Microsoft confirms Windows 7 Family Pack rumours

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Microsoft confirmed the existence of a Windows 7 family pack today in a company blog post.

Rumours of a Family Pack deal were originally reported by Neowin earlier this month. The Windows 7 family pack will offer a licence for people to install Windows Home Premium on up to 3 PCs.

Brandon LeBlanc confirmed "I know there have been some rumors going around about a "family pack" for Windows 7. We have heard a lot of feedback from beta testers and enthusiasts over the last 3 years that we need a better solution for homes with multiple PCs. I'm happy to confirm that we will indeed be offering a family pack of Windows 7 Home Premium (in select markets) which will allow installation on up to 3 PCs. As I've said before, stay tuned to our blog for more information on this and any other potential offers."

Prices leaked out earlier this month, pricing the product at $136.95. It's not yet clear if the price leaks were accurate but it seems Microsoft will be sharing this information soon.

(7 replies) #1 Gladiatorus on 21 Jul 2009 - 21:44

A Win 7 Ultimate Family Pack would also be nice

#1.1 andrewbares on 21 Jul 2009 - 21:45

Yea. But I bet it'd cost a LOT.

#1.2 macrosslover on 21 Jul 2009 - 22:23

meh they just need to stop being dicks and put remote desktop in every version. then the need for a family to have ultimate wouldn't be that high. I just find it funny that with windows home server they push remote access to your pc as a benefit of WHS, yet to have that you need a version of the OS that most homes are unlikely to have.

#1.3 qbie on 21 Jul 2009 - 22:26

thankfully Win 7 Pro will have remote desktop as well this time out - and unlike Vista Business you get all the features of Home Premium too.

#1.4 cakesy on 22 Jul 2009 - 00:39

macrosslover said,

Can't you install remote desktop yourself? Surely Microsoft wouldn't hinder there system this way. Of course, Apple have a remote desktop solution, but it costs loads.

Of course, if you can't there is always realVNC which is better in a lot of way. Remote desktop is an extremely useful piece of software, I can't believe they would leave it out.

#1.5 GP007 on 22 Jul 2009 - 00:41

Doesn't the WHS connector software allow you to use remote access to your WHS? That's the way I always understood it.

#1.6 macrosslover on 22 Jul 2009 - 07:12

You can remote access to the WHS from any operating system but if you want to use the WHS to remote desktop your own personal computer then that computer needs Business or Ultimate at the minimum since those are the only ones right now with remote desktop. Oh yeah Windows XP Pro would work too.

#1.7 +AndyJD on 30 Jul 2009 - 19:44

Gladiatorus said,

Agreed and would be a seller for people who need the features that ultimate only come with

(2 replies) #2 tom5 on 21 Jul 2009 - 21:44

"Selected markets"? USA, Canada, UK.... - anymore? Judging from ridiculously limited preorder program that would be all.

#2.1 +Xerxes on 21 Jul 2009 - 22:10

Yeah, seems like a NA only thing to me. EU might see it but I'd say that would be as far as it goes, I doubt countries like mine (Australia) will see this, mind you even if they did nobody will buy it because it's obscenely expensive here (which is why I'm skipping 7) ah well, Vista is serving me well

#2.2 smithy_dll on 22 Jul 2009 - 20:16

For less than $250 AUD I'd buy it if it gave me at least three licenses.

#3 torrentthief on 21 Jul 2009 - 22:26

i hope they allow users to upgrade from home premium to a family pack licence with a $20 fee or something. I bought win7 pro for £80 and would like to pay £10 extra to get a family pack licence for it as i have 3 pc's in my house and home premium doesnt have the features i need so i had to buy the pro version.

the family pack is around 10% more expensive so they should do the same with the other versions and allow users who didnt buy a family pack to upgrade to it for a small fee.

#4 DSLJay on 21 Jul 2009 - 22:28

I dought we will see it on anything above Home Prem.

#5 acido00 on 22 Jul 2009 - 00:17

Mexico confirmed this. cool

(1 reply) #6 tablet_user on 22 Jul 2009 - 01:29

its not that much of a new thing is it? vista and xp were 2 computers on one serial

#6.1 Howard on 22 Jul 2009 - 22:48

Since when? The license is for 1 PC, and is normally transferrable if it's a retail copy (not OEM).

#7 Luis Mazza on 22 Jul 2009 - 01:35

Impressive that almost all the things I wrote about what MS should do or was lacking compared to Apple, HAVE ACTUALLY HAPPENED! And I was very criticized at that time. If someone cares, do make some research: I can prove it.

Well, maybe I can replace John C. Dvorak with some new blood. LOL
:p

#8 AnthoWin on 22 Jul 2009 - 01:47

Well seeing how sucessful this model proved with home and 'student teacher' versions of Office, it would have made sense for MS to sell family licenses. But the question remains: will this be extended to Pro and Ultimate versions of the OS and even more complicated - to mix and match versions?

(1 reply) #9 Mav Phoenix on 22 Jul 2009 - 02:04

Is that price of 136.95 for an upgrade or full (if they even have that distinction for family packs)?

#9.1 Ansturm on 27 Jul 2009 - 04:29

We would hope that it was for the full edition, however unlikely! I would consider this an upgrade price considering the windows price history.

(2 replies) #10 kInG aLeXo on 22 Jul 2009 - 05:58

What sucks is why they don't make only 1 version with all the features...
I see making many versions doesn't make any sense except they want to get more and more money..

#10.1 iamwhoiam on 22 Jul 2009 - 07:03

kInG aLeXo said,

I see making many versions doesn't make any sense except they want to get more and more money..

That's it right there.

#10.2 macrosslover on 22 Jul 2009 - 07:18

a home user has no need for domain access or some of the other features that are in Pro, Business or some of the higher levels of Windows. There's no sense for them to be wasting resources on something their computer would never use.

I think what they need to do is get better at making the installer smarter so it can customize the services and programs to that computer.

(1 reply) #11 RawGutts on 22 Jul 2009 - 10:30

Microsoft's idea of the family pack is to take the original price x3 and slap a family friendly sticker on it.

Do you honestly think they are going to give a price reduction to the people they have been sucking the life away for the past decade?

What is laughable is the fact they are just doing this now?

#11.1 GreyWolfSC on 22 Jul 2009 - 14:53

Huh? $136 is not 3x the price of one copy by a long shot.

#12 Huffdady on 24 Jul 2009 - 18:09

The question is, where can I pre order this? My computer, my wifey's computer and our laptop would love to have this the first day it comes out. I ran a couple of version of the beta and loved it.

#13 Quillz on 25 Jul 2009 - 17:29

I'd be all over this if it applied to Professional instead of Home Premium.

#14 Ansturm on 27 Jul 2009 - 04:38

For all those who are considering Windows 7, it may not be all that great after all. Just a few weeks ago (I forget what version I have), Windows 7 crashed on me? Three different times during the week - I had just installed Windows 7 when it crashed. I didn't even get into it before it crashed.

I have been using Windows Vista Business for some time now, and I have had virtually no issues so far. I find that Windows 7 in terms of stability is not all that different then Vista. I fact, Vista seems to be more stable. A suggestion, save your money, because the speed is not all that noticable, and the UI is virtually the same. Personally, I prefer Windows Vista, and besides it would cost to much to upgrade yet again, 5 PC's.

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