Windows 7 on a budget

There's no denying that Windows 7 has the look and functionality down. It puts Windows Vista to shame and is a serious temptation to most XP purists, but most of us didn't know what to expect with Windows 7, whether it was worth upgrading or if it was going to be another Windows Me disaster. As a result many people missed out on the pre-order price. Now granted the chances of getting Windows 7 for £50 are slim to none, but you might be able to get a decent bargain around the second (upped) pre-order price of £70.

"Nonsense!" I hear you holler, "Windows 7 is over £100 now!", and you're right it is over £100 to buy Windows 7 Home Premium, but there are cheaper options also. Now the obvious one is if you need a new PC or laptop to just buy a cheap pre-built one with Windows 7 included, but for most of us that's not ideal.

What a Windows 7 bargain hunter needs to search for is not "Windows 7 Home Premium", but "Windows 7 Home Premium OEM 32 bit". Now OEM versions are cheap versions of the OS sold to manufacturers and package resellers, so in other words it's the version that they sell to system manufacturing companies so they can pre-load your system with it and save some money doing so. Normally this would mean you'd have to buy something, anything, like a hard drive or piece of hardware in order to get this special cheaper version, yet certain online retailers sell these OEM versions at a reduced rate by themselves.

So what are the drawbacks? Well you have to be careful, always by from a big, well known and established retailer (somewhere like Scan or Overclockers are perfect), the reason for this is there are several types of OEM versions, some OEM versions are system specific, so they will only work on specific hardware configurations and manufacturers and some are not actually installation discs, they are restore discs designed to simply recover the factory settings should a purchased system have some serious software issues. Also you won't get the choice of versions, you'll be stuck with 32 or 64 bit. Are any features restricted? You'll have to check, but normally, no, it's the full version, usually with some extras too, this is to keep things above board and legal.

When purchasing an OEM, make sure it has a return policy (even 30 days is suffice), then register the version in that time frame, make sure it's legitimate. Check there are no requirements like a DELL machine and finally that it's an installation disc and not a recovery disc.

Are you breaking any laws buying an OEM version? Most certainly not, Microsoft makes almost all their money on these versions of their products and the contracts are huge. Sometimes it may seem like it's too good to be true buying a full version of Windows at a reduced rate, but OEMs are a fact of computing, you probably have a few OEM installations at home and haven't even realised, look at Nero and your paid antivirus, some of you probably got them with your system of DVD drive.

On one final note, please do be careful when dabbling with OEMs, read every bit of information on the product page before you purchase one, make sure the company is established and don't be afraid to ask for your money back and report a company, should you discover they are falsly advertising an OEM. Microsoft won't "Get you" if you try register a duped version, so give it a try, at the very worst case scenario you installation won't register and it will time out in 30 days, by then you should have your money back and no harm will be done. But I must stress this once again be careful, stick to big online retailers.