Acer Offers Windows 8 Upgrade Rebate on Ultrabooks

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Acer is refunding the $15 upgrade fee for the Aspire S3, Aspire S5, Aspire M3 and Aspire M5 Ultrabooks.

On Thursday, Acer said that customers who purchase a specific Windows 7-based Ultrabook between June 2, 2012 and January 31, 2013 will receive a free upgrade to Windows 8 Pro.

Previously Microsoft launched its Windows 8 Upgrade Program which offers the new operating system as a $14.99 upgrade for anyone purchasing a PC in that same time period. Acer is essentially refunding that fee, asking customers to go through the standard Windows Upgrade Process first, and then load up Acer's special refund website to get their $14.99 back once Windows 8 hits the market in October.

"Here the customer will be asked to provide information to confirm they have completed the Microsoft Upgrade Program and to identify their product," the company said. "Once this has been verified and the customer has met the requirements, Acer will then refund the customer for the online cost of the Microsoft Upgrade Process."

Eligible products in this specific promotion include the Acer Aspire S3, Acer Aspire S5, Acer Aspire M3 and Acer Aspire M5 only. Microsoft's promotion however also covers Acer PC’s running Windows 7 Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate, but the refund doesn't apply. Ultrabook customers can expect to receive their upgrade reimbursement in six to eight weeks after their submission, Acer said.

For those who purchased a Windows machine before the upgrade cutoff, Microsoft is offering a $39.99 Windows 8 Pro upgrade for customers currently running Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7. A packaged, DVD version of Windows 8 Pro will be available for $69.99. Both the online and in-store offer will run until January 31, 2013.

"We set out to make it as easy as possible for everyone to upgrade to Windows 8," Microsoft spokesman Brandon LeBlanc recently wrote in a blog post.

As for the Asus Ultrabook rebate, the company seemingly states it will be available everywhere save for North America. The full list of territories can be located here, and includes the United Kingdom, Australia, Poland, South Africa, Turkey and loads more. But don't fret: we expect to see a localized promotion appear in the next few weeks.

Kevin Parrish
31 Comments Comment from the forums
  • mehrdad_ati
    cool !
    Reply
  • Unolocogringo
    No thanks! I stick with what I got.
    Reply
  • killerclick
    Sure, I'd love to upgrade from an awesome OS like Windows 7 to something that was made for tablets and phones and then run apps made for tablets and phones. Microsoft needs their 30% cut from app sales and I have to do my part.
    Reply
  • blazorthon
    killerclickSure, I'd love to upgrade from an awesome OS like Windows 7 to something that was made for tablets and phones and then run apps made for tablets and phones. Microsoft needs their 30% cut from app sales and I have to do my part.
    You could simply not use Metro... It isn't like you need to use it even if you can't get rid of it. Other than logging on and clicking the desktop shell, I don't use Metro much, if at all. Just install a new start menu and you're good to go.

    http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/ViOrb-Download-100126.html
    http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/ViStart-Download-100121.html

    And if you want the skin manager for it, here it is:
    http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/ViStart-Skin-Manager-Download-100203.html

    Problem solved. Now, you can use the advantages of Windows 8 over Windows 7 such as the slightly higher performance, the lighter resource usage, the improved scheduling (especially important if you use Bulldozer or other modular CPUs), the improved task manager, the improved copy/paste window, the improved WiFi connection time, and more.
    Reply
  • SmileyTPB1
    @blazorthon MS has removed the code to disable Metro and there is no word on whether or not you will be able to disable it in the final product. If I had to guess MS final decision will be Metro or nothing.
    Reply
  • DRosencraft
    This seems like Acer's not so subtle revenge for the whole Surface thing. "You want to start cutting in on our hardware business, we'll hurt you on the software side". What better way to make MSFT look bad than giving consumers an incentive not to upgrade to the OS they need to do well relatively soon out of the gate.

    I'm still of the opinion that even if you're not completely sold on Win8, go ahead and get the upgrade. Put it on the side somewhere in case you change your mind. It'll save the cost of upgrading later on. In the end, I suppose that this deal isn't bad for the consumer. If you're absolutely, positively, sure you won't be upgrading, you save a little money.
    Reply
  • SmileyTPB1
    Could we pay Acer to keep Windows 7 instead?
    Reply
  • Just to add to what blazorthon said, you can move the desktop tile to be the very first and then just hit ENTER on the keyboard as soon as the metro start screen show ups on boot. Voila, just one extra keyboard key to get back to the familiar and improved desktop.
    Reply
  • tomfreak
    but it looks like to me that Win7 is the next WinXP, unless Microsoft drop Win7 support for DirectX12
    Reply
  • blazorthon
    SmileyTPB1@blazorthon MS has removed the code to disable Metro and there is no word on whether or not you will be able to disable it in the final product. If I had to guess MS final decision will be Metro or nothing.
    I didn't say anything about disabling Metro and I know that they removed the registry fix for it that worked in the older dev preview. In fact, I specifically said that you can't get rid of Metro. What I offered is a work-around for it to make it less relevant in spite of the fact that you can't get rid of it. Installing a new start menu is just installing a UI program/add-on like installing any other program and it still works in the current version of Windows 8 and will work in the RTM.
    Reply