Microsoft site plunges as Windows 7 promo starts

On its first day of a Windows 7 promotional drive, Microsoft's European online store quickly went offline. Customers were instead greeted with a message claiming the site was, "experiencing a higher level of demand than usual" but that it would be back up and running as soon as possible. The promo gives customers the opportunity to pre-order Windows 7 Home Premium E for �49.99 or Windows 7 Professional E for �99.99.

The software is on sale at the Microsoft Store, as well as several traditional partners including Amazon, Play.com and PC World. The offer will continue until August 9. The company is stressing that users should use the Upgrade Adviser Tool on offer for Windows 7 to avoid similar problems to those experienced with Windows Vista by customers after launch.

The worst issue for most affected consumers was hardware that carried Vista Capable stickers wasn't always compatible with Vista at all. In order to get in on more pre-orders, PC World is offering a free PC healthcheck worth �29.99 to anybody who purchases the software.

Written by: James Delahunty @ 15 Jul 2009 21:10

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13 comments

domie

The home premium is � 44.99 from Amazon and the Professional version � 89.99 no word yet on the ultimate price. These are all apparently full install o/s discs without browsers due to EU stupidity - not upgrades.
Seems to me the only difference between Home Premium and Pro is that Pro allows you to connect to a company network/intranet securely and easily and has a "back it up" nero type network and hdd package included.
Strangely , 12 hours after advertising on Amazon , the prices have been removed and they are not taking any more orders despite originally saying yesterday that the promotion would run from 15 July to 9 August.I guess they must have had an avalanche of pre-orders.
As for the PC health Check from PC World - just download the windows 7 "are you ready" tool from the MS page instead - simple.

16.7.2009 05:07 #1

creaky

Originally posted by domie: Seems to me the only difference between Home Premium and Pro is that Pro allows you to connect to a company network/intranet securely and easily and has a "back it up" nero type network and hdd package included. Here you go ~ http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windo...ompare-editions and my comments on which one i will choose ~
Quote:Looks like it's either Premium for me, unless i decide i want Windows XP Mode in which case it'd be Professional. But don't want the other so called features over and above Professional ie don't want Domain join (it just sounds feeble and stupid, i'll continue to manually tweak my own settings thanks 'Nanny Microsoft'), Auto backup (same comment), Bitlocker (not interested in the least) or a choice of 35 languages (i only do English and Geek) :)

Forum Rules ~ http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/2487 / Xbox softmodding software ~ http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/557450

Main PC ~ Intel C2Q Q6600 (G0 Stepping)/Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3/2GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500/Zalman CNPS9700/Antec 900/Corsair HX 620W
Network ~ 2 node DD-WRT (v23 sp2) WDS over WPA2 comprising: Buffalo - 2x WHR-G54Ss. Plus 2 adhoc nodes comprising Linksys - WRT54G v5 & WRT54G v2

16.7.2009 07:04 #2

oappi

Those ms own compare versions is kinda bs. With vista it says you can backup with premium and business, etc. What they don�t tell you is that business and ultimate have FULL backup instead just files. How is this different? Well with full backup it also stores your software and registery, and you can save quit alot of time when you take full backup after you have installed all the software you want, and then take your file backups every now and then. When you need to reinstall windows you just install it, take full backup and then file backup, thus saving hours of work and get "fresh" windows.

So in short they say cheaper versio has this feature, but what they dont for some reason is that more expensive one has more functions in that same feature.

16.7.2009 12:04 #3

domie

Quite frankly , having seen how much system restore chips away at HDD space and how piss poor it is at restoring ( if you download more than one mp3 a day ) - i'll stick to external programs for back ups and miror creation such as Acronis.
Well Amazon UK now have the price back on for the Home Premium at the less attractive price of � 74.99 - that � 44.99 offer lasted about 4 hours lol.

16.7.2009 12:53 #4

ChiefBrdy

Nothing but Vista on steroids. The interface is still horrible and it still takes 10 clicks to do simple tasks.

17.7.2009 11:18 #5

creaky

Originally posted by ChiefBrdy: Nothing but Vista on steroids. The interface is still horrible and it still takes 10 clicks to do simple tasks. Ouch, you'd have a lot to complain about using a Unix OS then, where everything can be done at the command line. You Windows-only/GUI-only/Point-and-click-only people have it all on a plate :)

17.7.2009 13:36 #6

ChiefBrdy

Originally posted by creaky: Originally posted by ChiefBrdy: Nothing but Vista on steroids. The interface is still horrible and it still takes 10 clicks to do simple tasks. Ouch, you'd have a lot to complain about using a Unix OS then, where everything can be done at the command line. You Windows-only/GUI-only/Point-and-click-only people have it all on a plate :)My job is in computer systems. There I expect to be challenged. At home with an OS meant for home or to be used by end users at work, it should be simple. Else, why have computers?

