Today Microsoft announced the pricing of Windows 7. As previously reported on Neowin, the EU will be getting a version that will not contain IE and because of this Microsoft will be offering no upgrade option in the EU.
This harsh line comes as somewhat as a surprise that all EU users that wish to upgrade to Windows 7 must buy a full copy. There is a silver lining to this announcement and it"s that the full price of Windows 7 will be at the equaliviant price to the upgrade option. But as history has shown us the prices in the EU are generally more expensive than of those in the States so the savings of picking up an EU copy may not be all that attractive to those who reside in the US.
However, as a result of not having a retail upgrade option, EU users will be unable to perform in-place upgrades of Windows Vista to Windows 7. Microsoft says they expect to have a dedicated Windows 7 E upgrade SKU available before December 31, 2009.
"Microsoft had three choices for the release of Windows 7 E: delay the whole release of Windows 7 to make sure everyone gets the release of Windows 7 at the same time and without any upgrade problems, delay the release of Windows 7 just in Europe and have this market wait till Windows 7 E passes all upgrade tests, or don"t offer upgrade versions at all."
Microsoft still has not said if any browser will ship with Windows 7, at one point it was rumored that it may offer a browser selection screen at some point during the install to allow the user to choose a default program of choice. Regardless of what they do the install process just got a little longer in the EU because of their strong anti-trust governing body.