Microsoft Launches Free Windows 7 Upgrade Deal

Microsoft's "Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program" provides free or nearly-free upgrades to Windows 7 for those who purchase a Vista PC between today and Jan. 31, 2010. HP is the only major vendor so far to promise a no-charge upgrade, but more are expected.

By Gregg Keizer
Thu, June 25, 2009

Computerworld — Microsoft today officially unveiled details of the Windows 7 upgrade program it kicks off tomorrow for buyers of new PCs.

Called "Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program," the deal provides free or nearly-free upgrades to Windows 7 for people who purchase a new Vista PC between June 26, 2009 and Jan. 31, 2010.

Slideshow: Windows 7 in Pictures: 10 Cool Desktop Features

People who buy a PC equipped with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate from a participating retailer or computer maker will get an upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate at some point after Oct. 22, when Microsoft ships the new OS.

The program is a repeat of one Microsoft launched in 2006 to keep sales of XP systems from stalling by offering them a free upgrade to the soon-to-be-available Vista.

"The Windows upgrade option for Windows 7 is something that we're bringing back from the Windows Vista era," Brad Brooks, vice president for Windows consumer marketing, said in an Microsoft-conducted interview posted on the company's site.

Windows 7 launch will miss the back-to-school sales season, which really cranks up in August, one factor that led to the early introduction of Upgrade Option. "You don't have to wait until [Oct. 22] to get a new Windows PC," said Brandon LeBlanc, a Microsoft spokesman, in a blog post today as he trumpeted the program. "In fact, we know many people need that new PC sooner -- for back to school, specifically." Microsoft won't charge retailers and OEMs for the upgrade, but has ceded control over the fulfillment process, letting the sellers set fees.

Hewlett-Packard, for instance, said today that it will provide the Windows 7 upgrade to eligible customers free of charge. "There are no shipping and handling fees," said an HP spokeswoman. An HP page dedicated to the Upgrade Option, however, didn't offer any details Thursday on how the company will run the program, but a statement earlier in the day promised users would also receive a utility disc that includes a step-by-step guide to installation and a tool that seeks out and preinstalls drivers necessary for Windows 7.

Microsoft's current Upgrade Option site lists other computer makers, including Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba as selling laptops that qualify for a free or discounted Windows 7 upgrade.

Because the retailers and OEMs are doing the scut work of the upgrade program, customers will see a variety of deals and delivery dates. The soonest someone would receive an upgrade DVD is Oct. 22, the retail availability date for Windows 7. It may be weeks later, however, before buyers see those discs.

1 2 next page »

What is Tech Briefcase?

TechBriefcase is a new, free service where IT Professionals can Search, Store and Share IT white papers and content like this. Learn more

Bookmark content

Speed up your research efforts with content across the web.

Search and Store

Find the white papers you need. Create folders for any topic.

View Anywhere

Open your briefcase on your iPhone, tablet or desktop. Share with colleagues.

Don't have an account yet?

You are here: Technology Topics » News

Most Recent Technology Topics Stories

White Papers »

Finding the right cloud solutions for your organization

HP is driving the evolution of what we call the Instant-On Enterprise. It is an enterprise that embeds technology into everything it does to better serve citizens, partners, employees, and clients. We believe that today's Instant-On Enterprises need to think differently about how they source and deliver services that are enabled by technology. They need to take advantage of a hybrid delivery model-one that truly optimizes the mix between traditional IT, private cloud, and public cloud.

Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Converged Infrastructure for Dummies

As you know, everything is mobile, connected, interactive, and immediate. This is exactly why organizations need a highly agile IT infrastructure in order to keep pace with extreme fluctuations in business demand. This book will help you understand why infrastructure convergence has been widely accepted as the optimal approach for simplifying and accelerating your IT to deliver services at the speed of business while also shifting significantly more IT resources from operations to innovation.

Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Seven Priorities for Integrated Network Management - How HP Intelligent Management Center Delivers an Enterprise-class Solution

This white paper describes the major requirements for network management solutions to help the organizations become more profitable, efficient and reliable.

Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Measuring the Business Value of CI in the Data Center

One of the key strategies that IT teams are pursuing to reduce capital costs while boosting asset utilization and employee productivity is the transition to highly virtualized data centers. However, IDC finds that expectations for further boosts in IT asset use and operational efficiency often surpass the actual results for a variety of reasons. These problems can quickly overwhelm any hoped-for benefits as the scope of virtual server deployment expands.

Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Building Cloud-Optimized Data Center Networks white paper

Enterprises are turning to the Cloud to improve business agility, reduce expenses and accelerate business innovation. Cloud computing redefines the way IT assets are deployed and consumed and dramatically affects the way data center networks are architected and managed. Conventional hierarchical data center networks built to support traditional IT architectures can't meet the security, agility and price/performance requirements of virtualized cloud computing environments. This white paper reviews the impact of cloud computing on data center networks and describes HP's approach to building simpler, more secure and automated networks that fully meet the stringent performance, security, reliability and agility demands of the new data center in the Cloud.

Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

The Forrester Wave: Activities Streams, Q2 2012

The enterprise social software market is exploding thanks to converging trends of consumerization, cloud, and mobile. In this must-read report, "The Forrester Wave: Activities Streams, Q2 2012", Forrester Research Inc. evaluated five social software vendors with core strengths in the stream based on the overall strength of vendors' current offerings, a clear product strategy, and vendor market presence. In a detailed look at the space, Forrester named Yammer as a leader.

Webcasts »

Virtualization Success is a Team Effort

As greater numbers of datacenter servers transition from the physical to the virtual world, the components of virtualization success come to the fore. What scores of organizations have discovered is that success is derived from an optimal pairing of the right software platform with the right hardware platform.

Oracle Database Appliance Best Practices

Business users increasingly demand 24x7 availability of their data while IT departments face the challenge of ensuring maximum availability while operating with limited budgets.

Unlock the Value of Cloud Computing with Workload Automation

Learn how to get the most from your cloud investment in our on-demand webinar from BMC and InformationWeek. You'll hear how integrating the cloud into your production workload brings critical business benefits.

Best Practices to Optimize Your Data Center at Every Layer of the Stack

Date: May 31, 2012
Time: 1 PM EST

Organizations are reaping the benefits of simplifying IT, lowering costs and dramatically improving transactional throughput by deploying optimized application-to-disk solutions. These pre-tuned, tested solutions encompass a wide variety of applications and use cases. Hear from industry experts, and IT executives, how these full-stack solutions can achieve three times faster deployment times and up to 75% reductions in acquisition and operational costs.

Workload Automation Trends and Best Practices in 2012

Find out when you join EMA Senior Analyst, Torsten Volk, for a discussion on the 2012 trends in workload automation and how these trends contribute to better connecting workload automation to business processes. These trends are derived from EMA's empirical research work conducted for the 2012 Workload Automation Radar Report.

Analytics at the Speed of Thought

What if you could run financial and operational planning cycles 10 times faster? Or monitor and adjust marketing campaigns in real time? What if you could instantly visualize how a price change would impact the profitability of thousands of products?

Newsletter Sign-Up »

Receive the latest news test, reviews and trends on your favorite technology topics

Choose a newsletter