Windows Vista Pricing Official

Microsoft will accept your first-born as a down payment

http://news.com.com/Microsoft+sets+Vista+prices%2C+expands+testing/2100-1016_3-6112260.html?tag=nefd.top
from WinCustomize Forums
Last week, pricing was leaked on the Microsoft Canada site for the various editions of Windows Vista.  Today, Microsoft HQ has made the pricing official after posting Release Candidate 1 on Friday and beginning the push towards release early next year.

Here's a quick overview of the pricing:

  Full Retail Version Upgrade from Windows XP
Windows Vista Ultimate $399 $259
Windows Vista Business $299 $199
Windows Vista Home Premium $239 $159
Windows Vista Home Basic $199 $99

Quite a steep price compared to what Windows XP Pro costs.  My next OS will cost as much as my XBox 360.  That just seems wrong somehow.

8,467 views 24 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I don't know what I will do about Vista yet. The Home Premium upgrade isn't too though. My problem with Microsoft is they offer to "family" packs of licenses. I have 3 Windows PC's in my house, I am definitely not buying Vista for each.
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
If I have Windows XP pro and I just buy an upgrade.

Does that mean every time I will want to reinstall my computer that I will need to install Win XP and Vista on top of that?

Will it do a clean install or just an upgrade. Because I want a clean install. Upgrade will for sure leave a mess on my hard drive as much as I know Windows.
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Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Ill just buy the upgrade to home premium, about what i was expecting to spend to get Vista.
And you can upgrade from Xp Home to Vista Premium, doesnt have to be xp pro???
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Hm. These prices are quite high, but I think Microsoft assumes most people will get Vista only when they actually buy a new computer. Most people probably won't upgrade their XP to Vista, and most people don't build their own machines. I know that I wouldn't upgrade to Vista until I do get a new computer.

I'm curious what this will do to the prices of computers themselves. Dell still charges $159 (I think) to upgrade XP Home to XP Pro. Will there be any discount when you buy a computer with Vista? I hope so...
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
All of you remind me of the same old talk when Windows XP came out, and people started saying "no one will upgrade from Windows 98 it is the best OS in the world" and "we don't like this offer of XP from Microsoft", and stuff like this.

Guess what guys? All of you and everybody who is using a PC will end up buying Vista wither they like it or not, no need to talk a lot about it, and by time you'll get used to Windows Vista you'll thank god for having Microsoft done this important upgrade to their operating systems.

STFU, you are ALL going to use a Vista or a MAC, so STFU ALL.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
holy crap its expensive!!! In my country thats over R1000 to upgrade to home premium!!! Dats about a years allowance!!!
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
!!!!!!!!!!!!! How can I delete the extra messages?? I don't know what happened!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The funny thing is that Microsoft and other companies keep raising the price of these programs all the time and they wonder why there is so much piracy going on. Why not lower the price of Windows to $50 - $70, so everyone can afford it? There is no reason to charge 100's of dollars for a disc and a serial number! The only reason they seem to do it is to cover the cost of the lost revenue from piracy and it's the honest consumer that seems to pay for it at the end.
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Don't feel about the extra (double) posts, sa33od... It just did it to me, so I had to go back and edit this post.

The prices listed are in US dollars, so Canadians like me will have to add an extra $100-150 to the cost! Nice!
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The extra posts were removed.
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top

The funny thing is that Microsoft and other companies keep raising the price of these programs all the time and they wonder why there is so much piracy going on. Why not lower the price of Windows to $50 - $70, so everyone can afford it? There is no reason to charge 100's of dollars for a disc and a serial number! The only reason they seem to do it is to cover the cost of the lost revenue from piracy and it's the honest consumer that seems to pay for it at the end.

Actually, price typically doesn't impact piracy as much as you'd think.  Most people who would pirate Windows at $400 would pirate it at $99, and would even pirate it at $50 (student discounts).  Games are priced in the $60 - $40 range, and are still pirated.  Stardocks' software, individually, is typically priced around $20, and it's software that does a LOT of stuff, yet it's still pirated a fair bit. 

Piracy is a function of people not wanting to pay ANYTHING for software.  Sure, some piracy occurs because someone simply can't afford a product... but that is typically a small piece of the overall pie. 

Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The only time I'll be upgrading to Vista is when software or hardware I own doesn't run on XP.

...and that's it - in a nutshell.
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
hallo "citizen life is a game" ..!

...by all microsoft upgrade products, to date, it's always been the same procedure... at some point during the installation (in your case vista), even a clean installation, you will be asked to insert the original cd of the software (xp) you're updating to verify your right to the (vista) upgrade product...

...so don't be scared to use the harddisk format option when installing vista 'cos a clean installation is always the best way to go... in otherwords you don't have to (re)install xp first to install vista..!

...only snag with the clean install is you have to reinstall all your programs... which in itself is no big deal, other than being time consuming, it's the hassle with all the program options and settings that bugs me..

