Windows 7 Team Blog : General Availability

Windows 7 Arrives Today With New Offers, New PCs, And More!

Brandon LeBlanc — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:02:40 GMT

You have no idea how excited I am to be able to say this: Windows 7 is now available worldwide!

Windows 7 reflects the input from millions of customers from around the world. Many of you helped us by testing and providing feedback on Windows 7 since its initial introduction about a year ago. Thanks to all of you for your input along the way. Windows 7 is the PC, simplified.

Today, Windows 7 is available in more than 45,000 retailers worldwide on new PCs and packaged product in 14 different languages: English, Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Chinese (Hong Kong). Some of the many retailers offering Windows 7 include Best Buy, Staples, and Wal-Mart. It is also available at online retailers such as Amazon and our own Microsoft Store. The remaining languages will be available starting October 31st.

Speaking of retail stores - today we are also officially opening Microsoft’s first retail store in Scottsdale, Arizona. And the online Microsoft Store also got a refresh too!

Today, PC manufacturers will be offering a range of new sleek and stylish new Windows 7 PCs. I’ll be taking a look at a number of these cool PCs shortly. Also, yesterday we announced several very cool new offers for Windows 7 too. Click here for the “7 Days of Windows 7” offers on Windows.com.

One question I get quite a bit is from people is about how they can move to Windows 7 without a DVD drive. Some PCs including most netbooks don’t come with one. We have a solution we think will work great for more technical users who want to upgrade their Windows XP machines. When people purchase Windows 7 through our online Microsoft Store, they are given 2 options:

Have the copy of Windows 7 packaged retail product (boxed product) shipped to them.
Download a digital copy as an ISO image.

The Microsoft Store will be providing a tool called the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (rolls right off the tongue doesn’t it?) – or WUDT for short. For netbook users without DVD drives, the WUDT will take an ISO image and create a bootable USB device that can be used to install Windows 7. The WUDT can also create a Windows 7 installation DVD from the ISO file as well.

Please note that in order to boot off of a USB device (or external DVD player), you will need to configure your BIOS to boot off of that device. If you are not comfortable making this type of BIOS change I recommend you seek some assistance from your favorite “tech geek”. WUDT will run on Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7. We’re working with partners now to deliver similar tools through their sites and hope to have more news to share in this regard soon.

Whether you are upgrading existing PCs or buying hot new PCs – there are lots of awesome deals, offers and options for you. Go get Windows 7 today!

The latest evolution in the Windows brand campaign also kicks off today, and stays true to our core theme of spotlighting customers in a fun and light-hearted manner. “My Idea” captures the spirit of the development of Windows 7 and celebrates the millions of people who tested Windows 7 and gave input which ultimately shaped the product. See the ads for yourself at here!

Want to check out many of Windows 7’s newest features and see for yourself how simple they are to use? No Problem. Click here to see a series of online videos showcasing some of the newest features in Windows 7.

Windows 7 is also now available and ready for businesses large and small. You can read more about how Window 7 meets the needs of companies of all sizes through the customer case studies located here. The PressPass folks put the case studies on a worldwide map using Bing Maps based on customer location.

For the latest Windows 7 launch videos, photos, new ads and more check out the Windows 7 Virtual Presskit!

What People Are Saying About Windows 7

Brandon LeBlanc — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:57:41 GMT

Just moments ago, we launched a social media “hub” for Windows 7 on Windows.com in celebration of launch tomorrow. This hub is designed to highlight what our customers are saying about Windows 7. It does this by pulling content from all over the web (via tweets, blog posts, etc.) of people talking about Windows 7 and bringing it all to one central location so you can see what everyone is saying about Windows 7.

Note: To ensure the content and conversations we’re pulling from the web is relevant to Windows 7 (and of course appropriate), we moderate what gets put up there.

If you’re going to be tweeting (posting on Twitter) about Windows 7, I encourage you to use the following hashtags (if you don’t know what hashtags on Twitter are, click here):

#Win7: Use this in place of “Windows 7” or add to the end of any tweet about Windows 7.
#WinLive: Use this place of “Windows Live” or add to the end of any tweet about Windows Live.
#WinWin7: For our several fun giveaways we have going for our Twitter followers (US only, employees are not eligible), tweets tagged with #winwin7 relate to the contests. See Contest Rules here.
#win7tip: Use this in any tweet sharing a Windows 7 tip or trick.
#igotWin7: Use this tag to share once you get a copy of Windows 7.
#win7meetup: Use this tag when tweeting about the Launch Parties or Meetup initiatives.

