Windows 7 Family Pack, Anytime Upgrade prices leak

Windows 7 Family Pack, Anytime Upgrade prices leak

Summary: History has a way of repeating itself. Back in August 2006, Amazon Canada inadvertently published the price list for Windows Vista before it had been officially announced. In a distribution channel the size of Microsoft's, leaks are bound to happen. Thanks to some small software resellers, I've found details confirming both the availability and price of the Windows 7 Family Pack and three Anytime Upgrade products for Windows 7.

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History has a way of repeating itself. Back in August 2006, Amazon Canada inadvertently published the price list for Windows Vista before it had been officially announced. In a distribution channel the size of Microsoft's, leaks are bound to happen.

Now, thanks to some similarly careless online retailers, I've found details confirming both the availability and price of the Windows 7 Family Pack and three Anytime Upgrade products for Windows 7. As I reported last week, Microsoft is apparently planning to release a Family Pack that will include three Windows 7 Home Premium licenses for a discounted price. I reported details of the Anytime Upgrade program back in April but noted that prices were still missing.

My colleague Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is reflexively skeptical about my report of a Windows 7 Family Pack. In fact, he says, his "OEM contacts" are unaware of any such product and one "source that has been reliable in the past" tells him the language referring to that product has been pulled from the license agreement. Fortunately, some of Adrian's commenters have better sources than he does. One points to a product code, GFC-00236, that produces some very interesting search results.

Like a set of product listings from Expercom that includes a WINDOWS 7 FAMILY PACK/ HOME PREMIUM UPGRADE (GFC-00236) with a listed price of $136.95.

Another reseller, University IT Computer Sales, briefly had the same product and code listed on its website at $144.95. It's been pulled from the live site, but lives on in the Google cache.

Both companies are reliable, if small, resellers, and one detail that makes the leak even more convincing is the UPC code attached to the University IT listing. A search of the UPC Database doesn't turn up details for 882224898249 yet, but that prefix (88224) belongs to Microsoft.

Even more intriguing to me are a handful of extra listings in the Expercom catalog, which finally attach prices to the Windows Anytime Upgrade product line:

  • UPG WINDOWS ANYTIME/W7 STARTER TO HOME PREMIUM UPGRADE Microsoft - Model 4WC-00040 $81.95
  • UPG WINDOWS ANYTIME/W7 HOME PREMIUM TO PROFESSIONAL UPGRADE Microsoft - Model 7KC-00040 $90.95
  • UPG WINDOWS ANYTIME/W7 HOME PRE TO ULTIMATE UPGRADE Microsoft - Model 39C-00040 $137.95

All of those prices seem thoroughly credible to me. Curiously, the one price missing is for Windows 7 Professional to Windows 7 Ultimate, which I expect to cost between $20 and $30.

The Home Premium to Professional Anytime Upgrade product is also in the catalog at PC Nation for $92.55 and at PC Mall for $99.99. PC Mall also has the Starter-to-Home Premium Anytime Upgrade and the Home Premium-to-Ultimate package for $89.99 and $153.99, respectively. The PC Nation prices are $83.72 and $142.30, respectively.

Until Microsoft makes an official announcement, of course, all this is indeed speculation. But mythical products don't usually get UPC codes and official Microsoft part numbers, nor do they make it into the license agreements in software that is literally days away from shipping. If the Family Pack prices shown above are accurate, this will be yet another of the "very aggressive" pricing offers Microsoft promised earlier this year.

Topics: Operating Systems, Microsoft, Software, Windows

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  • Family pack - which family?

    The most silly thing about the family pack is that it allows 3 upgrades. Our family of 4 has 7 computers (2 netbooks, 3 notebooks and 2 desktops) with 3 of them also running virtual machines from time to time for web security.

    How many families have only 3 computers? If MS wants to keep my business they have to do better. If I need to upgrade, Linux will look too attractive to ignore.
    Economister
    • So buy two

      Two packs equals six licenses. And are you really going to upgrade all six of them to Windows 7?
      Ed Bott
      • I can do the math, thank you.

        I do not know whether your reply was meant to be flippant or not. The cost of an OS upgrade is significant. Right now, the netbooks and desktops run XP and the notebooks run Vista. W7 is supposed to run better than Vista on netbooks. I do not like Vista much and would upgrade the notebooks if the price is right. Both desktops could handle Vista well, but I prefer XP despite some issues.

