Ed Bott's Microsoft Report

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.

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November 2nd, 2009

Clean install with Windows 7 upgrade media? Get the facts!

Posted by Ed Bott @ 10:13 am

Categories: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Tags: License Agreement, License, PC, Clean Install, Microsoft Windows XP, Media, Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows 7 License Agreement, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows 7

Last week I complained about Microsoft’s shoddy documentation of how its upgrade procedures are supposed to work. I’m delighted to report that I got a tremendous and immediate response from within Microsoft, offering assistance in my testing and also promising to clean up and expand their documentation. I spent most of the weekend working on a table that I’ll publish later this week. I’m also testing various upgrade scenarios to see which ones work and which require a workaround.

Meanwhile, an argument that should have died ages ago has reared its head again. If you purchase a discounted upgrade edition of Windows 7, can you use it to perform a clean installation of the operating system on a PC that doesn’t currently have Windows installed?

The answer is really simple. If you qualify for an upgrade license, then yes, you can use any number of workarounds to install the operating system legally. If you don’t qualify for an upgrade license, then those same workarounds might technically succeed, but your license is not valid. Will you get away with it? Probably. But if you’re running a business, you run the risk that an employee will turn you in to the Business Software Alliance, which could lead to an audit, civil charges, and eventually some stiff penalties.

Let me see if I can help uncomplicate things.

The overwhelming majority of PCs are sold with Windows preinstalled by an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). The rules are in the license agreement that you see when you first turn on that PC. You can find any license agreement for Windows (retail or OEM) at the Microsoft Software License Terms page. If you read the retail and OEM license agreements, you will see that there is absolutely no requirement to install the software in a specific way. Here, for example, are the details from the OEM license agreement for Windows Vista Home Basic/Home Premium/Ultimate. I have used bold type to emphasize key terms.

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October 28th, 2009

Internet TV goes live on Windows 7 Media Center

Posted by Ed Bott @ 7:37 pm

Categories: Digital media, Windows 7

Tags: Media Center PC, Internet TV, Microsoft Windows, TVs, Tv & Home Theater, Microsoft Windows 7, Personal Technology, Home Entertainment, Ed Bott

One fascinating detail almost got lost in the shuffle of last week’s Windows 7 launch. Microsoft flipped the switch on some partner deals that turned its ho-hum Internet TV feature into something worth watching – in every sense of the word. (Full disclosure: One of Microsoft’s primary TV network partners is CBS, which also happens to own ZDNet’s parent, CBS Interactive.) [Update: As several readers have noted in both comments and private e-mails, this feature is currently available only in the United States. I will confirm with Microsoft whether they have plans to make similar features available in other markets.]

The Internet TV icon was present in pre-release versions of Windows 7, but mostly it delivered short clips and promos. With the final release, the Internet TV icon includes full episodes of a surprising number of classic and current series from CBS, PBS, and other partners.

How does it work? See my screenshot gallery for a visual walk-through

On the CBS page, for example, you’ll find full episodes of the current series CSI:Miami, NUMB3RS, Accidentally On Purpose, and How I Met Your Mother. I also found all three seasons of Rod Serling’s original Twilight Zone, in glorious black and white. I think I saw MacGyver there, too, but didn’t have the strength to click that link. If you’re a PBS fan, you can gorge yourself on Nova episodes.

Setting up Internet TV was a very quick two-step process. The first step install the Media Center application that downloads and displays listings. The second component is a Flash viewer (not Silverlight?) that gets installed when you first try to view a program from the Internet TV pane.

In my limited testing, the streaming quality was pretty good, but not great. On a laptop screen, the picture was easy to watch, with no noticeable glitches. On a 24-inch 1080p screen, the degradation in quality was noticeable. I suspect only a diehard fan who missed an episode of their favorite series would bother trying to watch these low-res signals on a 50-inch-plus HDTV screen. There’s no charge for any of the content. Each full episode includes a handful of short ads - far fewer than those found in a network broadcast. I couldn’t find any obvious fast-forward capability to zap through those ads.

I was able to set up Internet TV on PCs running Windows 7 with and without regular TV tunes. The Internet TV feature was not available on a Media Center extender, however, which isn’t surprising given the Flash-based player that powers the feature. I also couldn’t save the episodes for offline watching, although I’m sure there are workarounds for that.

The gold rush is on for Internet-based TV, with Hulu and Tivo and Apple all experimenting with different ways of signing partnership deals, delivering content, and charging viewers for the privilege. If Microsoft is smart, it will iterate the Internet TV feature quickly, adding content partners, improving picture and audio quality, and figuring out how to make the content portable.

October 27th, 2009

Dear Microsoft: What's the deal with Windows 7 upgrades?

