I've just been reading about windows 7E which is to be released in Europe. I was hoping to be able to buy now, pre release but note that internet explorer isn't included in the operating system which seems to be something to do with eroupe commission. Will I be able to buy the complete windows 7 including internet explorer in united kingdom or have I got to buy seperate bits. If this is the case I feel really put off, there is also something about not being able to access the internet with windows 7E because it dosn't have a browser . I have to say I get really fed up with people telling us what we can have or not it's not like its drugs is it. Could someone help me out with this disappointment, I wanted to buy Ultimate for my business which isn't costed for pre release, will ultimate also be an "E". Do I have to buy Professional and add IE 8.Davey

Davey -From the information provided on Windows 7E, you're going to get a FULL retail copy of the OS - not an upgrade - but IE 8 will not be included on the DVDs. (The Home Premium, Pro and Ultimate flavors will all come with both 32 and 64 bit discs). As such, IE 8 is supposed to be delivered on a separate CD called the "IE 8 Pack." The IE 8 Pack CD is supposed to be free. There's also supposed to a means to download the IE 8 Pack via FTP. Alternatively, you can also download other browsers such as Opera (the instigator of this whole mess), Firefox, Chrome or Safari and install them.According to the press release, ALL versions of Windows 7E will be lacking IE 8 - that's from Starter all the way up to Ultimate. The idea here is that you have to make a concious effort to install IE 8 instead of simply having it handed to you on a silver platter (literally). That way, if IE still maintains it's overwhelming lead in market share - it's not simply because it was preinstalled.As far as your purchase goes... You could go about it from a couple of angles. You can order Ultimate directly. Or, you could preorder the Professional edition - and later do an Anytime Upgrade to Ultimate. Not sure exactly what the price differential is for the Anytime Upgrade from Professional to Ultimate is - that information is lacking, but it's rumored to be about $20 USD. YMMV with the price in the UK. Either way, it should still be significantly less than purchasing a non-discounted copy of Ultimate directly. The good news - if you buy Professional - you won't need to wait for a new set of disks - the Pro disks contain the entire set of features available for Windows 7. You simply buy the upgrade, insert the Professional DVD and feed it the new Ultimate product key given to you when you buy the Anytime Upgrade. It then installs the additional components and off you go.

I've just pre-ordered Windows 7 Professional Edition E via Amazon.co.uk. for 89.97 [ $147.50]I understand that by the time it ships [Oct 22nd] it will contain 2 DVD's 32bit & 64bit & IE8 on an installable CD. I tried the Microsft Store.co.uk but that fell over hours ago with the strain. :-) They are selling it for 99.99So on the whole I think it's a good deal; I get a full re-installable OS with DVD's for that price not an upgrade version.Strangely while the 7 Pro E version is offered at half-price, full price 210.00; 7 Ultimate E is offered at 199.99; 10.00 cheaper?Old Mig15 pilot. Using Windows 7 RC Vista that works.

Thanks Wolfie and Davy-D you've been a great help I'll be getting the professional copy booked as soon as. I've never wanted to use any other browser and this is such a good deal.must go to get on with it.Davey

Done the deedDavey

Davy - Seems Amazon.co.uk also has a nifty bundle - you can get the Home and Student edition of MS Office for 49.99 more... NOT bad... Of course, I do believe you'll need to either be working for an appropriate educational facility, be married to someone who does, or have kids enrolled in a school that's recognized by the program. @ Davey -Congrats! Well done!

