Get A Free Copy of Windows Vista Business And/Or Office Professional 2007!

[Nurhisham Hussein]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2006/11/free_vista_or_o.html' target='_blank'>http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkonthe...vista_or_o.html</a><br /><br /></div><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/hisham-20061130-powertogether.jpg" /><br /><br />No this isn't spam. ;)<br /><br />Microsoft is holding a promotion offering a free DVD copy of Windows Vista Business and/or Microsoft Office Professional 2007. What do you have to do to get them? Register at <a href="http://www.powertogether.com/">www.powertogether.com</a> and just sit through 3 webcasts or virtual labs for each product! The offer expires Feb 28, 2007, and among other things is open to legal residents of the United States only. :cry: I'm not eligible unfortunately. Supplies are limited, so get'em while they're hot.<br /><br />For more information, you can read more about this offer in these JKOnTheRun blog entries <a href="http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2006/11/free_vista_or_o.html">here</a> and <a href="http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2006/11/update_on_the_f.html">here</a>.

[nosmohtac]

Your link works, but the links on that site doesn't work at this time. :cry:

edit: i guess the links on the office side work, but none of the ones on the Windows Vista side are working. I hope that doesn't mean that they aren't allowing any more registrations.

[lanwarrior]

I think this website maybe a scam, because:

1) The SSL certificate was invalid
2) The powertogether.com domain name is owned by somebody in UK

http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=powertogether&amp;tld=com

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Interesting on the whois, but there seems to be some corroboration from MS:

http://www.windows-now.com/blogs/robert/archive/2006/11/27/get-vista-and-office-for-watching-webcasts-at-powertogether-dot-com.aspx

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=261550#261550

[Mick]

Here's a cautionary message posted at http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2006/11/free_vista_or_o.html:
"Thank you for contacting Microsoft Online Customer Service.

I understand that you would like to know whether powertogether offers Windows Vista and Office 2007 for free. I realize the importance of your issue and appreciate the information that you have provided.

In all likelihood, this software available at Powertogether website is pirated. If you would like to get more information about piracy, we do have a piracy support website that provides information about this serious issue. You can visit this web site at:
http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/ReportingUs.mspx

We also have a piracy Hotline, which you can reach at 1-800-785-3448 or write to:
[email protected]

I hope the above information is helpful.

Thank you for using Microsoft products and services.

Anuradha
Microsoft Online Customer Service Representative"

[Jerry Raia]

They are asking for tax records too. We think it could be a scam over at Smartphonethoughts. (http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=81317#81317)

[applejosh]

Sure sounds like a scam to me. I'm wondering if it would be wise to take away the links in the announcement/post until it can be dutifully verified (or at least taken off the front page). A lot of people trust this site, and if it is a scam or ID theft portal, it would be a shame to have pocketpcthoughts be the referring entity.

[Paul Martin]

Here's a cautionary message posted at http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2006/11/free_vista_or_o.html:


True, but on the follow-up post (http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2006/11/update_on_the_f.html), he offers confirmation:

According Mark Brown, a Microsoft employee in the Developer &amp; Platform Marketing area, the deal is legit. Here is a quote from the Microsoft Channel 9 blog: "Its for real. This thing is a marketing campaign of mine and is targeted at developers who are willing to watch 3 or more webcasts (each) to get either a copy of Vista Business or Office Pro."

[Jerry Raia]

OK, Mike got confirmation from a contact at Microsoft. It looks like it is legitimate. Again see our thread over at Smartphonethoughts. (http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=81317)

[Paul Martin]

Thanks for the update, Jerry. I signed up last night. Other than wanting my first born, I didn't see anything unusual about it. :mrgreen:

[paschott]

My question is on whether we need to own a business in order to use this. From what I can see, if you work for an MS Partner, you're not eligible? Other than that it looks like a pretty good deal.

Seen 1.5 webcasts so far and I'm impressed by some of the changes I've seen.

-Pete

[paschott]

Missed that you also can't be an MSDN subscriber. So if you checked that in the responses, you may be out of luck as well. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

In other news, if you do receive both products, what's the tax penalty? MS will mail you the appropriate form, so not sure how that helps you if you're working for yourself. Any idea what the tax runs on the total cost of both products together? Would that just be factored in to your annual income and possibly increase your tax rate or would that be counted differently and you'd be taxed part of the value of the gift received?

-Pete

[paschott]

And the offer is now over. Hit the front page and both Vista and Office report "Sold Out". Still wondering what will come my way, if anything.

-Pete

[tendomentis]

I registered the other day and completed the third webcast this morning. I got a notification on the web page after the third webcast that I should receive my copy of Office 2007 in 6-8 weeks....I wonder if it will still happen now that the front page says "sold out"?

[Paul Martin]

And the offer is now over. Hit the front page and both Vista and Office report "Sold Out". Still wondering what will come my way, if anything.

Pete,

If you read closely, it also says this:
Already Registered? If you have already registered for the Vista Campaign, selected a gift and are eligible to receive the free gift, please continue to watch your webcasts to complete the requirements for your free Windows Vista Business.
So, if you already signed up and are in the process of viewing the webcasts, you should be OK as long as you get it done within the 30 days, at least IMHO.

[paschott]

I think I only registered for the Office campaign. I didn't realize when I first signed up that you could do both and decided I'm more likely to use Office than Vista. At this point, I don't see me upgrading to Vista for at least a year, probably longer. I just don't see a huge benefit personally. Don't need it for games, PPC, day-to-day life, and I just don't have a lot of problems with security with my current setup. I think the worst problem I had to cleanup was some minor spyware because my wife was using IE. Nothing on the level of CoolWebSearch or similar infestations, though.

I can check to see if I'm eligible, but I'm not too concerned at this point. I did learn a couple of things about Office 2007 that were interesting along the way. If they'd put a Save-Compatible button by default in the toolbar, it might be more compelling for more users to switch. As is, there's even talk about the new versions just because of the changes to the doc storage. I like it, but I can see how others might not.

-Pete Schott

[cab124]

I registered for Office 2007 and watched 3 webcasts this morning. Now, when I sign in and goto "My Stuff," it shows the webcasts that I watched with "Pending" icons next to them. Not sure what that means.

I didn't get any notification about having qualified to receive my copy of Office.

The webcasts were actually pretty cool though. As a developer, good info.

[Joelacrane]

I tried at school (where there is highspeed) but It said that no more "gifts" were avalible. Bummer, now it will probably be a year or so before I can get a copy of Vista.

[The Yaz]

Hey Gang,

Not sure if anyone was checking but I was able to signup for Office 2007 before the offers were ended. It took a while to view through the 3 webcasts, but it was worth it.

I received in the mail from Microsoft a weblink to download Office 2007 Professional and the Product key.

This site rocks :!: :!: :!:

I was planning to upgrade the Office products on my computers anyway, but now the cost of doing so just went down $400.

This made my day.

Steve 8)