Late on Friday, Microsoft formally announced that it will not be shipping a different version of Windows 7 in Europe than it does in the rest of the world. Writing in "Microsoft on the Issues", Dave Heiner writes:

We decided last month that we would ship a unique version of Windows 7 in Europe—which we dubbed Windows 7 “E”—that would not include a Web browser. Instead, we decided to offer IE separately and on an easy-to-install basis to both computer manufacturers and users who wanted the Microsoft browser. We have now decided to alter that launch plan. In the wake of last week’s developments, as well as continuing feedback on Windows 7 E that we have received from computer manufacturers and other business partners, I’m pleased to report that we will ship the same version of Windows 7 in Europe in October that we will ship in the rest of the world. If the Commission accepts our recent proposal, we would then fully implement all of its terms. As proposed, we would use the Internet to deliver a ballot screen update to customers who purchase Windows 7 in the European Economic Area, either as part of a PC or as a retail upgrade product Source: Microsoft on the Issues

Also included in the blog post is a sample ballot screen (shown below). Microsoft have suggested that the ballot screen would be made available in a Windows update (and would also be presented for XP and Vista)

Whilst the proposals set out by Microsoft have yet to be ratified by the European Commission, it seems likely that this will go ahead given the Commission's positive reponse to Microsoft's proposals for the ballot screen. Hopefully common sense will prevail and this will make the best out of a bad situation. Still hedging their bets, Microsoft state that if the proposals are refused, Windows "E" could still be reintroduced.

Presumably, this means that anyone (like myself) who pre-ordered Windows "E" in Europe will now receive the full product instead.

For many, the various different retail versions of Windows Vista meant choosing which DVD to buy was a problem. With Windows 7 I'm afraid to say it's not that much easier. Luckily, Microsoft have released what will and won't be in each version.

Click on the image to the left to view the features comparison chart of what's in the different versions. The chart is split into 2 images.

The much lauded 'second half of July' release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows 7 has happened as predicted. MS seem very pleased with themselves, and so they should be. October 22nd is the official release date, though Partners, Developers and OEMs will get their hands on the RTM release over the next couple of months.

Also announced is the RTM of Windows 2008 R2. I'm looking forward to deploying desktops and servers with both RTM versions as soon we get to look at it at work.

Microsoft EMEA store is now taking pre-orders for Windows 7. Well, they would be if the site wasn't broken - thus proving the popularity of the new O/S!

I for one am looking forward to ordering my own copy - something I would never have even considered with Vista. In the end, Vista came pre-loaded on my laptop, but that was swiftly removed for Ubuntu at the time. Since Windows 7 was released, it speaks volumes that I've hardly used Ubuntu - even for my web development work. In fact, I much prefer the Windows 7 interface to everything other than the Mac.

Although Windows XP is still what I consider to be Microsoft's finest operating system to date, I think Windows 7 may give it a real run for its money. Time will tell.

Pre-orders of Windows 7 "E" edition (Europe Edition - the one without IE8) are available in the UK from:

• Microsoft Store.
• Argos.
• Amazon.co.uk.
• Comet.
• Currys.
• Dixons.
• Ebuyer.com.
• Play.com.
• Littlewoods.
• John Lewis.
• Micro Anvika.
• PCWorld.
• Staples.
• Tesco.

(Source: markwilson.it)

[Update] I have pre-ordered mine from Ebuyer, £80 including Free delivery. Can't be bad!

Following a very positive experience with the Windows 7 beta on my HP laptop, I decided that once the Release Candidate came out that I would run Windows 7 as my main O/S for the next few months.

The installation on the laptop went very smoothly. In addition to my Windows partition, Windows 7 reserved a 100Mb partition (down from 200Mb in the beta) to be used by EFI boot and BitLocker. As expected, my data partitions remained intact.

Once installed (approx. 35 minutes) Windows 7 successfully connected to my Wireless network - Windows Vista x64 failed - and I was up and running very quickly. So far I haven't found any of my day-to-day applications that will not work, however I will be testing out the new Windows XP Mode (which I will use for IE6 backwards compatibility testing).

I'm glad to be able to say that Windows 7 RC is much faster for me than the beta, it seems far more polished and there is no question that I'll be returning to use Vista any time soon. It really is that much better.

Regarding drivers, once I'd run through Windows Update to get the drivers for the nVidia graphics and Connexant High Definition Audio there was one solitary device ("Coprocessor") left. To fix this, I installed the Vista nVidia nForce Chipset drivers and everything was looking much better. Unlike the beta, the Audio was not 'crackling' on startup, and despite the beta being quite fast, the startup times for the Release Candidate were even quicker. Unlike XP and Vista, I have now reverted to a full Shutdown rather than using Hibernate as it's actually quicker on the laptop to start from a cold boot.

Over the next few weeks I will be trying out Windows 7 deployment using the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 beta, and then with SCCM (once SP2 is out)