Finally Microsoft today announced the prices for the new upcoming OS Windows 7.There had been many rumours about the pricing and today its been out officially.Microsoft has reduced the price on its most popular Windows the Home Premium upgrade version, by approximately 10 percent. In the US, this would mean a drop from $130 to $120, a savings of $10. For the Home Premium full version, the price drops from $240 to $200.Rest everything is unchanged.You can take a look at the below sheet for the pricing info.

As  you can by comparing the Windows Vista retail pricing at launch to the Windows 7 retail pricing at launch, the differences are noticable.The Home Premium upgrade version price has been dropped by $40 and the Ultimate upgrade version has been dropped by $40. The Home Premium full version has been dropped $40 along with the Ultimate full version also dropped  by $80.

Upgrading from XP or Vista with a retail copy:

Windows XP users need to know that regardless of which edition they currently have installed (Windows XP Home, Windows XP Professional, or Windows XP Media Center Edition) and regardless of which edition of Windows 7 they are moving to (Home Premium, Professional , or Ultimate), they will need to perform a clean install, whether they buy the upgrade or full version.Using Windows Easy Transfer, users can copy their important files and settings to an external USB stick, external hard drive, or DVD, and then move the data back after the installation.The installer will verify that XP is genuine and Windows 7 will have to be installed on the same partition as the XP installation.

Windows Vista users can follow multiple upgrade paths to Windows 7. As was the case when upgrading from XP to Vista, you will only need to perform a clean install if you are going to a version that is lower on the food chain. For example, if you are going from Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Home Premium, you would do a clean install. If you are going from Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Ultimate, you do not need to do a clean install. When you switch to a higher version, you’re adding on the existing functionality, but when you’re going to a lesser version, you’re taking away functionality, thus the need for a clean install.

Once you have some edition of Windows 7 on your system, whether you purchased it via an OEM or just upgraded from Windows XP or Windows Vista, you will be able to upgrade to a “more premium” version of Windows 7 by purchasing an upgrade key to unlock additional features, just as with Vista. This is called Windows Anytime Upgrade (WAU). For example, you could start off with Windows Vista Home Premium, upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium, and then later choose to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional.

Windows 7 E: no upgrades for the EU

As you might know that for the European Union countries Windows 7 wont be coming with a browser.So to add bad news to it they are not offering upgrade versions at al for EU.Windows 7 E editions will be sold only in full versions: there will be no upgrade versions available in the European Union.This move was initiated in response to the EU’s antitrust investigation of its browser with Windows.

The EU price: Home Premium upgrade (€119.99), Professional upgrade (€285.00), Ultimate upgrade (€299.00), Home Premium full (€199.99), Professional full (€309.00), and Ultimate full (€319.00) 

Thanks to Arstechnica

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After the recent leaks of Windows 7 Build including the Build 7260  RTM Escrow has  made Microsoft really tired and irritated  by the leaks,now to give a end to these leaks Microsoft is planning to release the RTM build by June 26th reports from Neowin.As you might know the Windows 7 build 7260 had not much changed with respect to the GUI but came with a new wallpaper.I have added the screen on my friend’s pc as a logon screen.I will be waiting for the RTM to be out asap so that i can give it a try and test some bugs.Currently happy with the RC build.If things go by what Neowin reports we might have the RTM by June 26th.Lets wait and watch.