Microsoft has finally released the Upgrade prices for Windows 7! This is one of those things that many of us have been concerned about because it can really affect our wallets negatively if set too high. Thankfully it looks like Microsoft has been listening and has made Windows 7 more affordable.

• Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Home Premium: $79.99
• Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional: $89.99
• Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Ultimate: $139.99
• Windows 7 Family Pack for 3 Windows 7 Home Premium licenses $149.99

I as well as others are most happy with the addition of the Family Pack and its pricing. When you have multiple computers in your house upgrading can be a pain, and high prices don’t help things at all.

The one thing I am worried about this is: “The Windows 7 Family Pack will be available starting on October 22nd until supplies last here in the US and other select markets”. Until Supplies Lasts can mean a lot of things including that it is only a short term promotion.

Check It Out> The Windows Blog

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The Windows 7 team has finally signed off on Microsoft’s newest operating system and it is RTM! What this means is that all of the appropriate teams within Microsoft have certified that it is ready to be Released To Manufactures (RTM). This means that it will now be sent to computer manufactures where they will then change it to be bloated, slow, and in general a poor experience. Once they are satisfied that it is slow enough, they will install it onto their latest and greatest computers, yet again proving that a 400 Mhz computer can still be faster than modern hardware.

Todays announcement actually came sooner than anticipated. Many sites have been trying to guess the date that it would go RTM, thankfully it has been released sooner than most people expected it to be. This will hopefully allow OEMs to do more testing, realize that they need to leave it alone, and not try to “enhance” it by installing tons of crapware. Of course this is just wishful thinking.

Over the next few days/weeks the RTM version of Windows 7 Build 7600 will make its way to Technet subscribers and those that have MSDN. Unfortunately for most users that are not beta testing the OS, they will have to wait for General Availability on October 22nd.

• OEMs – July 24th
• Independent hardware/software vendors – August 6th
• Microsoft Partner Program Gold/Certified Members – August 16th
• Microsoft Action Pack Subscribers – August 23rd
• Volume License (VL) customers with an existing Software Agreement – August 7th
• Volume License (VL) customers without a Software Agreement – September 1st
• Technet Subscribers – August 6th
• Developers with MSDN subscriptions – August 6th

One thing that makes me very happy is that Microsoft has also confirmed that they will be releasing a “Family Pack” of Windows 7 which will include 3 licenses of the operating system. This is probably going to be one of the best deals both for Microsoft and Consumers. Most people I know have 2 or more computers in their house, even non-geeks. A 3 pack will hopefully make the purchase a little easier on our wallets.

Check It Out> The Windows Blog 1, The Windows Blog 2

Windows 7 deployment is about to be a very big topic for IT guys and as with every new OS, it doesn’t get much easier. There are always new things to learn and old things to cut out of the upgrading process and this tends to just make things more complicated.

Thankfully the guides are starting to roll out to help prepare you for the task ahead. The first guide that I am going to plug is Orbit One’s. It is a well written guide that covers creating a Windows PE image and then using it to deploy Windows 7. It is focused primarily on the Release Candidate of Windows 7 and as long as there are no major changes to the final build of Windows PE (or 7), can be relied upon to guide you through the upgrade process.

One of the reasons that this particular guide came to my attention (thanks to my friend Rob) is that they reference OS Attack for some of the commands to build Windows PE. If you are looking for more information on Windows PE make sure you check out our Windows PE section which will greatly be increasing in size as the Windows 7 release gets closer.

Check It Out> Orbit One, Download The Guide

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When it comes to Windows 7 one of the most hotly debated topics is of course, pricing. Most tech bloggers like myself have our own ideas of what we would like Windows 7 to sell for, but Microsoft is in this to make as much money as possible.

Today Microsoft officially released the pricing for Windows 7 and announced an excellent pre-order deal for consumers. These prices are for U.S. customers but we should see international prices soon:

• Windows 7 Home Premium (Upgrade): $119.99
• Windows 7 Professional (Upgrade): $199.99
• Windows 7 Ultimate (Upgrade): $219.99

And the estimated retail prices for full packaged retail product of Windows 7 in the U.S. are:

• Windows 7 Home Premium (Full): $199.99
• Windows 7 Professional (Full): $299.99
• Windows 7 Ultimate (Full): $319.99

These prices are about $40 less than the current Windows Vista prices which were much higher when it first came out more than 2 years ago. These prices are for when Windows 7 launches on October 22nd 2009 but it is not even close to the best news they released today.

Be First, Save Half… This is Microsoft’s pre-order plan is exactly as it sounds, a 50% discount. Tomorrow they will announce the retailers that you will be able to purchase it from but it is expected to be Best Buy and Amazon as well as others. The pre-orders will be available from June 26th until July 11th or as long as supplies last, so pretty much whenever they decide they have enough hype for it.

Check It Out> The Windows Blog, Microsoft, Technologizer

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Paul Thurrott of SuperSite fame originally broke the story that Windows 7 Starter Edition would no longer be limited to 3 applications running at a time. Now today we have confirmation from Microsoft that this is in fact true.

When it comes down to the actual details, Starter Edition is more like a crippled Windows Vista Basic Edition. Here are some of the things that are either disabled or missing from it:

• No Aero Glass. It is limited to the “Windows Basic” theme and does not have any of the transparent features including Taskbar Previews and Aero Peek.
• No ability to “Personalize” the appearance. This means you can’t change the wallpaper, window colors, or sound schemes.
• Fast user switching is disabled. In order to login to another user, you must first completely log off any other users.
• No Multi-Monitor support. Essentially your VGA out port is worthless.
• DVD playback is disabled.
• Windows Media Center is either completely missing or massively crippled.
• No ability to stream music, videos or recorded TV from another computer on your home network.
• Domain support is disabled
• XP Mode is of course also absent

A lot of these are no brainers such as Media Center not working but things like changing the wallpaper and lack of DVD playback are pretty lame. Since Starter is only going to be for Netbooks it is not too much to worry about but if you are looking for less restrictions you can always upgrade the OS.

While Windows 7 does make for a good Netbook operating system don’t for get Moblin, Ubuntu Netbook Remix or one of the many other Netbook specific operating systems.

Check It Out> The Windows Blog