Posted by Ed Bott @ 10:55 am

Categories: Windows 7

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

Microsoft is doing almost everything right with Windows 7. Rock-solid engineering, energetic marketing, great outreach to hardware and software partners. Microsoft bloggers actively share information and take feedback. Collectively, the company does everything you would expect from a smart company nearly a full decade into the 21st Century.

Almost.

One group at Microsoft seems to be stuck in 1999. For some inexplicable reason, the technical team responsible for packaging and manufacturing and selling Windows 7 has decided to clam up about a product it is selling by the truckload.

Did you just get a retail upgrade copy of Windows 7? Do you have questions about how it works? Sorry, I probably don’t know the answers. And I can’t point you to anyone who does know how this product works.

It’s not for lack of trying. For three solid months, I have been pestering people at Microsoft and its PR agency for technical details on Windows 7 upgrade products. I got nothing but polite refusals. At the Windows 7 launch last week, I spent some quality time with fellow Windows expert Paul Thurrott, who told me his experience has been identical.

And now, a week later, still no comment.

Read the rest of this entry »

October 25th, 2009

Finally, some answers to Windows 7 upgrade questions

Posted by Ed Bott @ 6:00 pm

Categories: Windows 7

Tags: Product Key, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows 7, Operating Systems, Software, Ed Bott

[Update: In a previous post, I answered many upgrade question, including those dealing with upgrades from beta releases and "downgrades" from Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Professional. If your question isn't answered here, be sure to read The Ultimate Windows 7 upgrade FAQ.]

Every day for the past few months, I have received at least one question from readers wanting to know how the Windows 7 upgrade process will work. And in every case, my answer was consistent. I didn’t know. Paul Thurrott and I asked Microsoft repeatedly (and I mean every single damn week) for upgrade media, and the answer was always a polite no. I could have taken some educated guesses and hit the Publish button here, but that isn’t what I learned in journalism school.

My compatriots in the Windows blogosphere weren’t always so discriminating. I read a staggering number of rumors, many of them promulgated by people who should have known better.

So when I got home from the Windows 7 launch event and found four copies of Windows 7 upgrades waiting in my office (thanks, Amazon.com!), I got right to work. Here, at long last, are the answers you’ve been looking for.

If I buy a retail upgrade version, what’s in the box?

You get two DVDs, one 32-bit, one 64-bit. You get a single product key, which you can use to install either version. If you buy the Family Pack, you also get those two DVDs and a single product key, which can be used to activate three PCs in your household.

Is the upgrade DVD bootable?

Yes. In fact, as far as I can tell it is absolutely identical to the full version.

So what’s the difference between the full and upgrade versions?

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October 21st, 2009

Windows 7: An impressive upgrade

Posted by Ed Bott @ 1:00 pm

Categories: Windows 7

Tags: Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Ed Bott

Windows 7 is impressive. That word is rarely used in the same sentence as “Microsoft” and “Windows” – certainly not in recent years. But it fits here.

Unlike its predecessors, this Windows version feels as if it were designed and built by a single, coordinated team instead of being assembled from interchangeable parts. In daily use, Windows 7 feels graceful and often (but not always) elegant. Although it builds on elements that debuted in Windows Vista, it fixes many usability sins and adds consistency and polish to an interface that had too many rough edges. And some very impressive new capabilities, especially the grossly underrated Libraries feature, offer rewards for digging deeper.

Windows 7 runs smoothly and efficiently on even modest hardware. Remarkably, it reverses the longstanding trend to make Windows bigger. From a standing start, Windows 7 uses less memory, runs fewer services, and consumes less disk space than its predecessor, Windows Vista, and in the 64-bit version it can address about five times more RAM than you can actually stuff onto a single motherboard. This year, anyway. Read the rest of this entry »

October 20th, 2009

Windows XP Mode Q and A

Posted by Ed Bott @ 10:52 am

Categories: Virtualization, Windows 7

Tags: Virtualization, PC, Windows Virtual PC, Windows Virtual PC 2007, Windows XP Virtual Hard Drive, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 7, Operating Systems, Software

In comments and private e-mails, I’ve received a surprising number of questions about Windows XP Mode, a new feature in Windows 7 that I demoed in today’s screencast (Windows 7 in action: A closer look at Windows XP Mode). Rather than distribute my answers in various comment threads, I decided to consolidate them here.

What is Windows XP Mode?

This feature, available in Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise, provides a licensed copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 3 in Virtual Hard Drive (VHD) format. When installed with the proper integration components, it allows you to run Windows XP in its own virtual machine, separate from the host Windows 7 installation. You can attach USB devices to the virtual Windows XP machine, play sounds, and access drives on the host PC. You can access the Internet, but connections from the Windows XP virtual machine to the local area network are disabled by default.

