Brad Brooks, corporate vice president for Windows consumer marketing, said Microsoft will offer free upgrades to Window 7 to people who buy Vista-equipped PCs between Friday and the October 22 release date of Windows 7.<\/p>\n
Vista is Microsoft’s much-criticized previous operating system and the Redmond, Washington-based software giant is hoping that Windows 7 will help erase bad memories of Vista in the minds of consumers.<\/p>\n
Brooks said in a video released by Microsoft that the free upgrades would apply to people who purchase PCs running Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate.<\/p>\n
The upgrade program will be available until January 31, 2010.<\/p>\n
The offer of free upgrades is seen as an attempt to prevent people from putting off a decision to purchase a PC until October. An estimated 90 percent of the world’s PCs run on Windows.<\/p>\n
Microsoft said Windows 7 will be available in 14 languages on October 22: English, Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Chinese (Hong Kong).<\/p>\n
It will be available on October 31 in 21 other languages: Turkish, Czech, Portuguese, Hungarian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Greek, Ukrainian, Romanian, Arabic, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Estonian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Thai, Croatian, Serbian Latin, and Latvian.<\/p>\n
Because of a European Commission anti-trust inquiry, the Windows 7 version going on sale in Europe will not include Internet Explorer, Microsoft’s Web browser.<\/p>\n
Microsoft announced earlier this month that it had decided to remove the Web browser because of the regulatory wrangling.<\/p>\n
Microsoft said a Home Premium Upgrade of an existing PC to Windows 7 would cost $120 in the United States while the Professional Upgrade would cost $200 and the Ultimate Upgrade $220.<\/p>\n
It said the Home Premium version of Windows 7 would retail for $200 in the United States. The Professional version will sell for $300 and the Ultimate version for $320.<\/p>\n
Microsoft also said it was offering users in the United States and several other countries the opportunity to pre-order Windows 7 at a more than 50 percent discount, $50 for the Home Premium version and $100 for the Professional one.<\/p>\n
Amid slumping PC sales worldwide, Microsoft has been aggressively pushing laptop computers recently in a series of new advertisements in the United States as a low-cost alternative to the more expensive machines of rival Apple.<\/p>\n