launch of Vista in January 2007. The company made the Vista Family Pack available to users who bought Vista Ultimate at retail. (But Microsoft may have phased out the Family Pack offer, as it no longer shows up when searching the Windows site.)

I’ve mentioned that offer several times in the past few years. There are some very big differences between that deal (which was called the Windows Vista Family Discount) and the one that appears to be on its way for Windows 7. As the original press release (linked above) made clear, the Vista Family Discount was a “limited-time offer for customers who buy retail copies of Windows Vista Ultimate.” In other words, it was a temporary discount on products that were otherwise licensed according to standard terms.

Also in that announcement was the news that it was a limited promotion that ran from January 30 through June 30, 2007. This deal, on the other hand, is actually named in the license agreement, which strongly suggests that it is a permanent addition to the list of retail packages and not a temporary promotion.

What price would you pay for a three-pack of Home Premium licenses?

Update, Noon Pacific time: Reached for comment, a Microsoft spokesperson says only, “We will continue to work with our partners and expect to have other great offers in the future as we lead up to and beyond general availability. We have nothing to announce at this time.”

June 5th, 2009

Will the Windows 7 price be right?

Posted by Ed Bott @ 11:29 am

Categories: Licensing, Windows 7, Windows Vista

Tags: Best Buy Co. Inc., Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Operating Systems, Software, Ed Bott

[Updated 12:20PM PDT with Microsoft comment.]

Engadget says they’ve unearthed a confidential memo from Best Buy that gives away some pricing information for Windows 7.

According to the memo, Best Buy will kick off its Technology Guarantee program on June 26. Beginning on that date, you’ll be able to buy a PC with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate and get a coupon good for a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it’s released in October. That matches up with information I’ve heard as well and is consistent with how Microsoft has handled product launches in the past.

The other, more interesting detail is that Best Buy plans to pre-sell select versions of Windows 7 online, for a 16-day period that runs from June 26 through July 11. If the memo is accurate, you’ll be able to buy a Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade package for $49.99 and a Windows 7 Professional upgrade package for $99.99.

Several months ago, Microsoft’s General Manager for Windows, Mike Ybarra, told me that we we can expect “aggressive price points and some very good offers” when Windows 7 is released. This certainly qualifies on both standards. The comparable prices for Windows Vista are $129 and  $199, respectively, and the discounted prices at retailers like Newegg and Amazon typically knock only 10 bucks or so off the sticker. If Microsoft prices Windows 7 in line with Vista, the Best Buy deal represents a discount of 50% on Professional edition and more than 60% on Home Premium. Yeah, that’s aggressive.

Obviously, this limited-time promotion is lower than the average selling price that Windows 7 will command when it’s officially released. But I expect it’s only the first of many deals to come from Microsoft’s retail partners.

What else can we expect to see? Back in early 2007, Microsoft offered a so-called Family Discount for Windows Vista, which allowed anyone with a Vista Ultimate license to purchase two Home Premium upgrades for $49.99 each. I expect to see an improved version of the Family Discount this time around. If Microsoft wanted to aim directly at its archrival Apple, it could sell three Home Premium upgrade licenses (to be used only in a single home) for $199 or less.

Asked to comment on the contents of the Best Buy memo, a Microsoft spokesperson offered the following:

As announced earlier this week, we’re continuing to work with our retail and OEM partners to provide Windows 7 Upgrade Option programs and other offers to consumers interested in experiencing Windows 7, which will be publicly available on October 22nd. We’re excited to share additional details regarding these programs soon, but do not have additional details to announce at this time.

I’ve been told by other sources to expect additional details later this month and will pass them along when I receive them.

April 7th, 2009

There's nothing new about Windows downgrade rights

Posted by Ed Bott @ 10:21 am

Categories: Licensing, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Tags: Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Corp., Section 14, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Microsoft Windows XP, Software, Ed Bott

I’ve been laughing out loud for days now as I read the astonishing number of comments and reactions to the revelation that Microsoft is going to allow some customers who buy Windows 7 on a new PC to exercise “downgrade rights” and replace their shiny new OS with Windows XP. The implication is that this somehow represents a surrender on Microsoft’s part to the operating system that won’t die, Windows XP.

