Quote:Microsoft is planning a Windows 7 Tech Guarantee Program which will make it possible for Windows Vista owners to upgrade their operating system to Windows 7. They have not released many information yet about the program but some have been published at Neowin today.

Not all editions of Windows Vista will be eligible for the upgrade. Only Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate owners will have the chance and only if they have bought it in one of the following languages: Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong), Turkish.

Some languages (like Swedish) might be missing and could be included at a later point. It is also very likely that the upgrade will only be eligible for a comparable edition of Windows 7. Windows Vista Home Premium users for example should not have high hopes to be able to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate without costs. Microsoft is said to release additional information later this month.

Source:http://windows7news.com/2008/11/08/windows-7-tech-guarantee-program/
Awesome, hopefully it actually happens.

So after they announce windows 7 they offer Vista with a free upgrade to 7 , so people don't stop spending money till 7 comes out.

I doubt they'll offer everyone that has already bought vista a free upgrade, although that would be great.

At the very least I hope it's a cheaper option to upgrade from Vista than buy an OEM Windows 7 disc.

I don't use Vista personally but I know my mom has Vista Ultimate, I'm sure she would be stoked to get a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it's out.

Quote:At the very least I hope it's a cheaper option to upgrade from Vista than buy an OEM Windows 7 disc.

I expect it will be priced similar to how they did XP and Vista, which is like this:

Retail Version Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1, for 32/64-bit systems, DVD $389.90

Upgrade Version Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1, Upgrade, DVD $222.33

OEM Version Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium, DVD, OEM $215.63

Academic Version Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1, for 32/64-bit systems, Academic, Upgrade, DVD $148.29

There has always been upgrade versions that are cheaper than retail, but the OEM is still cheaper, because it has no packaging or support.

I got Windows Vista Business for free from the University. Now I get Windows 7 for free too? Awesome. =)

Guys I think you may be misunderstanding this.

Microsoft Technology Guarantee programs usually applied to people who purchase a new computer/retail boxed OS ~90 days before the new version is released.

In other words if you want to guy a new computer near the release of Windows 7 you don't have to wait for it to be released in order to procure the OS.

Quote:There has always been upgrade versions that are cheaper than retail, but the OEM is still cheaper, because it has no packaging or support.

Pretty sure Microsoft still provides support for OEM versions.

Quote:I got Windows Vista Business for free from the University. Now I get Windows 7 for free too? Awesome. =)

:no: Academic Alliance Windows Vista versions cannot even be upgraded to Vista Ultimate. Don't expect that you will be able to upgrade to Windows 7.

owned