Comments on: Some Vista users say they're getting the Ultimate shaft

Buyers of the priciest version of Windows Vista are miffed that Microsoft's initial upgrade discounts don't help them move to Windows 7.

[yacahuma]

JAJAJA. When will you learn. Windows is run by Marketing. Marketing people have no brain. That's why you get 6 or 10 different OS Versions. Dont expect anything free from Microsoft, It all dollar and cents here.

[PressAnyKey]

I am just seriously irked that it's going to cost me more to upgrade to the ultimate edition of Win 7 from the ultimate edition of Vista. Simple as that. I could be wrong but has there ever been a time in the past where the upgrade to the same edition of the new Windows OS cost more? Is there a reason other than greed to explain this?

I bought a copy of Vista for one of my home brew PC's to play with it, learn it, and run non-mission critical applications (all my work PC's are still on XP). I knew perfectly well that the "extras" was a crock of s**t but I never expected MS would screw customers on the upgrade, especially considering what a pile of junk Vista was for the first eight months.

If anything I should be receiving a free upgrade and a personal apology...

Sorry, MS... Vista is working fine and the economy sucks. Guess I'll stay where I am. Give me a call if you come to your senses....

[ThurmanJamison]

I do think that there should be some discount for Ultimate users. And most of the commenters were right about it combining elements from Enterprise and Home Premium.

If you need those features then you should upgrade to Win 7 Ultimate. I would wait till more discounts are available though.

If you don't needed those features get Win 7 Home Premium or Professional.

What ever you get from what ever version you should do a clean install. Windows does slow down with use. A new OS is a great opportunity to back up and start fresh. We all should back up all the time but most of us don't. This is the time.

[Sauvignon]

Suckers! :-D It's all downhill from here. Microsoft has jumped the shark and eventually they will abuse their customers badly enough that a tipping point is reached and actual competition kicks in again. Monopolies are not immortal.

[writteininwaters]

I think the correct saying is "fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice.... you can't get fooled again" or something like that. Look it up.

[xanpyzz]

For all of Apple's faults their customers are mainly regular people and it shows in way they price and support their OS. Microsoft is just the opposite . Their customers are Big business, OEM's and government. Regular customers are just a bother to them. Their ideal scenario - have all us be forced to buy a new PC any time we wanted a OS upgrade.

[ucbedge]

Ladies and gentlemen - welcome to the reason people pirate software!

I, for one, plan to get 7 ultimate for free. No way I'm paying $219 for the upgrade. I'd pay half of that though.

[robertjbenson]

Just another reason to switch to the Max OS.

I've purchased several machines the last two years three of them Macs. I've found the Mac's to be much easier to maintain, backup and image. Though I've had good success with Vista 64 and really like Windows 7 so far, I can't believe Microsoft is being so lame to go with this pricing. With the explosion in the number of systems that the average household has and the need for networking Microsoft is giving everyone the shaft by crippling their new OS and forcing you into this stupid tiered pricing. Now for you to connect your $350 netbook to your network at work it's going to cost you a another $200+ dollars.

This just makes my life easier for all my future purchases. Since now there really isn't much of a cost differential between the systems my house and office will be buying more Macs...

P.S. As to having to buy more software with all of the Macs I did not have to purchase Photoshop Elements, Adobe Acrobat, disk imaging and partitioning software, zip utilities, video software, additional cd burning software etc., etc., etc,, Yes I still run Windows 7 in VMware. I would love to buy it but I am not willing to shell out a few hundred bucks for it.

[drbyte]

Windows 7 should be free to people who purchased any copy of Vista or got force fed when they brought a new PC. Windows 7 is really the natural progression from XP pro as far as features. So what was VIsta? Obviously a big mess considering how fast they got 7 together. Do the right thing MS, free upgrade to Vista owners. It might be harder to make people forget Vista like they did WinME.

I'm surprised the competition just went about things as business as usual. They should have got really aggressive and tried to take advantage of the regular MS OS "opps, here's the real OS" cycle.

[PressAnyKey]

I'm sure Apple will get around to it fairly soon...

[arobinson18]

How does Microsoft explain how Vista users have been downgrading from Vista to XP in droves? Clearly what Vista users have been wanting is to get WindowsXP back. Sure you can get XP back if you buy Windows7 and if you are willing to spend $200 to $300 to upgrade to Windows7 Business or Ultimate. Vista broke a lot of programs or at least some of their functionality. For example, my new (2005) US Robotics wireless router wouldn't work with Vista unless I disabled encryption. I called Microsoft and what was Microsoft's solution? For $200 they would look into the problem but they could not guarantee they could fix it. A simple web search revealed that it was a well known problem and the only fix was to buy a new wireless router that was Vista-specific. Well, at least $100 was better than $200 and I was guaranteed a fix. Another example is a cool feature of Ragdoll Kung Fu was the ability to record video of your game play, but that feature doesn't work in Vista. I see none of these XP compatibilities being addressed in Windows7 -- unless you are willing to spend $200 to $300 to upgrade to Windows7 Business or Ultimate. I have numerous annoyances, like how on my 2560x1600 monitor how Windows Explorer cannot remember its last position or size, forcing me to resize and reposition Windows Explorer almost everytime I need to use it. I am not trying to complain or am interested in complaining -- there is no point to that. Microsoft claims it is listening and it seems as though they aren't actually listening, but trust me, I believe they are listening...with their wallets wide open for donations. That is exactly why I have switched my netbook to Ubuntu and am planning to upgrade my desktop to Ubuntu as well. You guys can do whatever you want to do or believe whatever you want to believe, but Windows7 was the last straw for me and I am swearing off Windows forever.

