Windows Anytime Upgrade offer ends this Saturday
By Donald Melanson 
posted June 30th 2010 2:44PM
posted June 30th 2010 2:44PM
posted June 30th 2010 2:44PM
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Get Her Bucked!
@SilverSurfer I'm glad I stuck with a student discounted retail version of Win 7 Pro because the lower versions always seemed rather useless.
@SilverSurfer
Don't really care much about this, I'm a student at the University of Waterloo in the math faculty and get nigh-unlimited Windows licenses for my personal use.
MSDNAA FTW !!!
@MrDiSante
I got you beat. I too work at and attend a University. My Job pays for my TechNet Account, My Academic Department Pays for a MSDNAA Account, and I can purchase a student and a staff licenses for $10. I never have to pay (full price) for a piece of Microsoft Software Ever.
Sorry I know that was uncalled for.
@MrDiSante
As expensive as it is to be a student we get great discounts on everything, lol. I got my copy of W7 Ultimate for $7, though I suppose technically it was a "upgrade" even though I installed it without a previous version of Windows.
@coolkams03 yessir! legal copy of Windows 7 Home Premium for free! (least i think that's what it is)
@SilverSurfer
Eww no way snow leopard all the way baby!!!!!!!!!!!
Thats more of an advertisement than an article wouldn't you say? Its not like the program is ending, just this deal to save a few bucks.
#advertisement
@Jamesky
pinko
@Jamesky
so wats ur point? telling ppl to save few if they are planning for an upgrade doesnt seem to be an ad to me,
@Jamesky
#spack
I already found a program to change my Starter background, thanks!
That's the only thing Win 7 needed on my netbook. Except for something to come along that's better than using Win 7 on a netbook. Android?
@FelixDraconis
how about ubuntu net book remix.
lame, should be always available
yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum.
@bfdhud i see what you did there ;D
I think someone needs to learn the definition of "anytime".
@gittenlucky
Main Entry: any·time
Pronunciation: \ˈe-nē-ˌtīm\
Function: adverb
Date: 1926
: at any time whatever Microsoft wants to do.
I had no idea I could upgrade from HP to Pro for under $100... damn. Wish I'd known that when I first got my laptop. At this point I don't really care enough to do it though and I'm always a bit leery of upgrades v. clean installs. Anyone do this and have anything to report (good or bad)?
@Bandigolo
My girlfriend did this. This is not an upgrade in the traditional sense of the word. A better term would be "unlock."
As I understand it, apparently all of the capabilities of all of the Win7 editions are already installed on your computer if you have any form of Win7. It's just that the various versions only allow you access to certain features depending on which one you get. The order is Starter < Home Premium < Professional < Ultimate with each higher level having new features accessible while still encompassing all of the features of the previous level.
All this "upgrade" does is unlock those restricted features and grant you a license to them. You basically just get a new serial number, run their little "upgrade" program, reboot, and instantly you're upgraded/unlocked.
My girlfriend used this method to put Win7 Pro on her Win7 Home laptop and it worked without a hitch, she reports.
One more thing, these aren't particularly earth-shattering deals here. Amazon has the Starter to Home Anytime upgrade for $65.94 and the Home to Pro one for $73.62. And those I doubt are going away, so no need to go make any quick decisions on buying a laptop just to save $15 on the upgrade.
I do wish they had a Starter to Pro package, since I use my netbook for business, but I haven't seen one. :(
lol... slow news day?
too bad it probably won't remove the useless icon from control panel
Why is that a limited time offer? Shouldn't anyone always be able to upgrade for those prices because it's the difference between both original prices? Microsoft FAIL.
@georgeangelo Speaking of FAIL, You'll be able to use anytime upgrade anytime. It's not going away.
What's going away are the sale prices (upgrading for 40 dollars instead of 80)
What? I thought this was supposed to go on for as long as people wanted it. Isn't that how they did it with the Vista upgrades?
Why upgrade when you can download the full Ultimate version for free??? and you can install updates also!
Cheaper to just pay $200 for Technet, and you'll get Ultimate (plus every other MS apps like Office Ultimate, etc). Oh, and it's legal (unlike some other "free" suggestions).
That's not really "anytime" then, is it?
"offer" and "normally" are 2 keywords in this article.
Is this supposed to be a good deal? According to whom??
Looks like it's still 79.99 as of 6/29. Haven't been able to find it for 49.99.
so say "a friend" of mine has a "not paid for" win7 version - will my friends change of going legit with a real license dissapear after Saturday or what?
An upgrade from Premium to Pro is a WASTE of money.
four different version for different prices, limited time upgrades, artificial limitations, serial keys, activations...
I don't care what you say about the general usability of linux, but you'll at least have to admit that getting and installing a linux distro is a LOT simpler than this crap. Download disk image. Burn it. Install.
I actually tried to give Win 7 a chance and got it through MSDNAA. I've got a hard drive lying around here somewhere with it installed that wants me to phone somewhere and recite a ridiculously long series of numbers on the phone before I can use it again, just because I did a serious upgrade of my computer... Haven't touched it since.
I got my Windows 7 Professional over the holidays for only $30. Microsoft had the discount for students, any student with an .edu email address could get it for $30, not a lot of people knew about it though. Still can't believe it, what a hit. Professional now costs $300. Thanks MS :)
@Yankee I got that same deal for Win7 Pro. Just happened to run across it when I was looking to upgrade my OS. There is a student deal still going on. (for those of us students not currently apart of msdnaa)
Students can get a Win7 PRO UPGRADE for only $30. (and Office 2010 for $80) http://www.microsoft.com/student/office/en-us/default.aspx
Wow a $10 discount on Professional.. I'll jump right on that..
Wait.. is Home Premium doing everything I need? Oh it is.. nevermind..
Engadget....you are on the WORLD WIDE web. This "offer" is valid only to US residents. Stating so in your post would save a lot of non Americans a lot of time. People from around the world read this blog and there is a rather large world outside the borders of the US...not that many Americans care to notice.
And as for Microsoft....the upgrade from Home Premium to Professional is a whopping $130 CDN in Canada. The regular US upgrade price of $89 would be a steal for Canadians. If you haven't noticed, the US Dollar and Canadian dollar have been near par for some time now. Its stinking software downloaded over the web....borders should really not matter all that much. Time to cut Canadians a break.
End of rant.