Introduction

Microsoft had a successful launch of the Windows 7 on 22nd Oct 2009. Although many people queued up for the highly anticipated discounts for Windows 7, others are just waiting for the switch with a new brand desktop or notebooks.

For DIY users, you would have to fork out money to purchase Windows 7 from the retail stores. Everyone wants to get a good deal. Someone would think of buying it from overseas or getting their family pack. It is cheaper down there.

Before you go ahead and purchase it from regions where it is way cheaper, e.g. in China. It is said that such copies of Windows 7 Original will not work if you bring it back home to your home country. It is said to be geographically locked to the country where you purchase it from.

We asked Microsoft why do we have have all these restrictions, price differences and why is it there are family pack available in certain countries. Matthew Hardman, Windows Client Business Group Lead for Microsoft Singapore answered our questions via email.


1. How does the Geographic lock work ? Why is it necessary to have such restrictions ?

Geo locking was made available in some emerging markets due to the price difference between emerging markets and matured markets. The price difference is to cater to specific market conditions and economic conditions. Geo locking prevents users from importing products from the emerging markets and selling it to matured markets.

2. In the US, there are academic versions for the students and there is family pack ? Why aren't these options available in Singapore or in other countries?

Microsoft is trying different promotions in different markets to test the model and learn from the experience. Once we have completed the testing and if it is viable we might expand it to other markets. This is first time we are doing online distribution for the student via the academic version so we need to see if this is a viable and a verifiable model. As for the family pack, this is a combo of three license in one sku. Again, we have not had this sku in the past. We don’t know the acceptance level of this sku and that is why it is on a limited quantity in a few geo. Once we have better data and if it is viable, we will expand it to other markets.

3. A lot of netbook users are now running windows XP. Wouldn't it be nice to have a direct upgrade path from XP -> 7 for netbook users ?

> Windows XP to Windows 7 requires a clean install regardless of whether it is on a netbook or any other types of PC due to the difference in architecture of the product unlike Vista to Windows 7. We also know that all netbooks generally don’t have a dvd drive so we have made available a tool that allows the users to download the ISO image from the DVD to a thumb drive that they can then use to install Windows 7. This tool is made available free of charge for our customers to download.
 

IF you have other questions regarding Windows 7, feel free to post it in our forums at http://forums.ocworkbench.com We will try to get you an answer.

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