How much does it cost?

Nothing, as long as you’re running a supported edition of Windows 7.

What’s the difference between Windows Virtual PC, Windows XP Mode, Windows Virtual PC 2007, Hyper-V, and MED-V?  Read the rest of this entry »

October 19th, 2009

Windows 7 in action: a closer look at Windows XP Mode

Posted by Ed Bott @ 3:55 pm

Categories: Windows 7

Tags: Microsoft Windows XP, Windows XP Mode, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Ed Bott

[Update: Do you have questions about Windows XP Mode? So do a lot of people, apparently. See my follow-up post, Windows XP Mode Q and A, for some answers.]

For any sort of upgrade, software or hardware, compatibility issues can be true deal-breakers. If a mission-critical program originally written for Windows XP won’t run under Windows 7, you’re stuck. And the economics can get ugly if an expensive or hard-to-replace peripheral doesn’t have Windows 7 drivers. In this week’s screencast, I demonstrate a new feature called Windows XP Mode, which is Microsoft’s way of handling compatibility problems.

Windows XP Mode (available only with Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions of Windows 7) consists of two parts. The first is Windows Virtual PC, a lightweight virtualization environment. The second is a fully licensed copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 3, which integrates with Windows 7. Although setup can be a little tricky, it all works well together. In my case, it’s allowed me to continue using an old Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner with a 64-bit copy of Windows 7 despite having no 64-bit drivers and incompatible control software.

I’ve attached the USB device to the 32-bit Windows XP Mode virtual machine, which recognizes it and allows me to install the necessary XP drivers. To scan a document, I open the ScanSnap Manager program and save the resulting PDF file to a shared folder on my host PC, where it’s available for any application.

I was never very impressed with Microsoft’s previous iterations of Virtual PC, but this one is different. It’s small, fast, and easy to work with. And its integration features are supported by Windows Vista and Windows 7 as well. You can build your own VM using either one of those operating systems and have a sandbox where you can test apps without adding cruft to the registry or the file system.

Windows XP Mode has some rough edges, but once you learn how to sidestep those it’s an excellent power user’s tool.

Previous screencasts:

• A smarter way to manage windows
• Do more with the taskbar and Jump Lists
• Smarter search

More coverage of Windows 7:

• Windows 7 in the real world: 10 PCs under the microscope
• Video: A worthwhile upgrade? CIOs, consumers face Windows 7 decision
• The Windows 7 upgrade survival guide
• Windows 7 first look: More than just “Vista, fixed”
• What to expect from Windows 7
• Special Report: Windows 7 at the finish line

October 14th, 2009

Windows 7 in the real world: 10 PCs under the microscope

Posted by Ed Bott @ 2:37 pm

Categories: Hardware, Windows 7

Tags: Notebook, Dell Computer Corp., Media Center PC, PC, Driver, Microsoft Windows Vista, CableCard, Intel Core 2 Duo, RAM, Intel Corp.

When the slow-motion launch of Windows 7 finally ends and it hits store shelves next week, will it erase the memory of Windows Vista? Yes, it’s gotten good reviews in the run-up to its official release, but so did Windows Vista. Harry McCracken has put together a retrospective of those Vista reviews from late 2006 and early 2007 that’s well worth reading, and he closes his analysis with a warning about the need to postpone judgment until the product has been in the marketplace for a while: “There’s never been a new operating system that didn’t cause significant headaches for a meaningful (if, in the best cases, small) percentage of the people who installed it, and there’s never been one that wasn’t significantly improved by the first major round of post-release bug fixes.”

Absolutely right.

An operating system doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It is inexorably tied to CPUs and chipsets, storage controllers, display adapters, external peripherals, drivers, and third-party programs. Give me the right hardware and well-written drivers and I can make any modern OS (even the despised Windows Vista) run with impressive performance and reliability. Throw in a flaky motherboard, a bad BIOS, or a buggy driver, and your computing experience will quickly spiral into unpleasantness. One hopes that the PC industry learned the painful lessons of Vista and that the wave of new PCs that will begin shipping next week will be properly tuned to the new operating system.

In the meantime, I’ve done the next best thing. Over the past three months, I’ve been test-driving the final version of Windows 7 in my home and office on a variety of PCs, performing a variety of roles. The 10 systems I cover in this article include six desktops and four notebooks. All of them were put into service in January 2007 or later. For each one, I’ve listed the current hardware configuration, the price I paid (including upgrades), the version of Windows 7 currently installed, and whether I did a clean install or an upgrade. The PCs I looked at represent a cross-section of the market as it exists today, minus two extremes: I didn’t include any low-powered netbooks, and I left out high-powered gaming machines and workstations.

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