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Over 100 million licenses have been sold since Vista's January 2007 début, but Microsoft still sees growth opportunities with lower prices.

Over 100 million licenses have been sold since Vista's January 2007 début, but Microsoft still sees growth opportunities with lower prices.

Microsoft has announced that it is set to reduce the price on several copies of Windows Vista sold in retail outlets.

Brad Brooks, corporate vice president for Windows Consumer Product Marketing at Microsoft, said that "the price changes will most notably impact upgrade retail versions of the new editions we introduced in 2007—Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate editions.

In the US, Windows Vista Home Premium upgrade will be cut from $159 to $129, while Vista Ultimate upgrade will drop from $299 to $219.

"These price changes will take effect globally with the retail release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 later this year," he added.

The software giant says that it has sold over 100 million Vista licenses since the operating system was launched at the start of last year. Brooks pointed out that, "while this is great progress, we see an opportunity to grow our business even more with some of the new editions we introduced with Windows Vista."

"Today, the vast majority of Windows licenses are sold with PCs; retail stand-alone sales, in contrast, have been primarily from customers who value being early adopters and those building their own machines," he explained.

Would the lower prices tempt you to upgrade to Windows Vista, or are you still happy with Windows XP? Tell us in the forums.
MSI GX700 Laptop
Quote Bladestorm 29th February 2008, 15:37
Well, good. Though I doubt it will effect what I'l pay for that copy of oem home premium 64 I intend to buy when I have a use for it much ;) but then it won't effect my decision on when and if I buy by much either .. :)
Quote legoman666 29th February 2008, 15:40
I'll take my $20 student copy, thanks ;)
Quote Orlix 29th February 2008, 16:29
My main reason for not adopting Vista is that I do not see a benefit of having it vs the time needed to install everyting again. I would not do an upgrade as I have had bad experiences with it. I would do a clean install.
Quote Kufwit 29th February 2008, 16:31
Who buys retail these days, I get OEM and pass the system on as a whole when I'm done with it.

Besides thers no way I'm splashing out £70 for a performance hit, no matter how shiny the interface. XP all the way till something more than Crysis needs it.
Quote rjkoneill 29th February 2008, 16:45
why did i know this wouldnt apply to oem before i even clicked on the link
Quote cpemma 29th February 2008, 17:12
I splashed out on Vista (OEM) for the new system (I had to buy that or another XP OEM) and I'm starting to regret it. The extra security features might be good in an office situation but for the careful home user they just get in the way. Aero bling doesn't make up for a slow Start menu (5 clicks to open most programs) and half-finished Mail programs.

A price drop is only to be expected, XP got cheaper after the initial rush had died down. Even now Vista prices vary a lot, depending on where you buy - £52-£91 for HP OEM by a quick look at Google Shopping.
Quote johnnyboy700 29th February 2008, 18:45
No thanks, I'll stick to XP.
Quote dr-strangelove 29th February 2008, 19:47
It may be $80 cheaper to upgrade to Vista Ultimate now, but your still going to have to fork out £100+ for a DX10 graphics card to make it worthwhile. Maybe when there are more games that require Vista.
Quote Shadowed_fury 1st March 2008, 03:10
Still on XP until I get tempted (ie, have spare monies!)
Quote Hydra 1st March 2008, 03:58
Great, now just lower XP to $50, and we're all happy :D

Noob question: What's OEM?
Quote David_Fitzy 1st March 2008, 06:36
I'm on my switch over to linux phase laptop dual boots and desktop is ubuntu I doubt I'll ever use vista and time will tell if I use windows ever again after I finish my switch.
Quote Cthippo 1st March 2008, 07:35
Welcome to the dark side, David!

I think you'll discover a couple of things, one that you don't use Windows much after you switch and two, that and OS is an OS is an OS, they all do pretty much the same thing, you just find the one you prefer.
Quote Neoki 1st March 2008, 14:53
Original Equipment Manufacturer OEM

:)
Quote cpemma 1st March 2008, 15:42
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hydra
Noob question: What's OEM?
OEM versions are considerably cheaper copies sold to people who are
  1. Building a system from bits, usually to sell but for yourself counts

  2. Providing technical support for that system
Activation ties that DVD serial number to that motherboard, upgrade the motherboard and you may need a new copy of Vista. Or hopefully, Win 7 ;).
Quote The_Beast 1st March 2008, 18:23
I'll stick to XP
Quote BurningFeetMan 2nd March 2008, 02:03
Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Beast
I'll stick to XP

Agreed. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Who needs Aero anyway when they're running Milkdrop as their desktop wall paper. :)

http://burningfeetman.googlepages.com/sMilkdrop.jpg
Click for biggy! Beautiful stuff.
Quote serial_ 2nd March 2008, 07:43
Completely unrelated: Aero's are shite. Dell tried a laptop like that in 2000 with the Latitude LS. It flopped. Same goes for the iPod. Apple is a company of experts that know how to make mediocre look stunning. There's not a great difference between them and those daytime TV make-over artists.

XP works for me, what's the use of good memory management when it gobbles half of your available ram to do it?
Quote Bladestorm 2nd March 2008, 22:23
Quote:
Originally Posted by serial_

XP works for me, what's the use of good memory management when it gobbles half of your available ram to do it?

Imho its not that surprising that it uses a bit more memory than XP does really.

Whats really is surprising to me though is how many people to this day still confuse the memory management's pre-loading of commonly used data for quicker access (and releasing instantaneously if other date needs to go in since the new data can over-write the old with no intermediate steps required and thus no real slow-down) with it gobbling up half there memory. ;)
Quote Darth Joules 3rd March 2008, 18:33
Quite frankly Vista feels a bit like the whole WinME/2000 period repeating itself. Two OS's that made me go back to using Win98 until WinXP SP1 arrived. Hopefully by the time Windows 7 arrives there'll be a greater impetus and genuine need to upgrade to a new (better) OS.
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