Windows 7 Family Pack Deal Making a Comeback

By Marcus Yam
published

Upgrade your family of computers.

Family pack licenses for operating systems are an excellent way for families (and friends) to all get upgraded to the latest software without needing to spend lots of money. In the end, it helps the software maker increase its user base, and the end user gets to run the same OS across multiple machines.

For that reason, we were left wondering why Microsoft decided to discontinue the Windows 7 Family Pack so soon after the release of the OS last year. But thankfully the company is turning around and will be offering the family license again starting October 3 in the U.S.

For international markets, it goes on sale in Canada, UK, Germany, France, Australia and many other markets on or after October 22 – the one year mark of Windows 7.

The $149.99 Windows 7 Family Pack includes three upgrade licenses of Windows 7 Home Premium, which normally sells for $119.99 each.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
62 Comments Comment from the forums
  • thejerk
    It's $149.99 to save people the trouble of having to perform additional research.
    Reply
  • NotYetRated
    haha thank you TheJerk. Would have been nice for them to have put the price in the story. But I suppose we shouldn't ask for the world. Thats is not a bad deal at all. In fact, it's a very good deal.
    Reply
  • rantoc
    Its all about the green! Maby they thought they had such a good product that everyone would purchase it even single licence price (wich frankly were quite true at the time compared to vista and the aging XP (sorry if i forget to "mention" the 5-10ish% so called competition in the pc market).

    Likely the sales have slowed down enought to start to make marketing campaigns to try to get people who refuses a single licence price to purchase it! Its better to sell at reduced price than not at all!

    Remember - Its all about the green!
    Reply
  • Humans think
    Many families have more than 3 PCs that need upgrading, they should go for a 5X family upgrade pack.

    Students at universities: undergraduate to PhD students please check if your institution supports MSDNAA, I got Windows 7 Pro for free along with Microsoft Visual Studio.
    Reply
  • haramir
    Well even if your family has 5 computers, a second pack would end up costing you around $300 which is still substantially better than the $600 you would be paying for individual copies. I'm more of an "Ultimate" guy though, I wonder if they have any bundles with that.
    Reply
  • razorblaze42
    If you are a Student with a EDU email address you can get Windows 7 professional for 29.99

    http://www.microsoft.com/student/en/us/software/windows.aspx
    Reply
  • L0tus
    I was actually quite happy to see the end of "Win 7 family". The technical term for this commercial thievery tactic is 'market segmentation'.

    Next it'll be "Windows 7 Gamer", "Windows 7 Single Parent", "Win 7 Drug Addict (with a windows logo-encrusted crack-pipe)"...
    Reply
  • puscifer919
    People still pay for Windows?
    Reply
  • coleipoo
    Good Deal for anyone not a student or teacher.
    Reply
  • huron
    It is nice to see the pricing back. $50 per OS upgrade is not too bad, though for the life of me, I cannot figure out why they ever got rid of it, or why they don't have more pricing/package options like thse.
    Reply