Windows 7 TalkZ

Microsoft ran a few promotions during the initial launch of the Windows 7 operating system. One of those was the release of the Windows 7 Family Pack, with the aim to offer households in the US and select countries a better deal for the money.

The family pack included three Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade licenses, which meant that PCs of a household needed a copy of XP or Vista in order to legally install the operating system (there are no technical restrictions on the other hand).

The Windows 7 Family Pack retailed for $149.99 back then, which was about half the price that customers had to pay for three separate Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade licenses. A good deal, if at least two of the licenses would be put to use.

windows 7 family pack

The limited availability of the family pack, and the even cheaper pre-order packages, meant that not every customer who wanted to buy a package could do so.

Microsoft today announced that they would revitalize the Windows 7 Home Family pack to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Windows 7 launch.

The details of the deal remain the same. Customers can pay $149.99 for three Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade licenses. The packs will be available at select retailers and the Microsoft Store, it is likely that last year’s retailers will again be on board.

The pack will be available on October 3 in the US. International users will also be able to buy the Family Pack, starting October 22. It will go on sale in countries such as Canada, UK, Germany, France and Australia at that day or after, depending on the launch date in those countries).

We keep you update as soon as the packs hits the stores.

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3. Windows 7 Family Pack And Anytime Upgrade Prices
4. Windows 7 Family Pack to Be Sold in Europe
5. Windows 7 RTM, Family Pack Availablity

Microsoft began distributing the first builds of Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 during July earlier this year. Now reports are coming in that Microsoft have gone and updated a couple of those betas for a select few indiviuals over the last week or so.

Last Friday Zdnet reported that Microsoft refreshed a couple of the testers beta builds of Windows 7 SP1 and the new build number is now 7601.17077. The new build is said to have been made available to “TAP” partners, (Technology Adoption Program) and company officials have confirmed this.

“A private interim release went out Friday as part of our normal feedback loop with a small  group of our testers – our TAP and OEMs,”

So this shows that Microsoft are making progress on the service pack builds anyway, but Microsoft said that we shouldn’t expect to see the first service packs released for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 Rs until the first half of 2011.

Then again, Microsoft said that we wouldn’t be seeing Windows 7 make an appearance until the beginning of 2010, but in fact it was released in October during 2009 thanks to positive feedback from testers and remarkable stable beta builds and release candidates.

Maybe there will be a similar situation with the first service pack, or maybe there wont be. Perhaps Microsoft are eager to get it out as soon as they can since many businesses traditionally wait until the first service pack before they update to make sure any bugs have been ironed out. Then again there’s the never ending debate that Windows 7 doesn’t actually need a service pack at all.

We haven’t heard of anything new in this latest build, it’s probably just got another little bug fix somewhere, that’s all that Windows 7 SP1 is mainly made up of anyway, there’s nothing really outstanding or amazing that the average user will notice.

Related posts:

1. Microsoft Sending Invites For Testers To Try Windows 7 SP1 Beta
2. Windows 7 SP1 Beta Available To Business Testers
3. Microsoft close Windows 7 technical beta programme
4. Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Beta Leaks
5. Did Microsoft listen to beta testers after Vista?