Posted on June 26th, 2009 by Tim Danton

Bargain of the day: Windows Vista Home Basic for £137.01

While Barry Collins was researching his free upgrades to Windows 7 news story, he stumbled across possibly the most ridiculous offer I’ve ever seen: you, my lucky, lucky friends, can download Windows Vista Home Basic from the Microsoft UK store for £137.01. Excluding VAT.

Now before everyone rushes off to bag this bargain, I should point out that you can also buy Home Premium for £166.37! Obviously excluding VAT again, Microsoft has to make a living you know.

A quick trawl online reveals the going rate for the full version of Vista Home Premium is around £130 inc VAT – and you can buy it for less than £90 inc VAT if you’re willing to opt for the more restricted OEM version, which is tied to the motherboard you first install it on (so if you build a new PC, you’ll have to buy a new copy of Windows).

So, taking away VAT, Microsoft is charging a premium of over £50 if you buy direct from its store. It would be amazing to discover just how many sales it’s made for these two excellent picks, but sadly I don’t think I’m going to get much joy out of Microsoft on that one. My guess? A princely zero.

Tags: free upgrades, Microsoft, rip-off, Windows 7, windows vista

Posted in: Rant, Software, Windows 7

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6 Responses to “ Bargain of the day: Windows Vista Home Basic for £137.01 ”

John Gray Says:
June 26th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
It’s déjà vu all over again! What’s new about this? Have you seen the website upgrade prices for many of the larger antivirus manufacturers, compared with buying a new version from (say) Amazon?
David Says:
June 26th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Isn’t this to do with the ‘recommended retail price’? MS wants to give the impression that the ‘proper’ price is high, and then all retailers can claim they are giving a bargain. I don’t suppose they ever intended to actually sell any, but then you never know, there’s one born every minute….
Not him Says:
June 26th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
They would be in trouble if they undercut their retailers, after all…
Mike Baldwin Says:
June 27th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Actually i think technically you are wrong on the OEM comment above.Windows Vista creates a code based on reading hard coded serials of all of the hardware that you have when it is first registered EG Processor,Motherboard,Ram,Hard Drives.You can change one item at at time and Vista will not throw a wobbly.It will if you try and change 2-3 items and say reconnect your vista Hard disk as it will lool like you are trying to install it on a new machine.So if you upgrade for example only the motherboard and reconnect all of your hard drives,graphics,processor & ram you should be fine.That is what i am led to believe from reading a vista book.Please someone correct me if i am wrong.
Rakesh Says:
June 27th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Oh yes great bargin, I get a rubbish OS with limited features (compared to Vista Ultimate) and I should be glad to be in the UK so I pay more than anyone else because us Brits put up with paying more than anyone else.

Heres a bargin – Install windows 7 and use it for free, or use XP which is stable, fast and works unlike Vista.

Or better still use Ubuntu and if you need MS apps use Wine.

And use xbmc for your media box- its free and beats any existing windows media centre.
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