Microsoft makes things very hard sometimes.

The blog of B. Matt Bremer.

Microsoft makes things very hard sometimes.

30 December 2009 No Comment

I have to admit, after years of using Microsoft’s Windows XP on my home network, and hearing the online complaints of the Vista crowd, I was reluctant to make the switch over to Windows 7. Lack of product support from Microsoft for XP ensured that using it on a new machine wasn’t a viable option anymore, even if it still is a “great” OS. And by “great” I mean that it usually won’t crash when I try to print something or use the Internet. So eventually, I downloaded and installed the beta (test) version of Windows called Release Candidate – and a funny thing happened: I LOVED IT! Amazing! So Intuitive! Pretty! I could go on and on about how much I like it, and there are a lot of others who agree with me.

A couple of months went by, and Windows 7 Release Candidate became Windows 7 RTM (Released to Manufacturing). Luckily for Microsoft, it did get very good reviews, many users installed it and it is slowly gaining ground in OS usage share – awesome. Unfortunately for me, the beta version which was provided to me free by Microsoft, is no longer being updated. In order to ensure the Release Candidate users upgrade to the supported and not as free RTM version, Microsoft built in a weird ticking time bomb.

Beginning on March 1, 2010, the operating system will begin shutting down every two hours. If you’re using one of the beta versions of Windows 7, the hourly shutdown game starts much sooner, on July 1, 2009. – dvice.com

I hope there isn’t any IT managers who installed the RC on critical systems, or there is going to be problems on March 1! Anyways, before that happens, I will now need to update the Operating System on my computer before this date to avoid any problems. Running three systems here at home meant that I was pretty happy to hear about Microsoft offering a Family pack

The Windows 7 Family Pack will be available starting on October 22nd until supplies last here in the US and other select markets. In the US, the price for the Windows 7 Family Pack will be $149.99 for 3 Windows 7 Home Premium licenses. That’s a savings of more than $200 for three licenses. This is a great value and we’re excited to be able to offer it to customers. – Windows 7 Team Blog

Luckily, this offer is still being offered from Microsoft’s website to us here in Canada as seen in this screenshot actually less than mentioned above.

Oh Canada! Pay only $200 when you buy Windows 7 for the whole family!

This being 2009, I know that Microsoft has enabled digital download from their store, which is the option I want as I know that it’s going to be the quickest, and there is the additional advantage of the downloads smaller environmental footprint – “Research highlights environmentally friendly nature of digital music distribution” – via gizMag. Okay, where do I do that, let’s look closely at the offer page and suddenly things start to get confusing. I don’t want to use the participating retailers listed who cannot provide the download anyways, and I thought that Microsoft made a download version available. I don’t see any alternatives to retailers such as Future Shop and Best Buy listed. It’s not until I twirl down the FAQ content directly beneath the details that I notice it say that the offer is available “from participating retailers or the Microsoft Store” Hmm… no link. Don’t they want me to buy this shit?

Available at these fine retailers.... and the Microsoft Store.

Okay, I search for the store within Microsoft’s site, and after locating that I then search for the Family pack, with no luck. That’s weird, maybe it’s because the Store doesn’t know I’m a Canadian. You see, by now I have realized that this amazing pricing on the Windows 7 Family Pack is no longer being offered in the US. I log into the Store using my Windows Live ID, which definitely has me down as a Canadian, and try searching the site again, again with no luck. I notice in the bottom footer of the page a country drop down and think “A-ha, here we go, switch this to Canada, do the search again and the offer will pop up!” When I click the drop down to see the following I am blown away:

The Belgians get it all.

I’m really starting to think that Microsoft doesn’t want me to digitally download the Windows 7 Family Pack. At this point, I’m getting pretty frustrated, and instead of buying the Family Pack, I’m beginning to think that perhaps that 2010 is the year of Ubuntu. Microsoft is making it way too hard for me to spend money on their product, and now I just really want to vent some of my frustration on them, so I click the Contact Us link.