Vista Family Plan Upgrade Page Launched

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/familydiscount.mspx' target='_blank'>http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/familydiscount.mspx</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Enjoy the security, performance, and entertainment capabilities of Windows Vista throughout your home. Purchase the Windows Vista Ultimate retail boxed product, and you can upgrade up to two additional PCs in your household to Windows Vista Home Premium for only $49.99 ($59.99 CAD) each.* Order online, and within minutes you’ll be ready to upgrade your computers at over 60% off the estimated retail price!"</i><br /><br />I <a href="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/index.php?action=expand,11657">posted about this</a> recently, but the official Microsoft page has been launched now that has all the details. I'm curious, how many of you are interested in this? Do you have three or more computers in your house that are ready for Vista, and do you want Vista Ultimate on one and Vista Home Premium on the others? While I appreciate Microsoft's steps toward something better than they had before, I have a feeling this offering is still too complicated - and having it hinge on the very expensive Vista Ultimate is problematic. What's your take on it?

[egads]

I will not be upgrading. I don't want Vista Ultimate and it still cost too much. Like I said in your orginal post, I'd pay $200 to upgrade three PC's to Vista Home Premium. One of my PC's needs a new harddrive and I may buy an OEM copy of Vista Home Premium when I rebuild it. The OEM copy only cost $119.

I know quite a few people who want to buy a new PC with Vista, but I don't know ANY who want to upgrade to Vista. To get people to upgrade MS is going to have to make it cheaper than it is now....

[Vincent Ferrari]

I'm happy MS listened to their customers and did this. The day of one computer per household ended a long time ago.

You can give them crap all you want, but the truth is, I think deep down someone at Microsoft has their ears to the railroad tracks.

[Jeremy Charette]

I'll do it, partly because I received a copy of Vista Ultimate at the launch event this week. Had I not gotten Vista Ultimate for free, I'd probably still do it. For the OEM price of 3 Home Premium licenses ($360), I could buy a copy of Vista Ultimate upgrade and use the family plan to get two more copies of Vista Home Premium. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

[Damion Chaplin]

Sounds like a good deal to me, but I won't be taking advantage of it, mostly because I can't afford Ultimate right now. I was planning on buying Home Premium to upgrade my main machine and when I can afford Ultimate I'll transfer that license to my laptop and install Ultimate on the main PC. Too bad they don't offer a discount on Ultimate if you buy Home Premium.

Personally I think they should offer a discount for any additional licenses of Vista, regardless of which one you bought and which one you want...

[mrozema]

All I want is a couple (or maybe a few) copies of Vista Home Premium. Ultimate is probably overkill for most peoples' needs.

A buy two, get one free would suffice. And have that deal apply to all flavours of Vista.

Their current offer isn't good enough, in my opinion... :roll:

[ctmagnus]

You have to buy the boxed product to qualify. That sucks, especially since OEMs are offering machines preloaded with Ultimate.

[mar2k]

Are the Home Premium keys for upgrade or full versions?

With the Vista DVDs containing all the versions how long before sellers (legitimate and scammers) flood eBay trying to sell keys for the different versions and Microsoft getting up in arms about it?

[Jeremy Charette]

There's an article on Engadget on how to install Vista Upgrade without needing an original install of XP or 2000. Just install it, DON'T enter the product key when requested, and it'll run in trial mode. Then re-install the OS, and it'll do a full clean install as normal without needing a prior install of XP or 2000 on the disk.

[David Horn]

I got a copy of Ultimate from the Connect Beta, but unfortunately am in the UK so it won't accept my credit card. Looks like I'll be PayPal-ing a friend the cash and getting him to buy it using my serial number. :)

[Damion Chaplin]

There's an article on Engadget on how to install Vista Upgrade without needing an original install of XP or 2000. Just install it, DON'T enter the product key when requested, and it'll run in trial mode. Then re-install the OS, and it'll do a full clean install as normal without needing a prior install of XP or 2000 on the disk.

Too funny - and just like Microsoft. We had an upgrade copy of Office 2000 at work a while back, and when it asked for a qualifying previous version of Office, we'd point it at itself. It would read its own CD and say 'Yep, that's Office" and continue installing. :lol:

[whydidnt]

Has anyone actually been able to use this to order Home Premium this way? I've been getting an error message when trying to order - "We are sorry, we are unable to process your order at this time. Please try again later. This happens right after I click on the "order now" link. It's been like this for the last couple of days.

[Kacey Green]

This is a useful program, now if they'll hurry up and get me valid keys to replace the invalid keys they gave me.