Windows 7 free upgrade for Vista users

[Modelworks]

Good news for Vista users. Looks like vista will be gone from the market faster than XP.
Notice they have a ship date as early as April 2009.


http://www.techarp.com/showart....aspx?artno=609&pgno=0

The Windows 7 Upgrade Program is designed to assist Microsoft's OEM partners in minimizing the number of end users who may postpone acquiring a new computer because of the impending release of the Windows 7 operating system. This program allows OEMs to offer an upgrade to Windows 7 to end users who qualify.

This is a consumer-oriented program targeted at individual consumers and small businesses that have purchased eligible PCs during the Program Eligibility Period. End users will have to meet these requirements to be deemed eligible for the upgrade to Windows 7 when it is released :

* End users must purchase a new PC that is pre-installed with an eligible Windows Vista Operating System (OS), during the program eligibility window.

* The PC must have a valid Certificate of Authenticity (COA) attached.

* The only Windows Vista® versions eligible for the program are :
1. Windows Vista® Home Premium
2. Windows Vista® Business
3. Windows Vista® Ultimate
* Microsoft Windows Vista® Home Basic, Windows Vista® Starter Edition, and Windows® XP (all editions) are not qualifying products under the program.

* The Program does not support multiple upgrades for medium, large, or enterprise customers. Customers that want to upgrade multiple PCs should use the appropriate Microsoft Volume Licensing program. See www.microsoft.com/licensing for more details.

* The following are the only valid upgrade paths under the program :
1. Windows Vista® Home Premium -> Windows® 7 Home Premium
2. Windows Vista® Business -> Windows® 7 Professional
3. Windows Vista® Ultimate -> Windows® 7 Ultimate

Do note that this is an optional program, so not all OEMs may choose to participate. OEMs that choose to participate in this upgrade program will have the freedom to determine how to best provide qualifying end users with the details.

Techarp is being hammered pretty bad right now so more info:

Program Eligibility Period
- Windows Vista PCs preinstalled with qualifying software must be purchased by end users between these dates.
- OEMs may choose to offer a shorter program period within the allowed date range.


July 1, 2009 through January 31, 2010 *
* Open to change, and depends on the actual release to market date of Windows 7

Program Calculation Period
- The total number of eligible Windows Vista Certificates of Authenticity (COAs) invoiced to an OEM during the Program Calculation Period, multiplied by 20%, determines the number of program upgrade media that can be purchased by OEM through Microsoft ARs.
- End of Program Calculation Period will be 90 days prior to the end of Program Eligibility Period.


April 1, 2009 through October 31, 2009

Initial Upgrade Media Fulfillment Date
- Date on which OEMs may start shipping upgrade media to Qualifying End Users.


Windows 7 General Availability Date

Final Software Fulfillment Date / Program End Date
- Date by which upgrade media must be shipped for Qualifying End Users? upgrade orders.
- Microsoft recommends that OEMs establish and communicate to their customers a final submission date to ensure fulfillment by the Program End Date.

April 30, 2010



Additional Upgrade Path Restrictions :

* A language version of the qualifying Windows Vista product can only be upgraded to the same language version of the Windows 7 upgrade software.
* The Windows Vista product can only be upgraded to the associated edition of the upgrade software. For example, Windows Vista Home Premium K edition can only be upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium K edition.
* OEMs must ship media as defined in these permitted upgrade paths. No other upgrade paths are available and supported under the Program.
* If an end user attempts to upgrade to an unsupported upgrade path, the end user may have to re-format the PC hard drive and/or may lose applications, files and settings available with the previous installed version of Windows. For example, the following upgrades are not allowed in the program :
- Upgrades from Windows Vista Home Basic or Windows Vista Starter
- Upgrades from Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate
- Upgrades from Windows Vista Business to Windows 7 Ultimate
* New! Windows Vista 64-bit to Windows 7 64-bit upgrades are fully supported, but 32-bit to 64-bit upgrades are not supported and will be blocked by the Windows 7 upgrade process. A clean install will be allowed though.
* New! Windows XP to Windows 7 upgrades are also not supported, and will be blocked by the Windows 7 upgrade process. The only way is to do a clean install using the Windows 7 Upgrade Option media.

 

[Aberforth]

What about Retail users?

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Aberforth
What about Retail users?

Good question.

 

[MBrown]

I think the majority of the people on this forum will still have to buy it for full price.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Aberforth
What about Retail users?

I don't recall Microsoft ever offering free upgrades for Retail-box software. It's always been OEM versions.

I'm still GUESSING there will be a "low-cost" upgrade from Vista to W7. But it's just a guess. I'd think Microsoft would want to do something for folks who'd spent $200 to $400 for Retail-box Vista Ultimate only a year or two earlier.

 

[Aberforth]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: Aberforth
What about Retail users?

I don't recall Microsoft ever offering free upgrades for Retail-box software. It's always been OEM versions.

I'm still GUESSING there will be a "low-cost" upgrade from Vista to W7. But it's just a guess. I'd think Microsoft would want to do something for folks who'd spent $200 to $400 for Retail-box Vista Ultimate only a year or two earlier.

You know I blew 400 bucks to buy Vista Ultimate...I was forced to buy that copy, I already had Enterprise version. There was so much hype over dreamscene and other junk that...you can't imagine the number of people who were crazy about that.

 

[Maximilian]

Hope this includes me i liked the win 7 beta, i got vista ultimate free Otherwise i would still be on XP.

 

[tdawg]

Originally posted by: Maximilian
Hope this includes me i liked the win 7 beta, i got vista ultimate free Otherwise i would still be on XP.

Why would this include you? Eligibility is only for new PCs bought from the likes of Dell and HP during the time window listed in the details above. There's no way Microsoft would give every Vista user a free upgrade to Windows 7. That would make no business sense at all.

 

[7beauties]

I thought that Windows 7 Beta is available to anyone. Are we talking about Windows 7 or its Beta release? By the way, I've downloaded to my desktop Windows 7 Beta but it's an .iso file. What do I do with it? Is this something that has to be burned to DVD? And if I do that, and boot from the DVD to install Windows 7 Beta, will I lose everything? How does this evaluation work? Also, does anyone have an idea what happens when your activation expires in June? What then? I'm very intrigued by Windows 7 Beta, but I don't want to screw anything up, nor waste my time. Thank you.

 

[13Gigatons]

This title is very misleading. You have to buy a PC after July 2009.

If it was a free upgrade for ALL Vista users then it would be a lot different.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
I don't recall Microsoft ever offering free upgrades for Retail-box software. It's always been OEM versions.

Not true, MS had an upgrade program in place for purchasers of Windows XP, that between certain dates, the user would recieve a retail upgrade copy of Vista.
Someone I know purchased Windows XP Pro, and recieved Vista Business, and I purchased XP Home, and recieved Vista Home Basic.

So I would be very surprised if MS didn't offer a similar program for retail purchasers of Vista, to upgrade to Window 7 when it is released.

 

[sportage]

I dont know.... This whole vista issue vs W7 sounds like a another class action in the making.