        This is about MS trying to keeping its customers. Once they leave, most of them will not return. The biggest barrier is the switching/learning costs. MS may just have erected a significant barrier to keep me as a customer.

        And I will certainly not buy 3 family packs.
        Economister
        • "If the price is right"?

          You're not making any sense. You say you would upgrade the notebooks "if the price is right." You have a $49.95 offer on the table right now for individual licenses and a three-pack that works out to about $45 per license. That's lower than Microsoft has ever charged for a Windows upgrade, and yet it's not good enough?

          Something tells me the only price you'll settle for is free.
          Ed Bott
          • Is that so? Your crystal ball is too cloudy and.....

            your closing comment offensive. I have 7 fully paid and licensed copies Windows. I have put up with 3 copies of Vista, one of which is Ultimate, which was supposed to come with extras. I am not willing to pay well over $300 to upgrade.

            Like I said, if MS wants to keep me they have to do better. Your sarcasm only labels you, not me.
            Economister
          • I don't think Microsoft 'expects' anything from you...

            In my experience, people tend to 'upgrade' when the new OS comes installed on a new PC intended to replace and old computer.

            I sold Vista at its launch. We didn't sell a lot of boxed copies. We sold it on laptops and desktops.

            So my guess is Microsoft doesn't expect you to upgrade your whole house at once. They anticipate your repeat business as you decide one of your old machines doesn't cut it anymore.
            ericesque
          • Fair and legitimate point.

            It does beg the question however, if MS only expects my repeat business when I purchase a new computer (which in the current HW/OS environment may be entirely reasonable) they would get MORE of my money if they priced their family upgrade pack better. Your comment about Vista upgrade sales suggests strongly that the demand for OS upgrades is highly elastic, meaning that MS could improve their bottom line by lowering the price of their upgrades. In addition, the goodwill generated from less than happy Vista customers (and XP customers) would be considerable and cost MS very little.

            With Moblin, Chrome OS, Android, Linux etc. making noises at the fringes (edit: left out OSX), I do not believe MS can afford to be complacent. They can however do what they want, and I will do what is best for me.
            Economister
          • Economister is really confused;

            I am also now wondering if he realises that the copy of winodws that comes preinstalled on OEM RTM computers, is the same price as thoughs on the box. Wake up buddy, you not getting a Free OS, you buying the OS and buying crappy hardware to be able to use it. It has always been that way. You know if you contacted your OEM provider and told them you wanted a refund on the OS your refund would be credited at a competitive cost to the retail box. Get a life man, your just here to start problems and bash something that you don't fully understand!!
            Ez_Customs
          • It's not sarcasm

            You are very, very sensitive, sir or madam.

            Seriously, with absolutely no sarcasm intended, do you really think $49 or less per copy is too much for an operating system?

            "They have to do better" - OK, what price would be acceptable to you?
            Ed Bott
          • I alredy have 7 operating systems.

            See my reply to ericesque above.
            Economister
          • You still haven't answered the question

            Which was "What price would it take to get you to upgrade?"

            But you seem more interested in acting offended than in having a discussion, so I give up.
            Ed Bott
          • $199 unlimited within a single family, no business (nt)

            nt
            Economister
          • 199 per unlimited WHAT?

            How would that Pricing work? So you want a copy to have no predefined limit and also want people to be honest and not install their OS on someone else PC. So we are on the honor system like it was 10 years ago. Boy that worked well...
            rbettencourt@...
          • WHY!?

            Why are you still trying to appease this guy?

            We all know the type:

            Guy 1: "Microsoft just found the cure for cancer!"
            Guy 2: "Yeah, well, Microsofot is a predatory monopolist and probably stole it from Apple."
            Guy 1: "Uh, okay."

            ;)
            GuyAlanDye
          • How about 29 bucks like APPLE has done.

            It's only fair, after all it's only software.
            AdventTech67
          • Microsoft doesn`t sell overpriced hardware...

            ..sorry. They only sell software. And if you think an operating sistem (or any complex program) is easy to write and any kid on the block can do it, that means you have no f*king clue about what a computer is.
            Go back to your cave, pls.

