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Microsoft to offer three-user Windows 7 Family Pack?

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On July 2, 2009, 6:43 PM

Microsoft may be introducing a Family Pack for Windows 7 Home Premium, according to a pair of reports citing details in the end-user licensing agreement (EULA) of a recently-leaked build. The still-unconfirmed plan would enable users to install a single copy the operating system on up to three computers in a household, and falls in line with similar licensing Microsoft already has for the Home and Student Edition of Microsoft Office 2007.

There's no word on Family Pack pricing yet. Some suggest it would be somewhere around $189 to undercut Apple’s comparable plan which gives you five OS X licenses for $199, but when you look at the pricing for a standalone one-user copy of Home Premium, it's $120 for an upgrade and $200 for a full version. How the company ends up structuring its Family Pack pricing is anybody's guess, but it seems clear Microsoft still has some surprises up its sleeve to give XP and Vista users a bigger incentive to upgrade their systems.

The company announced a somewhat similar deal with the launch of Windows Vista back in 2007, though it was a limited-time offer for customers who bought retail copies of Vista Ultimate, the most-expensive SKU in the line.

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User Comments: 10

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  1. Gee, how apple-original of MS.

  2. Microsoft may be many things but original is not one of them.

  3. one more way for microsoft to put it in breaking off in the windows's butt

  4. I think this is great. People in my household have on;y just made the switch to vista. (we have 2 PC and 2 laptops) If we could buy a License that covered 3 computer systems, thats cheaper than buying individual licences for each; that would be great.

    I would install Windows 7 Ultimate on my pc!

  5. Staff

    They *need* to do this kind of stuff because the product is already too expensive as it is.

  6. Totally agree with tekkaraiden, although I think Windows 7 shall be the best MS OS ever and the 3-user license family pack is a good idea too.

    Cheers!

  7. This is great news, at least if the 3-pack is cheaper than an OEM copy and 2 OEM licenses, or if there's an OEM version. I've got two legal OEM licenses to Windows XP Pro, and they cost considerably less than one retail copy. I've got a third computer that I'd like a Windows license for (I've spent six months unsuccessfully trying to make Linux work like it's supposed to), so a three license package deal would be perfect.

  8. Rick said:

    They *need* to do this kind of stuff because the product is already too expensive as it is.

    no competition.

  9. Futureshop here in Canada has the upgrade for 64.99, I also just got an e-copoun for $10 off, not a bad deal.

    http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&l
    ngid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10126085&catid=10657&C
    P=NLC-email_weekly

  10. Watch news at 11... Microsoft has already announced Windows 7 for half price if you order early.

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