Sorry, folks, this isn’t news. It’s the way business versions of Windows have been licensed for as long as I can remember. Many businesses run on proprietary software that might or might not work with a new operating system, so business customers who buy a new PC with a Windows license can choose to replace the installed copy of Windows with an older version.

You can see the current version of this clause if you look at the OEM license for Windows Vista Business or Ultimate. Section 14 reads as follows:

14. DOWNGRADE. Instead of using the software, you may use one of the following earlier versions:

• Microsoft Windows XP Professional,
• Microsoft Windows Professional x64 Edition, or
• Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.

This agreement applies to your use of the earlier versions. Neither the manufacturer or installer, nor Microsoft is obligated to supply earlier versions to you. You must obtain the earlier version separately. At any time, you may replace an earlier version with this version of the software.

Ah, I can hear you saying now, “But this is different! With Windows 7, Microsoft is going to give its customers the option to skip Vista and go all the way back to XP. That proves that Windows Vista sucks!”

Uh, OK. By that logic, XP sucks 50% more than Vista. If you bought Windows XP Professional on a new PC, your downgrade rights included the option to replace it with any of three previous Windows editions: Windows 2000 Professional, Windows NT Workstation version 4.0, or Windows 98 (Second Edition). Thank goodness we didn’t have blogs back in 2001, or they would have gone completely nuts over Section 1, paragraph 6 of the Windows XP Professional license terms:

Use of Previous Version Of Software. In lieu of installing and using Microsoft Windows XP Professional SOFTWARE, you may install, use, access, display and run ONE of the following versions: Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0 or Microsoft Windows 98 (Second Edition) (”Downgrade Software”) on the COMPUTER, provided (1) you agree that Downgrade Software support will NOT be provided hereunder by Manufacturer, MS or Microsoft Corporation, their affiliates or subsidiaries: (2) you agree that neither Manufacturer, MS nor Microsoft Corporation will provide you with the Downgrade Software or media; (3) you may not loan, rent, lease, lend or otherwise transfer the CD or back-up copy of Microsoft Windows XP Professional to another end user, except as otherwise provided in the transfer provisions of this EULA….

If you’re a corporate customer with a Windows Vista Business or Enterprise license acquired through a volume licensing program, you have the right to install just about any business edition of Windows. A Microsoft-issued downgrade rights chart (Word format) lists your options:

[C]ustomers licensed for use of Windows Vista Enterprise are licensed for Windows Vista Business, and it can be downgraded to the Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows NT® 4.0, Windows NT 3.51, Windows 98, or Windows 95 operating system. You would not, however, be able to downgrade to Windows Vista Home Basic or Windows Vista Home Premium, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, or Microsoft Windows Millennium as those are different products and not considered previous versions of Windows Vista Business.

The exact license terms for Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate have yet to be released, but when they are, yuo can expect to see wording that looks very much like the terms I listed above.

In other words, there’s nothing new here, folks.

February 3rd, 2009

Easy Windows 7 upgrades could earn Microsoft billions a year extra

Posted by Ed Bott @ 6:07 pm

Categories: Licensing, Windows 7

Tags: Revenue, Microsoft Windows 7, PC, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Desktops, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Operating Systems, Software

Most analysts who looked at Microsoft’s announcement earlier today of its new lineup of Windows 7 editions have focused on the number of SKUs and are busily debating whether the new selection will make choices more or less confusing for Windows customers. But there’s a more important story buried in the details, one that will only become apparent when Microsoft fills in the rest of the picture by attaching price tags to the members of the Windows 7 family.