To all:Who wants to take advantage from the European presales offers, should not hesitate. In the UK and France, Home Premium E and Prof E are the top sellers after the short time the offer is available, in Germany (where only Home Premium E gets a special price offer), amazon is already sold out. It could well be the case that the offers are much more limited in numbers than in the U.S.Mobile AMD64 3000+, VIA Apollo K8T800 chipset, 1 G RAM, ATIRadeonMobility 9700, 20x DVDRW, C:XPSP3 (55G),D:WIN7 (25G),F:DATA (250G)

amazon France is "temporarily" out of stock, too.Mobile AMD64 3000+, VIA Apollo K8T800 chipset, 1 G RAM, ATIRadeonMobility 9700, 20x DVDRW, C:XPSP3 (55G),D:WIN7 (25G),F:DATA (250G)

Hi WolfieAmazon do really good deals, Already have office 2007 prof, I see there's a new one on the way "2010" and wonder if outlook will be updated as it missed out on the last release. It needs a tweek or two.But this is my point about all of this, I preferr all my software to be intergrated into or withthe OS, it creates less hassle. Thanks again for your help.DaveyWindows 7 is fab

Davey - I don't blame you - it makes the most sense. I'm sure, however, that once IE 8 is installed, it will be as integrated into the OS as if it was preinstalled. From what I've read about preview versions of Office 2010, Outlook is supposed to get a bit of a makeover. Not quite sure what they've done to it - the author wasn't exactly giving out a bunch of details on the features (the whole point of the article was a preview...) It gets the ribbon treatment as does OneNote and Publisher which previously didn't. And speaking of OneNote - it now gets "rock star status" as it's now included in ALL versions of Office 2010.Read more about it on ZDNet.I'll be looking forward to the public beta once it's released...

Davy - Seems Amazon.co.uk also has a nifty bundle - you can get the Home and Student edition of MS Office for 49.99 more... NOT bad... Of course, I do believe you'll need to either be working for an appropriate educational facility, be married to someone who does, or have kids enrolled in a school that's recognized by the program. @ Davey -Congrats! Well done! Wolfie, wish I could get H & O Stu Ed for 49.99 but I finished all my IT courses last year and my daughter is no longer at Uni...ahhhh-well! Office 2003 is soooo old. :-)Davey, good for you mate.Sanmartin, I had a sneaky feeling that that might happen in the UK. Curiosity made me try Microsoft Store.co.uk last night at 11.30pm and then again this morning at 12.05am but all I got was an apology because the site was down...doh?? This morning at 8.00am I tried again and it was 9.00am before I got a webpage, but I could not order as the site locked up. Amazon.co.uk was no problem ordered and confirmed less than 2 minutes and 10.00 cheaper.It would not surprise me if stocks of Win7E in the EU were severely limited. Microsofts stance against the EU's dislike of monopolies is only too apparent..!! Old Mig15 pilot. Using Windows 7 RC Vista that works.

As a postscript to the above post, I tried again to get to Microsoft Store.co.uk at 1.30pm today and all I got was a webpage saying sorry.This is a whole 13 hours after the time it should have opened..?? I have no idea I must admit as whether the store was open and failed again...but if Microsoft cannot get ready for a day like this...then who can..?? Did this happen in the US or did they manage to handle the very much larger volume of sales without falling over?I'm sure that the conspiracy theorists could have a field day over it. :-)Old Mig15 pilot. Using Windows 7 RC Vista that works.

Davy - Bummer... Ah well. At least you got Win 7E at a bargain price. I would NOT be too surprised if there was a sudden announcement to the effect of - due to popular DEMAND, Microsoft will be making another batch of Win 7E licenses available at the bargainpreorder price. Given some of the complaints I've come across in various posts on here, I'm wondering if Microsoft may have figured the initial demand would be lighter than expected.Then again, I have a hard time believing that everyone in the EU would skip Windows 7 because of all this nonsense. I can see them actually using this to their advantage in the Opera case... Win 7E's popularity could reinforce Microsoft's position with regards to any proposed "solutions" the EC might think up - like forcing Microsoft to include Opera, Firefox, Chrome and Safari on the Windows distribution discs with some ballot type thing where you get to pick your browser.The US sales thing never seemed to be all that heavy. There seemed to be plenty of copies up on the 10th of July -the day beforethe offer expired when I got my copy of Professional reserved. And yes, the conspiracy theorists will be whipped to a frenzy... The IT media will, no doubt, analyze it to death. Rumors will run rampant.

