Windows 7 pre-orders melt Microsoft's store

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 15 Jul 2009 at 08:46

Microsoft has begun taking pre-orders for Windows 7 in the UK today - but the demand had already dragged down the company's website by 8:30am.

Click here to see Jon Honeyball's take on the Windows 7 pre-order pandemonium

Microsoft is offering Windows 7 Home Premium for £50 and Professional for £100 in a limited pre-order offer.

The company claims that "you'll have to be quick as prices are low, stocks are limited and it is first come first served".

However, at the time of publication, it was difficult to get served at all at Microsoft's online store, with disastrously slow loading times or blank screens.

PC Pro's contributing editor, Jon Honeyball, was met with a message claiming: "due to the start of the Microsoft Windows 7 presale offer and the associated higher volume of customers on our site, it is possible you are experiencing difficulties reaching the Microsoft Store site. We kindly ask you to try again at a later time."

When PC Pro staff tried to order the download version of Windows 7 Home Premium, we were presented with the message: "Microsoft Store UK is currently experiencing a problem. We are working on a solution, so please check back with us later. Thank you for your patience."

As Jon Honeyball notes on his Twitter feed, it's not exactly a great vote of confidence in Microsoft's cloud-computing infrastructure, just a day after it announced pricing for Windows Azure. "So much for cloud scale!" Jon remarks.

Alternative retailers

Thankfully Microsoft has lined up a series of retail partners, who seem to be coping better under the strain than Microsoft itself.

Stores including Amazon, PC World, Tesco and Play.com are offering the operating system on pre-order, with some undercutting the official Microsoft price even further.

Amazon is currently offering Home Premium for £44.97, for example.