And just to make things even worse, we’ve now had confirmation there will be no Family Pack of Windows 7 until “at least” 2010. So, if the worst comes to the worst, that means it could be 2011. Or later.

I’ll tackle the Anytime Upgrade prices first – just to explain, these are the “in-place” upgrades you can choose, so if you buy a Windows 7 Home Premium laptop but decide you want Windows 7 Professional you just need to buy a new key and your OS is converted on the spot.

Here are the three key potential upgrades:

Windows 7 Home Premium –> Professional: £120 inc VAT

Windows 7 Home Premium –> Ultimate: £125 inc VAT

Windows 7 Professional –> Ultimate: £85 inc VAT

Take a moment to digest that (especially if you’re a business user that wants to upgrade your Windows 7 Professional laptop to Ultimate so you can take advantage of advanced features like BitLocker 2 Go). And now take a look at the US prices:

Windows 7 Home Premium –> Professional: $90 (around £54)

Windows 7 Home Premium –> Ultimate: $140 (around £84)

Windows 7 Professional –> Ultimate: $130 (around £78)

That almost defies comment. Yes, dollar-price exchange rates fluctuate; yes, Americans have to pay a sales tax in most states, which isn’t accounted for in those prices. But, really, we have to pay that much more than our US friends? Anyone fancy a mass trip to New York?

And then, just to rub our noses in it that bit more, we have the fact that UK users can’t buy the Family Pack of Windows 7 due to the ridiculous mess that is the Windows E edition (in short: there’s no Internet Explorer built in to the EC editions of Windows 7, and Microsoft says that makes it technically impossible – right now – to upgrade direct from Vista).

The Family Pack allows Americans and Canadians to upgrade up to three Vista computers to Windows 7 in one fell swoop, all for $149. So, um, that’s £89 then? And remind me, how much does the upgrade version of Windows 7 Home Premium cost for us UK buyers? Oh yes, £80 inc VAT. So for three PCs, that’s a rather princely £240 inc VAT.

Rip-off UK pricing doesn’t even begin to cover it.

Naturally, Microsoft was keen to make its spokespeople available for comment. What? Oh, you say that when we tried to call – after receiving this bad-news email at 5.15pm this evening - all we got was voicemail? Surely not.

Ah, but what’s this that Barry Collins has just forwarded me if not Microsoft’s answer to our anticipated question “The prices seem high, how do you justify these?”

A. First, we know most customers buy a PC preinstalled with the right edition for them – that is the easiest and by far the most popular way to get a new operating system.  That said, Windows 7 WAU pricing is comparable to – and in some cases significantly lower than – Windows Vista WAU pricing.  And while Windows 7 pricing is comparable to previous versions, new features add value through richer scenarios and more possibilities, offering a simplified computing experience with more options to enjoy and use media on their terms, work anywhere and get more done.

Right, well that’s okay then.

Look, I love Windows 7. And I will, at the earliest opportunity, convert all PCs I can touch to the OS. But until Microsoft learns to treat the UK, and the rest of Europe, with the respect it deserves, it will continue to get negative press.