Hey WolfieJust had another look at Microsoft Store.co.uk or tried to...???http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/buy/offers/pre-order.aspxNotice that the Microsoft Store has disappeared from the list of options..??If as you say because of popular demand Microsoft will make another batch available, perhaps they can add them to the first batch they never sold because the website folded. LOL :-)The conspiracy continues...tune in tomorrow for more analysis, read all the new rumours in the latest IT blogs.Old Mig15 pilot. Using Windows 7 RC Vista that works.

Hi Davy. i noticed that as well but also noticed that Tesco had been added. Have Tesco bought the MS store lolWindows 7 x64 RC, Asrock K8NF6P, AMD64 3200+, 1.5GB RAM, Palit Geforce 8400GS 256MB, 500GB Maxtor SataII, Asus 1814BLT optical

As far as your purchase goes... You could go about it from a couple of angles. You can order Ultimate directly. Or, you could preorder the Professional edition - and later do an Anytime Upgrade to Ultimate. Not sure exactly what the price differential is for the Anytime Upgrade from Professional to Ultimate is - that information is lacking, but it's rumored to be about $20 USD. YMMV with the price in the UK. Either way, it should still be significantly less than purchasing a non-discounted copy of Ultimate directly. The good news - if you buy Professional - you won't need to wait for a new set of disks - the Pro disks contain the entire set of features available for Windows 7. You simply buy the upgrade, insert the Professional DVD and feed it the new Ultimate product key given to you when you buy the Anytime Upgrade. It then installs the additional components and off you go. Mmmm..!! I quite like the sound of that. If & when you get confirmation of that Wolfie I would appreciate a heads-up. Tks.Old Mig15 pilot. Using Windows 7 RC Vista that works.

Hey WolfieJust had another look at Microsoft Store.co.uk or tried to...???http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/buy/offers/pre-order.aspxNotice that the Microsoft Store has disappeared from the list of options..??If as you say because of popular demand Microsoft will make another batch available, perhaps they can add them to the first batch they never sold because the website folded. LOL :-)The conspiracy continues...tune in tomorrow for more analysis, read all the new rumours in the latest IT blogs. Old Mig15 pilot. Using Windows 7 RC Vista that works. Davy - Most peculiar. There's no option to buy Win 7 E on the UK pages. Even the shop link at the top is barren of Win 7 - though it does offer a number of Vista laptops with the Win 7 E upgrade.

Davy - If and when I hear something about the price for the Proto Ultimate Anytime Upgrade, I'll post something. Though, I would imagine that info would be released closer to October.

Davy - If and when I hear something about the price for the Proto Ultimate Anytime Upgrade, I'll post something. Though, I would imagine that info would be released closer to October. Thanks Wolfie, I appreciate that and I understand it might be some time, but as you say it might be worth it.Old Mig15 pilot. Using Windows 7 RC Vista that works.

Hi WolfieI read the ZDnet link. It seems to me that the ultimate anytime upgrade is included and that buying windows 7 pro at 89 has to make sense if ultimate end price is 230 plus so I really have apprieciated input ThanksHi DavyFollowing your posts re Home and student I don't think you have to qualify these days, my 2007 ran from the get go with no proof of being students was required but it isn't licenced for commercial use, we are in education (mature) and I have my own bussines so I purchased Office professional 2007. Amazon.co.uk have H&S it at 68Hope this is helpfulTesco sell food don't they :)Davey

Davey,Thanks I will have a look and consider if my finances will streeeeeetch that far. ;-)Old Mig15 pilot. Using Windows 7 RC Vista that works.