            A calculator app, now that is something that is easy to write and any kid on the block can do it.

            And BTW, Apple had 6 operating sistems (10.6 being Snow Leopard), in the same timeframe Microsoft launched 3 operating sistems (XP->Vista->Seven)
            NeoGeneration
          • $49 for a CRIPPLED OS upgrade is too much, yes

            As a family of 2 with 6 computers (and a server), I can understand his point of view fully. If they were selling Win 7 [i]Ultimate[/i] for $49 per upgrade license, then I'd probably upgrade most, if not all of my own 6 computers to Win 7. But in order to get the full OS, I'm looking at $49 per seat PLUS $140 per seat to add back the features they arbitrarily removed simply so they could pump more cash out of my pocket. Now we're talking about a sizable investment of nearly $1200 in order to bring my systems up to date with full-featured OS copies.

            And no, Home Premium is NOT good enough. No encrypting file system. No XP mode. No BitLocker. No backing up to a network location (my server). So forget that argument. The crippled-version pricing fiasco Microsoft is once again foisting on end users is unpardonable in my view.
            BillDem
          • Let me help you out

            [i]And no, Home Premium is NOT good enough.[/i]

            Yes it is.

            [i]No XP mode.[/i]

            XP Mode is nothing more than a free, pre-configured version of XP. It doesn't add any features that aren't available in Windows Virtual PC that comes with all versions of Windows 7. If you have a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium and a license for XP, you can install XP in Virtual PC, install the Integration Components, and you have your XP Mode in Home Premium.

            http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2009/06/25/multiple-seamless-applications-with-windows-virtual-pc.aspx

            [i]No BitLocker.[/i]

            http://www.truecrypt.org/

            Free and far better for the home user. BitLocker is not particularly easy to configure and really only stands out from the competition because it supports things like AD key recovery.

            [i]No backing up to a network location (my server).[/i]

            Are you sure about that?
            http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/backup.aspx
            [i]Two particularly useful Automatic Backup features are the ability to do a scheduled backup and [b]the ability to back up your files to a network location. (These features are available in all editions of Windows Vista[/b] except for Home Basic.)[/i]

            So with the exception of encryption, you have everything you asked for in Home Premium and encryption is a free add-on.
            NonZealot
          • Let me help you out...

            Yes it is.
            Sorry, it isn't.

            .... install XP in a Virtual PC...
            The best reason home users would need XP Mode is to run GAMES. Virtual PC sucks at running hardware intensive games. If I were going to follow your advice I'd rather dual-boot XP and I almost never reboot.

            No BitLocker.
            BitLocker is NOT as important as the Encrypting File System. I noticed you skipped that one. Yes, I know about TrueCrypt. I would rather have an OS integrated solution.

            Are you sure about that?
            Yes, I'm sure Win 7 Home Premium does NOT include the ability to back up to a network location. Ed Bott is apparently sure, too. Look at the feature table in his article: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=1128

            So with zero exceptions, everything I asked for is NOT included in Home Premium. And there are a lot more features NOT included which I didn't bother listing. Do some research.
            BillDem
          • Let me help you out

            [i]The best reason home users would need XP Mode is to run GAMES. Virtual PC sucks at running hardware intensive games.[/i]

            You need to do a bit more research on XP Mode. XP Mode is nothing more than a preconfigured XP install that is run within Virtual PC. XP Mode will be no better at running games than Virtual PC because XP Mode [b]is[/b] Virtual PC.

            [i]Yes, I know about TrueCrypt. I would rather have an OS integrated solution.[/i]

            This would carry more weight if you told me that you [b]never[/b] used anything but IE. Is that true? If you use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Opera, I will have to suggest that OS integrated solutions aren't that important to you and that TrueCrypt would be your answer.

            [i]Yes, I'm sure Win 7 Home Premium does NOT include the ability to back up to a network location.[/i]

            You got me on that one. I did not realize that MS has taken this out of Windows 7 because it certainly was available in Vista Home Premium. I guess since OS integrated solutions are important to you, you should install WHS on your server and then you can perform network backups with Windows 7 Home Premium. :)

            [i]And there are a lot more features NOT included which I didn't bother listing.[/i]

            List them.
            NonZealot