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REDMOND, Wash.--Microsoft said on Friday that it will charge $149 for the family pack version of Windows 7, which allows users to upgrade up to three PCs to the Home Premium edition of the operating system.

The software maker had previously said it would offer the family pack, but had not said how much it would charge. (It actually inadvertently confirmed the family pack by referencing it in the licensing terms of a test version of Windows 7 that leaked onto the Internet.) The family pack covers those moving from XP or Vista to Windows 7.

Microsoft also announced … Read more

Microsoft on Wednesday said it has finalized the code for Windows 7, paving the way for the new operating system to make its way onto retail shelves and new PCs in time for its October 22 launch.

The software maker is hoping the response to the new operating system differs from the lukewarm reviews and compatibility challenges that marked the release of Windows Vista, which hit the market in January 2007. In contrast to Vista, Windows 7 has been marked by the company consistently hitting its deadlines and receiving largely positive feedback along the way.

"That is our final … Read more

A discounted offer for Windows 7 appears to be selling out quickly in Europe.

In addition to an apparent sellout at some Amazon sites and at spots in Germany, Microsoft's European online store was apparently overwhelmed by demand, meaning that those who turned up to buy the software were instead greeted with a multilingual error message.

"Due to the eagerly anticipated Windows 7 pre-order offer we're experiencing a higher level of demand on our website than usual," Microsoft said in the English-language posting. "This means you can't access the site right now and we'… Read more

While most of the attention on Day 1 of Microsoft's partner conference was on the Office side of things, Microsoft did announce two notable pieces of Windows 7 news on Monday.

The company said that business customers will be able to get Windows 7 ahead of its October 22 retail launch, though they won't be able to get it immediately after the code is finalized. The software maker said that businesses will be able to order Windows 7 from volume licensing partners as of September 1.

Microsoft also said it will have a limited-time, six-month promotion whereby businesses … Read more

Although plenty of businesses skipped Windows Vista, a significant number of corporations have no plans to quickly move to Windows 7, according to a new survey.

The survey, which received feedback from 1,000 IT administrators, found that nearly 60 percent have no current plan to adopt Windows 7. The survey, conducted by Quest Software's ScriptLogic unit, received the 1,000 responses from 20,000 surveys it distributed.

Just over a third of survey respondents said that they plan to deploy by the end of 2010, while 5.4 percent said they expected to move to Windows 7 this … Read more

Going from Windows Vista to Windows 7 is relatively straightforward. So one might think that moving from a pre-release version of Windows 7 to the final version would also be simple.

One would be wrong.

That's because the upgrade versions of the Windows operating system (the cheapest way to move to the final version) check for a previous paid version of Windows on the drive. That means, if a user did a clean installation of Windows 7 on their test system (as recommended by Microsoft), that same user will have to back up their data, reinstall their original operating … Read more

Although Windows 7 won't go on sale until October, Microsoft is actually slated to be done with the code that ships on those first PCs within a couple of weeks.

Some enthusiast sites are predicting that Microsoft will peg the release-to-manufacturing date of Windows 7 to July 13, the start of the company's Worldwide Partner Conference. A report on GeekSmack.net suggests that Microsoft will finish the OS by the 13th and post the software to its MSDN and TechNet developer sites shortly thereafter.

Although the timing would certainly be convenient, it's also the case that Microsoft … Read more

Microsoft appears likely to offer a "Family Pack" version of Windows 7, according to language in a leaked test version of the operating system.

This week enthusiasts started buzzing over wording in the license agreement in the test build that suggests Microsoft will have an option to buy a license for Windows 7 that covers up to three PCs in the same household.

According to blogger Kristan Kenney, the license agreement included with the recently leaked version states that "if you are a 'Qualified Family Pack User', you may install one copy of the software marked as '… Read more

Microsoft promised that by purchasing the pricey Ultimate edition of Vista users would get all kinds of extras.

However, for many, those extras turned out to be little more than a few screensavers and a poker game, prompting some significant grousing.

Now, that frustration has turned to anger after Microsoft offered its pre-order program for Windows 7. Through July 11, Microsoft is offering a steep discount for those moving to cheaper versions of Windows 7, but nothing for those who want to stay on Ultimate. Under the terms of Microsoft's discount pre-order program, users can buy an upgrade to … Read more