MS announces upgrade program for Win 7

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd. today announced the Windows Upgrade Option Program for its next operating system, Windows 7.

Available from today, the Windows Upgrade Option Program makes it possible for consumers who buy a PC with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate, from a participating OEM or channel partner, to receive an upgrade to Windows 7, at no additional cost from Microsoft.

The Windows Upgrade Option Program is available to Indian consumers and businesses with less than 25 PCs, through participating OEMs, as well as channel partners for assembled PCs. Upgrade to Windows 7 is globally available from June 26, 2009, through January 31, 2010.

Speaking on the occasion, Rajiv Popli, director, Windows Client, Consumer & Online Business, Microsoft India said, “Consumers are at the heart of all our thinking and innovation, and today’s announcement is a strong reiteration of this. With the Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program, we aim to offer our consumer’s the best of both worlds, with their Windows Vista based computers today and Windows 7 powered systems post its launch.”

Commenting on the Windows Upgrade Option Program, George Paul, executive vice president, Marketing, HCL Infosystems Ltd. said, “Keeping our commitment to offer the very best in technology to our customers, we are pleased to be a part of ‘Windows 7 Upgrade Option program’ by Microsoft.”

Windows 7 will be available worldwide through all OEMs starting 22nd October 2009, in six SKUs, with Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional being the two primary editions that will meet the needs and usage expectations of a majority.

"Acer is excited about partnering with Microsoft on the new revolutionary Windows 7 platform for enabling an easy upgrade to customers in India. The all-new Windows 7 promises to be less demanding on hardware resources, snappy in response times, loaded with rich features and a delight to use on account of its intuitive and customer-friendly user interface," said S Rajendran, chief marketing officer, Acer India.

Key Windows 7 benefits include:

* Makes Everyday Tasks Faster & Easier: Windows 7 simplifies the things people do every day on their PCs with a more streamlined and intuitive design.  It provides one-click access to applications and files, so users spend less time looking for things and more time using them. This ease of access extends across multiple PCs and devices.

* Works the Way Consumers Want: In Windows 7, Microsoft has improved what customers care about most operating system basics. It will be faster for a consumer to start or shut down their Windows 7 PC. Additional improvements to reliability, battery life and fewer alerts allow customers to spend more time doing the things they want to do, without the operating system getting in their way.

* Offers a Better Entertainment Experience: Consumers today have access to more digital media than ever including DVDs, digital music and broadband TV and the PC is increasingly becoming the hub of the consumer’s electronic experiences. Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center in Windows 7 features built-in support for more media formats enabling people to use their PC to play more media content and sync it to a broader range of devices.  Remote Media Streaming enables highly secure, remote Internet access to home-based digital media libraries from another Windows 7-based PC outside the home.

* Makes New Things Possible: Windows 7 also offers fun new features like multi-touch, JumpLists and HomeGroup enabling consumers to interact with their PCs in faster and more intuitive ways.