...anyway, have fun with vista.. one day i'll update, but for the moment i'm staying with xp 'cos for me it's a tried and tested system that WORKS like no windows before has ever done, and together with the stardock programs, and other goodies, it's a dream to work and play with
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
...here in switzerland the discount warehouses they have already started "dumping" their xp stockpiles onto the market with heavily reduced prices... up to now i couldn't justify to myself the price difference for xp-profesional so i settled for xp home... so maybe i might just update to xp prof rather than vista
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
There is no reason to charge 100's of dollars for a disc and a serial number!


The price of software isn't dependant on the price of the media it resides on. If you buy XP from a store, the box, the cardboard and papers inside and the cd is less than $1.00. But this type of software is years and years in the making. Vista development probably started before XP was released. That's 5+ years.

(5+ years of paying developers, buying other companies, and settling lawsuits with ungrateful foreign entities. )
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
My next OS will cost as much as my XBox 360. That just seems wrong somehow.

Maybe a better way to look at it would be to say that Vista will cost only a tiny fraction of the price for PS3

The prices are indeed steep and more than I have hoped for, however consider this, how many times do you buy a new operating system? Barring second computers or lost copies, probably once in three four years, maybe less often, and that's not taking into account that a lot of the time you get it with the system. I think seen in this light it's not quite as bad and in any case, Buttermaker, selling an OS like Windows for 50-60 bucks is not realistic, even if it was from a goody-goody company instead of MS.
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The prices are indeed steep and more than I have hoped for


yes, if you look at the full retail version... come on. who of you people here are going to be buying anything other than the upgrade version..?

prices are a product of supply and demand - ibm, another high-flying company forgot that rule and suffered real bad for a while (how many 1000's of people did they lay-off) - remember the days when one could buy and throw away 3 taiwanese noname pcs before one had spent the money that an original ibm at-pc (8mhz) cost (timeframe 1986)..? and the taiwansese pcs were just as good as the original ibm..!

as regards the prices, microsoft has no REAL competition at the moment and apart from which they produce damn good products and i'm prepared to pay for them if i need them... for me personally that is the question, do i really need vista now or is 2 or 3 years down the road ok for me... time will tell...

right mow i wish there was a retail version of windows xp media edition - i am right in believing it's only available together with a computer and not on it's own..?
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
when i bought XP I purchased an oem version for $89.00 US. I wonder if the same sort of thing will be available for Vista??
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top

When I bought '98 years ago it was an OEM for AUS $200.

When I last bought XP Pro it was an OEM for AUS $180.

That doesn't seem to be any type of inflationary pricing at all...

Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
right mow i wish there was a retail version of windows xp media edition - i am right in believing it's only available together with a computer and not on it's own..?


nope. you can buy WIN MCE 2005. For example you can get it from NewEgg. I use it on my 1st gen store bought MCE (though I only upgraded to 2004 on that one) and on my newer home-brewed box.
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
ScottyK is right... I bought a retail version of the Media Edition from the local computer store (full version for $150 CDN). It's a wonderful version of Windows.
Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I bought my MCE 2005 by Google Search and paid only $115 USD and installed on a PC I built myself and works great! I also think Vista is over priced but what cha gonna do...but buy it! LOL
Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Who needs it for that price? I'll probably stick with XP Pro on my Centrino Duo notebook. I think it's a bad move for Microsoft to make it so expensive. When XP came out, it was desperately needed upgrade/improvement over Win98. Vista may be a big upgrade from XP, but XP works pretty good. It's stable and most of the bugs are fixed by now. Why would you want to start all over again? Microsoft is also just starting to face some actual (potential) competition from Apple. I know it's miniscule right now, but there is some momentum building of people beginning to switch thanks to the Ipod and Intel chips. An expensive OS from Microsoft certainly won't help those considering a switch. I think the piracy issue is a real concern, but more of a thorn in Microsoft's side. Pirated software sells for $2. It's hard to compete with $2. In Asia, where the problem is massive, national scale, piracy is seen as a right. People have no sense of stealing. They just do it. Not to mention that legitimate software often isn't even for sale in a given country. How can someone buy legitimate software if it's not for sale? If programs like Windows, Photoshop, Office were widely available for under $50, perhaps piracy would start to dwindle. In these countries internet access is still uncommon and extremely expensive - so the internet is not yet a viable solution. And yes, they know what country you are in. They could determine that you are in such and such a country and therefore you get a certain low price discount. I tried two Online music stores, downloade their software, browsed the catalogs and was told that I couldn't buy music because of the country I am in. I live in a high piracy country. Only Microsoft Music will sell me music online. I wanted this to be short. Sorry for getting carried away.
Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top
yes, if you look at the full retail version... come on. who of you people here are going to be buying anything other than the upgrade version..?


Not saying mine is.. But I'd believe strongly if someone is running Pirated versions of XP.. And I know a FEW even on here.. then yeah.. I'd doubt "just an upgrade" would even work for them.. Who knows.. Sure hackers will come up with a patch for that too..

Bottom line, if your XP isn't genuine.. I'd imagine you'd need a Full Install disc of Vista.