We continue to look for ways to include our customers and highlight real conversations both during launch and long after GA. To learn more about how the social hub works check Marty Collins’ blog post here.

Windows 7’s Big Day Tomorrow + New Offers Announced!

Brandon LeBlanc — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:06:41 GMT

Tomorrow’s our big day – Windows 7 officially launches and hits General Availability (or GA as we have acronyms for everything). That means Windows 7 will be available for purchase worldwide! I thought I’d take a moment to highlight some things to look out for as Windows 7 becomes available in stores and online around the world.

We have big events happening in many countries, including: Japan, UK, Germany, France, China and more. Plus we’re hosting a launch party in New York City tomorrow, which will be hosted by our own CEO Steve Ballmer. Even if you’re not in New York, you can still attend online.

Watch the New York City Windows 7 Launch Party LIVE – Starting 8am Pacific / 11am Eastern!

Customer-hosted Windows 7 Launch Parties will also be taking place starting tomorrow. As you know, Microsoft employee Windows 7 launch parties have been happening already. If you don’t live in a country where Launch Parties are available to host, you can hold a Windows 7 Meetup instead! We are providing people with the resources they need to host a Meetup here on Windows.com.

We will be updating our Virtual Press Room on Microsoft PressPass for Windows 7throughout the day tomorrow. You will be able to find all kinds of goodies including the webcast of our New York launch party, video clips and b-roll footage, photos, fact sheets and other materials, and more. If you’re planning to blog about Windows 7 tomorrow, this will be an excellent resource for you!

I’ve got several important (and pretty exciting) blog posts coming tomorrow that you’ll definitely want to read. So be on the lookout for these. And we have quite a few partners lined up doing guest blog posts for the Windows Partner Blog as well! I’m pretty stoked about what we’ve got lined up in terms of blogging for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is shaping up for one exciting day!

Beginning tomorrow, several very cool new offers will start that customers can take advantage of to get Windows 7:

Screaming Deals: We worked together with our partners to introduce a series of limited-time offers with great deals on hardware, software, upgrades, support, and other options. New offers will be released daily and available for the next 7 days here on Windows.com ~~(site goes live tomorrow – stay tuned for link!)~~ as well as through participating retail and OEM partners. These “7 Days of Windows 7” offers are available in the U.S. only (other countries have specific deals as well). Tomorrow is Day 1 and those offers will include:

Best Buy Bundle: HP Laptop, Desktop PC with monitor, Netbook, wireless router and set-up by Geek Squad for $1,199. For the price of one average Mac, you can outfit your entire family with 3 great Windows 7 PCs and a home network!
Dell: Save more than $100 on a Dell Studio XPS13
Gateway: All-in-one Acer Gateway ZX6800 23" for $899

Buy a PC - Get a Discounted Upgrade for another PC: Customers who buy a PC with Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate will be able to purchase a discounted copy of Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate to upgrade an existing Windows PC. For people wanting to add a 2nd or 3rd PC in their home (and take advantage of HomeGroup) this is the perfect deal. This offer will run through January 2nd, 2010 and be available in Germany, UK, Czech Republic, Greece, Slovakia, Poland, Latvia, Hungary, U.S., Canada, Denmark, France, New Zealand, Australia.

Windows 7 Family Pack: The Windows 7 Family Pack is also available today while supplies last. Customers can buy 3 licenses of Windows 7 Home Premium for one low price – for the U.S. it’s available for $149.99. The Windows 7 Family Pack is available in the U.S., Japan, Canada, Germany, UK, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Ireland, Luxembourg, Sweden. One of my favorite features in Windows 7 today is HomeGroup. And with the Windows 7 Family Pack, you can truly take advantage of this feature for easy sharing of your music, pictures, video, and document libraries with the Windows 7 PCs in your home, as well as your Xbox 360.

Windows 7 Student Offer: If you are a student (an .edu email address is required), you can upgrade to Windows 7 at the LOWEST PRICE offered, $29.99 in the U.S. This offer runs through January 3rd, 2010 for US, Canada, France, Germany, Korea, Mexico and UK and March 31st, 2010 for Australia.

UPDATE: For more information on the Windows 7 Student Offer, click here.

