Buying Windows 7 in the US for foreign use ?

frenchie · Post by **frenchie** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 11:34 pm

Hi everyone,
Seeing the outrageously insane prices of Windoz 7 in France (from 199â‚¬ to 319â‚¬ depending on version, for the full version, not the upagrade), I'm thinking of buying it in the USA. Just the great exchange rate makes it worth it (1â‚¬ for 1,35 $).
the question is : will I be able to install the US version in France ?

I hope MS doesn't have one of those stupid country restrictions built in the thing... I googled around a bit, but I didn't get very lucky.

lm · Post by lm » Tue Oct 06, 2009 5:11 am

Of course not.

Your computer itself could not tell the location so it has to be figured out from the network - but how would US users use their laptops when they come to France, if what you suspected were true?

frenchie · Post by **frenchie** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 6:02 am

hmm...
I was thinking more in terms of the installation rather than the normal use.

colm · Post by **colm** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 9:31 am

Of course that would be possible, but the resells and gov'ts get a hold on rules and prices..almost like gasoline.

The question made me ponder my vid card just purchased, with a NTSC and PAL jumper switch.. I thought "how old school?!" If I want to encode pal, I do it no matter where the jumper is ...

ilovejedd · Post by **ilovejedd** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 10:37 am

Install and activate, yeah sure. However, unless you're going to the US for a visit, I'm not sure if you can buy it for shipping to France. There are import/export restrictions that might prevent you from doing so. I know Amazon will only ship to US. Even if you do find somewhere/someone that will ship to you, there's still the problem of import taxes in case your country's strict about those.

Gojira-X · Post by **Gojira-X** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 1:11 pm

IIRC the localised copies of windows are more expensive due to Microsoft paying a company in that region to translate their software into that language (at least with Hebrew and Hindi it is).

Have you considered buying Windows 7 in the UK?

It should be allot cheaper that France with the weak pound.

piglover · Post by **piglover** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 1:57 pm

Gojira-X wrote:IIRC the localised copies of windows are more expensive due to Microsoft paying a company in that region to translate their software into that language (at least with Hebrew and Hindi it is).

Have you considered buying Windows 7 in the UK?

It should be allot cheaper that France with the weak pound.

Hmm...except that the language localizations are available to everyone for free (at least with Windows 7). The first run of 'windows update' offers about 83 different language packs as optional updates. Personally, i think it has much more to do with local country tax issues and distribution costs.

nutball · Post by **nutball** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 8:56 am

piglover wrote:Personally, i think it has much more to do with local country tax issues and distribution costs.

Last time I looked (about ten minutes ago) MS made it very difficult to buy Windows via their US digital download store to anyone outside the US. Vista is $130 from MS US, Â£166 from MS UK. Right now Â£1~=$1.6 so the latter is roughly $250, ie. twice the price. I cannot, it seems, use my Visa, Mastercard or American Express cards to pay for this. Yes we have VAT here, but it's 15% not 100%. Moreover barring a few disagreements about vowel placement, we speak the same language. I fail to see how the distribution costs of international digital delivery are in any significant way worth $120.

If MS wanted to sell this way, they could. They don't, because it's more profitable not to. I doubt the situation is any different in the Eurozone. Don't be surprised if Ms Neelie Kroes gets out of her box one day on this issue, and MS ends up on the wrong end of yet another â‚¬1bn fine.

sonic6k · Post by **sonic6k** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 2:07 am

One word: Linux.

frenchie · Post by **frenchie** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 3:20 am

One word: Linux.

hahaha !! (PS : currently dual booting XP and Ubuntu

)
I don't like it. I tried but no... (not yet anyway)

Just to get back on topic : Thank you all for your input. I'll be going on a business trip to the US in december, and I'll get a version there. I'll just unwrap the content of the box in case I get searched by customs on my way back.
I tried getting one from the UK, but no luck so far.

Off topic : if I manage to get a good deal, I might get an ssd too

aristide1 · Post by **aristide1** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 5:38 am

nutball wrote:Moreover barring a few disagreements about vowel placement, we speak the same language.

And how you manage to get an "f" sound out of the word "lieutenant" without an f or a ph being present in the word.

I also wonder if you guys have a right-tenant.

Trav1s · Post by **Trav1s** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 6:25 am

A friend of mine from Iceland was in the States for school and bought a PC here. He has had NO problems with the updates. Mind you, that machine is running XP Home. I cannot see how it would be any different with W7.

abelincoln · Post by **abelincoln** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 10:41 am

It looks like you can switch between languages if you get Ultimate:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window ... fault.aspx

Probably not an issue for you but maybe others in the household? I'm not trying to upsell you or anything. I thought it was lame that I couldn't switch my wife's laptop with XP Home Ed. to Spanish to give to her family.

mcoleg · Post by **mcoleg** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 4:57 pm

not really an issue - there's no real restrictions from the government, only private price-control. you can get a us copy from a private seller (check pricegrabber or ebay us), they will ship it as long as you pay the overseas shipping rate. the shipping/handling will add probably $25-30 so count that towards the final price.