Microsoft Reveals Anytime Upgrade & Family Pack Pricing

Last Friday, Microsoft posted some interesting information on their Windows Team blog that I somehow overlooked… pricing for Anytime Upgrade, and also their family pack. First, to reiterate what WAU (Windows Anytime Upgrade) is. This feature was first introduced with Vista, as a way to allow consumers to purchase one version of Windows, and later have the option to upgrade to another. This is useful since it allows you to save money early on, and only spend more if you need to.

I admit… the pricing makes absolutely no sense to me, but here it is. To upgrade from Starter to Home Premium, it’s $79.99 USD. To upgrade from Home Premium to Professional, it’s $89.99, and from Home Premium to Ultimate, it’s $139.99. The reason I find this odd, is that if you combine the retail pricing for a full copy of Home Premium and add in the WAU price to go to Professional, it’s actually $10 less expensive than buying Professional outright. Then where Ultimate’s concerned, you’ll spend $20 more…

Then there’s the family pack, which actually happens to be offered at a very good price: $149.99 for a 3-pack. The problem is that the blog doesn’t go into detail and give pre-requisites for the pack, but for now, we could assume that you could upgrade from either XP or Vista. Another strange fact is that the family pack looks to be sold in limited quantities, and also limited markets. Why Microsoft would take this route, I have no idea, but hopefully they’ll change their mind.

Any way you look at it, $149.99 for three upgrade copies is a great deal, so you’ll want to take advantage of that soon after launch to avoid missing out.

Credit: madstork91

The 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. That’s a savings of more than $200 for three licenses. This is a great value and we’re excited to be able to offer it to customers.