Davy Oh go on, do itDavey

You can download IE8 prior to installing Windows 7 here:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=79154fb4-c610-4a1e-811d-dfe0f1dd84d1&displaylang=en

Thanks GordonHave downloaded it onto my Vista drive (Using multiboot)Davey

Hey WolfieJust had another look at Microsoft Store.co.uk or tried to...???http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/buy/offers/pre-order.aspxNotice that the Microsoft Store has disappeared from the list of options..??If as you say because of popular demand Microsoft will make another batch available, perhaps they can add them to the first batch they never sold because the website folded. LOL :-)The conspiracy continues...tune in tomorrow for more analysis, read all the new rumours in the latest IT blogs. Old Mig15 pilot. Using Windows 7 RC Vista that works. Did anyone ever get through to the UK Microsoft Store and order a copy of Windows 7 E?http://emea.microsoftstore.com/UK/Microsoft/Windows/Windows-7I notice that the store is back online with a different web address but the offer has prematurely ended..??Old Mig15 pilot. Using Windows 7 RC Vista that works.

WolfieAmazon.co.ukhave ultimate Efor pre order at 189.97 instead of 229 so as long as the anytime upgrade isn't 100 I'm a winner :)Davey

I have been following the debate all about whether a version of Windows is a full version or an up-grade version. I have been using Windows in almost all of its flavours since 1990, and have always had the possibility to up-grade from my previous version. My current version is Vista Ultimate. I find that apart from a single reference tucked away in this thread, of no obvious official Microsoft status, that it may be possible to up-grade via Windows Pro-E and then use Anytime Upgrade to up-grade from Pro-E to Untimate_E for the equivalent of about $20. Can anyone confirm that this is the likely case. Otherwise it means that the up-grade path has been closed off unilaterally by Microsoft, with only a complete OS on an as new user basis.I differentiate hare between up-grading and installing as a new customer. I have always at some stage done a complete re-install of any of the previous versions in order to clean-up a long running version, or to allow for installing new hard discs and their partitions. This procedure has no negative consequences for me - on the contrary it is a positive experience.All previous versions were fully registered and activated as required, so there should be no questions as to ownership of previous versions.I have never personally owned more than one computer at a time.Could someone please confirm for me that I will be able to follow the above mentioned reasonable up-date path, to get in effect from Vista Ultimate to 7 UltimateBy the way, I have participated in the Beta and RC stages of Windows 7, and consider Windows 7 to be superior to Vista in almost all respects.

Hi HenryThe official Upgrade Matrix is being developed and finalized now and should be publish very soon.Keep an eye on the following website for the official announcement.Windows 7 Team BlogHope this helps.Thank You for testing Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP

Thanks RonnieHenry

Have a look at this downloadable content ("Windows 7 Upgrade Paths"): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=E170EBA1-5BAB-401F-BBF5-00F0EE7FE0FB&displaylang=en.Mobile AMD64 3000+, VIA Apollo K8T800 chipset, 1 G RAM, ATIRadeonMobility 9700, 20x DVDRW, C:XPSP3 (55G),D:WIN7 (25G),F:DATA (250G)

Hi sanmartinNice one.Davey

Hi WolfieAmazon do really good deals, Already have office 2007 prof, I see there's a new one on the way "2010" and wonder if outlook will be updated as it missed out on the last release. It needs a tweek or two.But this is my point about all of this, I preferr all my software to be intergrated into or withthe OS, it creates less hassle. Thanks again for your help.DaveyWindows 7 is fab FWIW, Outlook 2010 has been completely reworked and now shares the ribbon interface. In fact, all the apps I've seen share a more sophisticated version of the Office 2007 ribbon (only key app I have not seen yet is Project 2010). The 64 bit version of Office 2010 across the board is also remarkably fast on the x64 Windows 7 RC. Yes, I am running the technical review build of Office 2010 which (I think) is possibly closer to final than Microsoft is suggesting - so far very polished, very stable, and very fast. The installer is even labeled as retail_ship_x64. Certainly not finished yet but getting there. BTW, sorry for the slow response but the notification that testers can talk about Office 2010 only popped up today in my e-mail....Stephen