XP's interface was much simpler to use. Vista destroyed that. Windows 7 has the same interface as Vista except, now for example when you want to open up All Users. Instead of right clicking start as you did in Vista, you have to left click start, right click programs. I guess MS figured one click tasks were just too easy moving forward.

"Is that 3 thousand dollar bounty on the shark in cash or check?"

"We can do it the easy way...Or we can do it the REAL easy way."

17.7.2009 13:58 #7

creaky

Now I see where you're coming from, and i sort of agree. I do Unix/Linux for a living and i personally prefer to use Windows at home, for the same reason as you, i like to take it easy at home. I do use Linux at home too but i tend to stick to the simpler Linux distributions, home use is supposed to be fun or at least it's not supposed to be like being at work, and whilst i can fix most things that break or put up a fight, for most stuff i find Windows 'just works' so that's what i use the most.

However whether something takes 3 or 10 or 20 clicks, in a Windows OS i don't see the problem as Windows is just so simple, plus if something does take 10 clicks there's always a (shorter) workaround that a bit of research would identify. I don't mean to prolong the discussion on ease of use nor is my reply aimed solely at you, i just struggle to understand how Windows sometimes gets classed as difficult when it's not. I've used Windows since it first came out, and DOS before that, and Mainframes since around the same time, and my opinion has always been the same, Windows is just easy, regardless of how many clicks :)

17.7.2009 14:15 #8

ChiefBrdy

Originally posted by creaky: Now I see where you're coming from, and i sort of agree. I do Unix/Linux for a living and i personally prefer to use Windows at home, for the same reason as you, i like to take it easy at home. I do use Linux at home too but i tend to stick to the simpler Linux distributions, home use is supposed to be fun or at least it's not supposed to be like being at work, and whilst i can fix most things that break or put up a fight, for most stuff i find Windows 'just works' so that's what i use the most.

However whether something takes 3 or 10 or 20 clicks, in a Windows OS i don't see the problem as Windows is just so simple, plus if something does take 10 clicks there's always a (shorter) workaround that a bit of research would identify. I don't mean to prolong the discussion on ease of use nor is my reply aimed solely at you, i just struggle to understand how Windows sometimes gets classed as difficult when it's not. I've used Windows since it first came out, and DOS before that, and Mainframes since around the same time, and my opinion has always been the same, Windows is just easy, regardless of how many clicks :)Ok. Say you have a background of snow on your monitor and you want to change your icon text color to black. What's the shortcut for this:

Right click desktop
Select Personalize
Select Windows Color and Appearance
Select Open classic appearance properties for more color options
Select Advanced
Click arrow bar
Select Icon
Change color.

Rather than just clicking desktop, personalize and having the options on one page or tabbed. You have to go through 8 ridiculous steps. And do you think the average home user would even begin to know where to look for this. A simple task of changing icon text colors should not have to be Googled.

"Is that 3 thousand dollar bounty on the shark in cash or check?"

"We can do it the easy way...Or we can do it the REAL easy way."

17.7.2009 14:29 #9

creaky

Eh ?, in Windows 7 it's as simple as right click on the desktop, select Personalise, then in the top right of the Control Panel box that appears you just type in 'change desktop background' and select the new background picture. Select picture and click on 'Save changes'. Job's a good 'un.

My comment on googling is that i am a firm believer in self-help, if someone can use a computer in even the most rudimentary way they should in this day and age at least be aware of search engines, i accept they might not know what the hits/answers mean but they should at least know how to look for help.

Anyways, this isn't going anywhere methinks, i said i could sort of see where you were coming from.

17.7.2009 14:36 #10

ChiefBrdy

Originally posted by creaky: Eh ?, in Windows 7 it's as simple as right click on the desktop, select Personalise, then in the top right of the Control Panel box that appears you just type in 'change desktop background' and select the new background picture. Select picture and click on 'Save changes'. Job's a good 'un.That's fascinating. Only problem is, it has nothing to do with my scenario.

"Is that 3 thousand dollar bounty on the shark in cash or check?"

"We can do it the easy way...Or we can do it the REAL easy way."

17.7.2009 18:13 #11

creaky

I know. I was simply illustrating how easy stuff like this is.
'Fraid i'm not wasting any more breath on any further pointless nonsense re the trauma induced by the amounts of clicks of a mouse :)

17.7.2009 18:20 #12

dbminter

Originally posted by domie: Quite frankly , having seen how much system restore chips away at HDD space and how piss poor it is at restoring ( if you download more than one mp3 a day ) - i'll stick to external programs for back ups and miror creation such as Acronis.
Given my experience with how little useful help System Restore was, I, too, use Acronis to backup every day, once a week, once a month, and once a year. Given Windows tendencies to mess up the simplest user settings at the drop of a hat and software behaving buggy, restoring back to a known working partition is the only way I've found to be absolutely sure you can get your system working again.

23.7.2009 14:44 #13

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