One more thing… How would you change the world? We have a contest running asking folks to submit an idea they have on how they would use Windows 7 to help their local community. Record a video of yourself explaining your idea and submit it here on the 7 Ways to Change the World website. You have until November 11th to submit your video. The 7 people with the best submissions, as chosen by our judges, will each win a new PC running Windows 7. Each winner's chosen (eligible) community organization will receive a $7,000 grant.

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor and Windows 7 Compatibility Center now available

Mark Relph — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:14:00 GMT

Hello again! It’s Mark Relph from the Windows Ecosystem Team here at Microsoft. There is a lot of excitement for the launch of Windows 7 and we know many of you are looking for information as you think about upgrading. To help you, we are announcing the availability of two great tools today – the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor and the Windows 7 Compatibility Center.

Both these tools are available at www.windows.com/compatibility- your place to go for any Windows 7 compatibility questions you might have. Not only will you find links to the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor and Windows 7 Compatibility Center, you’ll also get compatibility help from experts in the Microsoft Answers Forums and the Windows Help & How-to team.

Now let me tell you a little bit more about what we are releasing today…

The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor scans your PC to see if it’s ready for Windows 7. It checks to see if your PC meets the system requirements, lets you know if your processor is capable of running 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and gives guidance on your upgrade options. It also tells you about any known compatibility issues with the most commonly installed software programs and devices connected to your PC. If an issue can be resolved, it suggests next steps for you to take before installing Windows 7.

The Windows 7 Compatibility Center helps you easily check the compatibility of thousands of devices and software programs for 32-bit or 64-bit versions of Windows 7. Usually, you won’t need to do anything to ensure compatibility. If you do, the site goes beyond just telling you what will or will not work. It also provides links to drivers and software updates to help get your PC running with the latest software.

These tools draw on an expansive database of product information that is the result of the work I described in my post on our progress with statements of support for Windows 7 for an ever expanding universe of products all around the world. We have thousands of products listed and will continue to add thousands more over the coming months. As a result, the Windows 7 Compatibility Center and Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor will be regularly updated with more products. If you don’t see a product listed on the site, please suggest an addition! If you are a hardware or software partner, be sure to tell us about your products using the Partner Submission page.

Windows 7 has been built for compatibility and we hope these tools help you as you prepare to upgrade. See you on October 22^nd for the launch of Windows 7!

Student Offer for Windows 7

Brandon LeBlanc — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:02:58 GMT

Based on reader comments, I know many are college and university students. I figured I would take a moment to highlight a great deal for those folks we’ve announced today. For a limited time, we are offering the LOWEST PRICE ($29.99 in the US) for Windows 7 exclusively to college and university students. This offer is perfect for students who are not planning to buy a new PC but want to experience all the benefits that Windows 7 will provide. To learn more about the offer and to check eligibility, students should visit www.Win741.com.

Students in the US can pre-order their copy of Windows 7 in the US starting today and students in the UK can pre-order their copy beginning on September 30th (pre-ordered copies will be available for download beginning October 22nd). Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Korea and Mexico can participate in this offer on October 22nd (Windows 7 GA).

Windows 7 is easy to use and great to take on the go to class as well as staying in touch with friends and family via Windows Live!

Windows 7 gives university students the tools they need manage their work (including an easy to use design, the ability to easily connect to devices, and take on the go to class and the library), stay in touch with friends (with Windows Live Essentials) and have fun (including Windows gaming, Windows Live Movie Maker and Windows Media Center to interact with TV and movies).

More happy is coming…

Brandon LeBlanc — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 05:57:23 GMT

Check out our new Windows 7 ad! I thought it was far too cute to pass up sharing with everyone.

Announcing the Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program & Windows 7 Pricing – Bring on GA!

Brandon LeBlanc — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:00:28 GMT

Today we have some news to share around Windows 7 including answering what may be some of the “hottest” questions people have as we head toward General Availability (GA) on October 22nd.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Brad Brooks, Corporate VP for Windows Consumer Marketing, to talk about today’s announcements.

Announcing the Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program & Windows 7 Pricing

Special thanks to Brad for taking the time to talk through these details with me. You’ll find a transcript of the video here.

As Brad discussed in the video, today we’re announcing details for the Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program, pricing, and a special pre-order offer for select markets.

But first, I want to talk a little bit more about GA and the worldwide availability of Windows 7. We’ve really focused a lot of our efforts on getting the product out to as many people around the world as quickly as possible. OEMs will start shipping PCs with Windows 7 in all language versions beginning on GA, October 22nd.

