Microsoft Brings Back Windows 7 Family Pack (For a Limited Time)

Remember that “Family Pack” offering of Windows 7 that Microsoft taunted us all with close to the OS’ launch, and then pulled not too long after? Well, when the deal ceased to exist, there were many perturbed people, and for good reason. The deal is excellent, and I’m not sure anyone knew just how limited the duration of the promotion was actually going to be.

If you’ve avoided purchasing a copy of Windows 7 up to this point, or are still interested in diving into a family pack, you’re in luck. Microsoft is again running the promotion, with the exact same terms as before. This pack includes three licenses of Home Premium, for a near rock-bottom price of $149.99 USD (stand-alone OEM licenses of Home Premium are ~$99.99).

Like before, this promotion is for a limited time only, which leaves some to questioning the reasons why. Like most any promotion, Microsoft is clearly interested in drumming up even more interest in its latest OS, and given that this three pack costs roughly the same as a full non-OEM copy of the same version, it’s understandable why it doesn’t keep the deal going indefinitely.

One thing’s for sure, though… if you want this deal, don’t wait around.

Edit: Just as an addendum, I didn’t clue into the fact that this was an “Upgrade” and not a full version, so be sure if you do go for the pack, you already have installed copies of older versions of Windows (XP or Vista).

According to IDC’s Consumerscape 360 data, the average U.S. household has two PCs and, for most of these households, setting up a home network is not the easiest task. To meet the needs of these families, Windows 7 was designed with home networking in mind. Windows 7 Home Premium comes with HomeGroup, a new feature that makes sharing photos, music and files between all the PCs in your home network a snap. It’s especially handy if all of your PCs share a printer.