Hm... About this EC-thing, why not just include a basic browser-installer-applet or script, built with contribution/in cooperationwith all browser-coders, providing quick access to installer-executables? You know, likeold DOS-menus:Choose a browser to install:1. IE2. Firefox3. Safari4. Opera5. ChromeType a number (1-5) and press ENTER:_Did I make myself clear? I mean, there are after all command-line downloaders - wget for Unixes, BitTorrent is cross-platform, FTP-software... Shouldn't be all that difficult to arrange, really. Heh, with some PowerShell tutelage, even I mightbe able to cook up a quick live demonstration! :)

Hi That would be a good option but we need to keep the post clearly out of the legal wrangling. I have already been told this by Ronnie.Safest thing to say at this moment in time is you will need to download and install a browser or if Microsoft includes a disc then use that if you want IE.Remember to download it before you wipe your machine to install 7. I will be quite happy if Microsoft included a disc as I see no reason to change from IE.malc

Agreed - I've seen what that can turn into. Well, either way, I'm not a developer yet still well capable of installing a browser of my own choosing. Just trying to inject new ideas.

Oh, it's official. See http://microsoftontheissues.com/cs/blogs/mscorp/archive/2009/07/31/windows-7-and-browser-choice-in-europe.aspx.Mobile AMD64 3000+, VIA Apollo K8T800 chipset, 1 G RAM, ATIRadeonMobility 9700, 20x DVDRW, C:XPSP3 (55G),D:WIN7 (25G),F:DATA (250G)

HiThere has been an update from Microsoft Legal to the current proposal that is on the table for the 7E version. This update gives specific detailsaboutthe current proposal by Microsoft.Update: Windows 7 and Browser Choice in Europe - Microsoft On The IssuesPlease remember that this proposalis still preliminary information and that nothing is final until the EU either accepts or rejects the proposal.If you have any comments about this article, please scroll to the bottom of that website and posts your comments there, you can post anonymously, no login is required. They really want and encouragefeedback from customers who are directly effected by these decisions.Thanks for understanding. Ronnie Vernon MVPForum Moderator

On another note; I see that a family pack for 3 pc's has been announced,http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/default.aspxThe Windows 7 Family Pack will be available starting on October 22nd until supplies last here in the US and other select markets. In the US, the price for the Windows 7 Family Pack will be $149.99 for 3 Windows 7 Home Premium licenses. Thats a savings of more than $200 for three licenses. This is a great value and were excited to be able to offer it to customers.Not bad at only $50 per license.Old Mig15 pilot. Using Windows 7 RC Vista that works.

Although the "Upgrade" from Windows 7 Premium to Windows 7 Ultimate price is more than I had hoped.Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Ultimate: $139.99 [83.73]And no upgrade price for Pro to Ultimate yet. Old Mig15 pilot. Using Windows 7 RC Vista that works.

RonnieHiWhy did you remove my post all I asked was for you to confirm if it was true indeed as you can see above I am being very correct in my posts and this is the misc forum. Could you not have just answered like you did without removing my post and could you please tell me which section of my post was incorrect. It appears that you have just removed my post but left the otherposts that resulted in my query still there. Iam being extremely helpfull in other postsand your attitude concerns me.all the bestmalc

RonnieHiWhy did you remove my post all I asked was for you to confirm if it was true indeed as you can see above I am being very correct in my posts and this is the misc forum. Could you not have just answered like you did without removing my post and could you please tell me which section of my post was incorrect. It appears that you have just removed my post but left the otherposts that resulted in my query still there. Iam being extremely helpfull in other postsand your attitude concerns me.all the bestmalcps I replied in the wrong section above so I have replied again here were I meant it to be

I'm not so much bothered whether or not IE8 or any other browsers are included; as wondering if my agreement with Amazon.co.uk will still be honoured at the original price for Windows 7 [E or no E DavyThe place to get an answer to your questions or concerns is here:Amazon.co.uk > Help > Contact UsThanks for understanding. Ronnie Vernon MVPForum Moderator