windows-7-box-art

Face it. That Windows 7 Release Candidate that you downloaded isn’t going to last forever and it will eventually shut down on you every few minutes to nag you to buy it for realz. While the US has already gotten their pricing and upgrade options, what are Canadians paying for Redmond’s best come October 22, 2009 when general availabilitybegins?

Since many Canadians will be shopping for back to school, Microsoft has announced their Windows 7 Upgrade offer for new PC purchasers. Basically, anyone buying a computer from a participating manufacturer or retailer, containing Windows Home Premium, Business or Ultimate, will be eligible for a free upgrade starting on June 26th, 2009. You’ll get the corresponding Windows 7 flavour of course and the offer is available through till January 31, 2010.

Canadians who already own a version of Windows Vista are eligible for upgrade pricing as follows:

  • Windows 7 Home Premium (Upgrade): $129.95
  • Windows 7 Professional (Upgrade): $249.95
  • Windows 7 Ultimate (Upgrade): $279.95

If you’re starting from scratch, then full retail box product is available for the following prices:

  • Windows 7 Home Premium (Full): $224.95
  • Windows 7 Professional (Full): $329.95
  • Windows 7 Ultimate (Full): $349.95

This is assuming, of course, that you don’t know where or how to buy your OEM copy which should probably fall somewhere in between in terms of pricing, between the upgrade version and the full version.

In order to get people to sign up early for their copy of Windows 7, Microsoft is offering an extremely competitive offer for those early adopters out there willing to plunk down their money on a pre-order now. If you do the pre-order dance, you can pick up your copy of Windows 7 Home Premium for $64.99 or Windows 7 Professional for $124.99 from June 26th to July 11th, or while quantities last. At around 50% off for a full retail version, that really is not a bad deal at all.

Share This With The World!