Two weeks ago, Microsoft delivered the shocking news that its Windows Client division reported declining revenue on a year-over-year basis, despite selling approximately as many licenses as it did in the previous year. It’s easy to blame the shortfall primarily on netbooks, as Microsoft did. Indeed, those small, cheap PCs are part of the problem. The market figured out that the least expensive Home edition of Windows (XP or Vista) is an ideal choice for netbooks and in fact is perfectly adequate for many tasks on mainstream PCs. That’s why Vista Home Basic is so popular on entry-level business PCs.

The big challenge for Microsoft in the Vista-to-7 transition is how to increase the average price of a Windows license without making users scream or quit in protest. By changing the upgrade game in Windows 7, they’ve created the conditions for a whole new revenue stream - and, paradoxically, have the chance to offer Windows customers an upgrade deal they’ll actually want.

I’ve crunched the numbers, and my rough calculations suggest that this realignment could be worth hundreds of millions, and perhaps billions of dollars in new revenue for Microsoft, even if PC sales remain flat. Here’s how I came to that conclusion.

Read the rest of this entry »

February 3rd, 2009

Microsoft simplifies the Windows 7 lineup

Posted by Ed Bott @ 12:53 pm

Categories: Licensing, Windows 7

Tags: Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Corp., Edition, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Ed Bott

Microsoft has finally released details of how it’s going to distribute and sell Windows 7. Like virtually every other announcement in the Windows 7 development cycle so far, the final decision appears to be aimed at handling a common objection – in this case, the perception that there are too many editions of Windows Vista.

The final lineup isn’t as clean as some would like (my colleague Mary Jo Foley says she’s “still confused” by at least one of the lineup decisions, and she calls the proposed netbook solution “ugly.”

So what are the details?

For those of us in the developed world, there are only three editions that matter:

Read the rest of this entry »

October 10th, 2008

Are there really too many Windows editions?

Posted by Ed Bott @ 10:23 am

Categories: Licensing, Microsoft, Windows 7, Windows Vista

Tags: Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Corp., Edition, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Ed Bott

Ask any Windows pundit about all the different editions of Windows Vista that Microsoft offers and you’ll invariably get the same response. There are too many! Consumers are confused! It all needs to be simplified!

To which I say: Be careful what you wish for. The case for reducing the number of Windows editions to one or two sounds convincing in the abstract, but the argument breaks down quickly once you start to examine the details and consider how such a change would affect the way you and I buy Windows on consumer and business PCs. In fact, if Microsoft were to try, it would have a devastating effect on the low end of the market.

The latest to jump on the too-many-versions bandwagon is my friend and ZDNet colleague Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. After tweaking me for “sweating the small stuff,” in my conjecture about what Windows 7 will ultimately be called, he writes that he’s “far more interested in how many different flavors of the OS we can expect to have to deal with.“ And like so many others who write on this topic, he proposes a simple solution:

Now, ideally I’d like to see Microsoft return to a situation where there’s one consumer and one professional flavor of Windows. In fact, why not take it a step further and adopt the Mac approach and go with a single version.

That’s a bad idea, in my opinion. The next time you hear someone make this suggestion, here are two questions to ask:

Read the rest of this entry »

September 8th, 2008

OEM licensing confusion starts at Microsoft.com

Posted by Ed Bott @ 2:02 pm

Categories: Licensing

Tags: OEM, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Tools & Techniques, Operating Systems, Desktops, Software, Management, Hardware, Ed Bott

Last week, in the wrap-up for a post about WGA, I offered five suggestions I’d like to see incorporated into Vista and especially into Windows 7. Number 1 on the list was a request to make Windows licensing and activation simpler. I noted:

It is almost impossible for mere mortals to understand the nuances of OEM SLP activation and why the product key on the sticker on the side of your PC won’t work after you reinstall Windows. Corporations can pay people to figure this stuff out. Consumers and small business people shouldn’t have to.

Today, as I was poking around Microsoft’s OEM Partner Center (restricted to enrolled members only), I found a perfect example of how much confusion surrounds the subject of licensing.

Read the rest of this entry »