And for our retail software, we’ve made significant strides in terms of timing. Gone are the days when it could take months for all language versions to be available. In fact – we’ve narrowed the gap to just over ONE week!

On October 22nd, Windows 7 will be available in the following 14 languages: English, Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Chinese (Hong Kong).

Then on October 31st, the remaining 21 languages will become available: Turkish, Czech, Portuguese, Hungarian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Greek, Ukrainian, Romanian, Arabic, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Estonian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Thai, Croatian, Serbian Latin, and Latvian.

Windows 7 truly is a global release and I’m excited to be able to tell my international friends that when I say Windows 7 will be available for the holidays – I mean everywhere in the world.

But, you don’t have to wait until GA to get a new Windows PC. In fact, we know many people need that new PC sooner – for back to school specifically. And we have the answer for people who need a new PC now but still want to get Windows 7 and that’s the Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program, which kicks off tomorrow, June 26th! Anyone who buys a PC from a participating OEM or retailer with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate on it will all receive an upgrade to the corresponding version of Windows 7 at little or no cost to customers. The Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program will be available until January 31st, 2010 – and is global! For more information on taking advantage of the Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program, visit www.windows.com/upgradeoffer.

Another one of the most common questions I get is: how much will Windows 7 cost? Well, today we’re sharing these details.

For Windows 7, we are reducing the price on our most popular retail product for customers, the Home Premium Upgrade, by approximately 10% (depending on the market). In the U.S., this means a customer buying Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade will pay only $119.99 instead of the $129.99 being charged today for its predecessor.

Overall, customers will be paying less and getting more with Windows 7. This includes fun new features such as HomeGroup, Device Stage, Aero Shake, Snap, Peek, Jump Lists and our completely redesigned Windows Taskbar (one of my favorite new features in Windows 7 today). These new features make your PC simpler and much easier to use.

So here’s the low-down on pricing for Windows 7. The estimated retail prices for upgrade packaged retail product of Windows 7 in the U.S. are:

Windows 7 Home Premium (Upgrade): $119.99
Windows 7 Professional (Upgrade): $199.99
Windows 7 Ultimate (Upgrade): $219.99

And the estimated retail prices for full packaged retail product of Windows 7 in the U.S. are:

Windows 7 Home Premium (Full): $199.99
Windows 7 Professional (Full): $299.99
Windows 7 Ultimate (Full): $319.99

This means that Windows 7 Home Premium full retail product is $40.00 less than Windows Vista Home Premium today.

As Brad describes in the video, for Europe, we will not have a separate upgrade SKU for the packaged retail product versions of Windows 7 at GA. But we will be offering upgrade pricing on our full licenses to make sure that European customers who want to upgrade have the pricing options available in the rest of the world.

Finally, as a way of saying thank you to our loyal Windows customers, we are excited to introduce a special time limited offer! We will offer people in select markets the opportunity to pre-order Windows 7 at a more than 50% discount. In the US, this will mean you can pre-order Windows 7 Home Premium for USD $49.99 or Windows 7 Professional for USD $99.99. You can take advantage of this special offer online via select retail partners such as Best Buy or Amazon, or the online Microsoft Store (in participating markets).

This program begins tomorrow in the U.S., Canada and Japan. The offer ends July 11th in the U.S. and Canada and on July 5th for Japan or while supplies last. Customers in the UK, France and Germany, can pre-order their copy of Windows 7 starting July 15th and will run until August 14th (or supplies last) to ensure folks don’t miss out on this. Act fast if you want to be the first in line to get Windows 7 at this screaming deal! Note: The special low pre-order price will vary per country.

For more information on this special pre-order offer, click here.

I am really excited to be sharing these Windows 7 announcements with you today. Because of the great feedback we received from you, we are confident we are poised to deliver a great product this fall!

Check out the New Windows 7 Packaging

Brandon LeBlanc — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:22:24 GMT

Simple, Clean and Easy To Open…

We approached the packaging for Windows 7 the same way we approached the product – by listening to what our customers told us they wanted: make it a simple clean design, easy to open, and reduce waste.

Simple Design

Customers told us they liked the big bold Windows logo and how it clearly communicates that it’s Windows 7. They like larger typefaces to make it easy to read. They also like the background colors for each edition that make it easier to differentiate between Windows 7 Home Premium all the way to Windows 7 Ultimate. In their own words, the “clean” design gives off a “fresh” feel.

