as win7 pr user I missed out on the pre purchase at half price due to a lack of funds. Is there any way I can pre purchase at half price now?

Sorry, the discount promotional offer has ended.Carey Frisch

That's unfortunate.Atthe Microsoft store, they claim that the credit card won't be charged until the product was shipped (or made available for download).Maybe there will be relatively inexpensive system builder (OEM) licenses available like there were for XP and Vista. (They are available form places like www.newegg.com.) No price or availability of those has been announced yet, though. They may be about as expensive as an upgrade license, if they are similar to past versions.