[wclanders]

The price structure with Windows sucks in general. Just have on operating systems and have all the 'crapware' as a bold on like apple does. After i bought and returned a vista laptop....i've been very happy with my Mac and OS X. I'll happily fork over the 39 bucks for the new OS this fall.

[Dan7637]

this shows that ms needs to get their head out their @$$ and make one or two versions of an OS and not a bunch like starter , basic , home premium, proffesional, ultimate

[Equisilus]

For my part, this article illustrates almost exactly how I felt. I've used Vista Ultimate x64 since release and I'm actually on my second version of it now (yes, I bought it twice). While I was disappointed that W7 Ultimate wasn't being offered with the discounts, I felt maybe it was time for a downgrade anyway. But THEN I discovered, to my dismay, it means reinstalling everything. Ouch.

So, I've kept that pre-order there for now and I have up until the last day to cancel it if I don't want to go that route. I sincerely hope that MS offers an Ultimate discount for W7 so I can do an in-place update without having to reinstall. It'd make it a lot more palatable to me. (I won't hold my breath on it, though).

@Mergatroid Mania July 2, 2009 10:30 AM PDT
"...they have no legitimate beef about the original purchase of the Ultimate version of Vista.
People who don't bother to research a purchase and then whine about it when they find it's not what they thought it was have to right to complain.

There's this AMAZING new thing, called THE INTERNET, where you can find out what the differences are between versions without having to purchase them first. What's the matter, too lazy to go read about it? You bought it for the extras? Maybe you should have read what the extras were before you purchased it."

Wow, you must not have realized that for anyone who bought Ultimate a while back that all the extras could not "be read about" because Microsoft most touted the ones that were in the pipeline and had not yet been announced. And you must not have read any of the myriad ads Microsoft put out about Ultimate where they went out of their way to make a big deal about the extras. And you must not have thought about the people sitting on the fence trying to decide if the featutes listed for ultimate was enough to validate the extra cost, who were nudged over the fence by the extras that were promised by microsoft.

So you must not of known about these things or you wouldn't have written such a comment. Maybe next time you can use THE INTERNET to check these thing out. And by the way, the version differences for Windows 7 as listed on Microsofts site are only partial, as they were for Vista Ultimate. Microsoft doesn't really care about the average Joe buying Windows 7 Ultimate, because they know they messed up with Vista Ultimate and don't want a repeat (which is why there are NO *extras* in Windows 7 Ultimate).

[kjam_productions]

You know, you might say I'm a whiner, but I feel it's for good reason. I've got two copies of Vista Ultimate, the latest was purchased in January for a new computer I just built. Now, I'm being told I have to go out and buy another one at full price??? I'm sorry, but where is the promise for a free upgrade within a certain period of time? At the very least, where is the steeply discounted price like the cheaper versions of Windows 7? I'll be buying a new laptop in August. If this isn't rectified to my satisfaction by then, that laptop is going to be a Mac and I just won't upgrade my computer to Windows 7. Seriously, I can't believe Microsoft is willing to disenfranchise its loyal customers, but that's the way it's heading.

[jtjt145]

The latest release: WINDOWS 7 SUPER DELUXE = LINUX UBUNTU

:-) (couldn't help myself...)

[rattymouse]

"@Bob Kakis: Go ahead and buy a MAc, it's probably more your speed. You think you'll get a discount from Apple when the new O/S comes out for Macs? Dream on.... "

Apple's Snow Leopard OS? That's a cool $29!!!! LOL!!

Yeah, I'll pay for $219 for Windows......NOT.

[slumbergod]

I haven't been a Windows user for a few years now but I still feel a lot of sympathy for Vista users. They should be offered a very cheap upgrade to Windows 7. Vista was such a disaster for lots of people and they should not be disadvantaged just because they were early adopters of Vista bundled with new hardware.

At the very least microsoft should offer all Vista users a super cheap upgrade to the equivilent Windows 7 product. Then Mircosoft can officially retire Vista and we can pretend it didn't happen.

[DGHP]

I use my home PC for both entertainment AND for work - I need an "ultimate" edition. Don't care about any of the Ultimate perks so much BUT I do not think I should have to buy Windows 7 Home Premium then pay to update it to Ultimate. That is just wrong.

[nickdevich]

I agree with people who said Ultimate offered a lot more than poker. If you bought Ultimate and the only added feature you use is poker, complaining about it is a bit like complaining about a Ferrari being the same as a Chevy because you never drive it over 55. Weak.