Make It Easy To Open

We’ve reduced the number of elements in the package down to three: the plastic case, the paper sleeve, and a simple Getting Started Guide. The plastic case opens easily like a standard DVD case and it will have a single easy-to-remove seal at the top - and that’s it!

Reduce Waste

The plastic case protecting the Windows 7 disk is lighter and is recyclable. The packaging itself has a 37% weight reduction and the econometrics score has improved by 50% over it’s predecessor.

Essentially, the packaging is what customers told us they were most interested in picking up to learn more about Windows 7. We hope you do the same.

Look for the new Windows 7 packaging to hit this fall!

The Date for General Availability (GA) of Windows 7 is…

Brandon LeBlanc — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:03:44 GMT

This is one of those posts where I’m truly excited to be writing. I get to tell you when Windows 7 will be on store shelves! According to input from customers and partners we’ve made a lot of progress with Windows 7.

Our milestone-to-milestone approach for Windows 7 is built on a great deal of feedback from customers and testers. This has been pivotal to the development of Windows 7.

I blogged a few weeks ago that it’s looking like we’ll have Windows 7 ready in time for the holidays.

Since then we’ve made enough progress to feel really good about announcing today that Windows 7 will be in stores beginning October 22nd.

I don’t know about you but I can’t wait to see Windows 7 sitting on store shelves!

Some people may not be able to wait for Windows 7 to arrive before having to order a new PC (like parents who are sending their sons or daughters off to school who need of a PC to take with them). Fortunately, there is no need to wait. Soon, customers will be able to take advantage of the Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program. This program enables participating retailers and OEMs to offer a special deal to upgrade to Windows 7 for customers purchasing a qualifying PC. I’ll be doing another blog post about this program with a date and more details when we get closer to availability.

Obviously, Release To Manufacturing (RTM) is an important milestone on the path to GA. We anticipate that we’ll be able to make the RTM code for Windows 7 available to our partners sometime in the 2^nd half of July. We also expect to be able to make RTM code for Windows Server 2008 R2 available to our partners in this time frame as well.

Windows 7 on Track to Hit This Holiday Season

Brandon LeBlanc — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:06:51 GMT

There has been quite a bit of speculation and chatter around the timing of milestones for Windows 7. Of course folks want to know when Windows 7 will become available in stores and on new PCs. We’re in a good position today to provide an update to the timing of when we expect for that to happen. I’m really excited to be able to give this update – particularly given what it takes to deliver a high quality OS to millions of partners, customers, developers and the entire ecosystem.

Our approach to the development of Windows 7, as we’ve highlighted in the past, has been tied to people like you around the world contributing in real-time by testing our key Windows 7 milestones - from the Pre-Beta we handed out to PDC attendees last year, to the Windows 7 Beta, and now the Windows 7 RC which we recently released for everyone to try. Steven Sinofsky outlined this milestone-to-milestone approach in this blog post back in January. And today, Steven highlights the path to our next milestone for Windows 7 – RTM, or release to manufacturing. RTM is the final stage for the engineering of Windows 7.

If the telemetry we receive from the Windows 7 RC meets our expectations in terms of quality, then we expect to hit RTM in 3 months or so. Again, check out Steven’s blog post on this process. If this happens, it looks like we’ll be able to have Windows 7 done in time for the holidays. I want to underscore that our top priority remains QUALITY. This guidance does not alter that principle.

Bill Veghte shared this news today at TechEd North America 2009 taking place in Los Angeles right now. Here is what he said in today’s press release:

Microsoft is committed to ensuring that IT professionals and developers continue to have the platform and technologies to drive maximum value and business results. Getting the most out of IT investments is even more important in today’s economy.

He also adds:

With early RC testing and extensive partner feedback we’ve received, Windows 7 is tracking well for holiday availability.

Thank you for being great partners and customers, providing the kind of feedback required for us to be able to give this type of guidance. And honestly, I can’t say thank you enough!

The telemetry and testing continue, and we encourage IT Professionals and enthusiasts to try the Windows 7 RC out at home and at work if you’re not doing so already. Share it with your friends who may also want to take it for a test drive. I currently am running the Windows 7 RC on every PC I own – at home and in the office. I am also recommending my friends and even family members try it too. And everyone I’ve recommended try it and has done so has been impressed!

So there are two things you should go and do today if you haven’t already: go get the Windows 7 RC and… watch Star Trek because the movie is amazing. Since I’m running the Windows 7 RC on all my PCs (yes, every single one), I think I’ll have to go see Star Trek again.