UK users can pre-order the full version of Windows 7 Home Edition for just £64.95 , saving over £85.

Retailers such as Amazon UK have slashed the price of the next Windows desktop operating system by up to 57%.

Windows 7 is Microsoft's attempt to get users to upgrade Windows XP machines. Although users could upgrade from XP to Vista, many businesses chose not to, due to application incompatibility issues. This meant that device driver software for printers, graphics, cards, network cards, and some applications failed to run on Windows Vista.

Vista also required more powerful PC hardware, which prevented some netbooks from supporting the new operating system. Manufacturers whose netbooks were affected include Asus, Acer, Lenovo, Samsung, Toshiba, Dell, HP and Fujitsu.

However, Windows 7 has been designed to run on Netbooks with as little as 512MB of memory installed.

Microsoft says Windows 7 will run all Vista applications, but XP users may need to install Windows XP Mode, a virtual machine that enables them to continue running XP on top of Windows 7.

Blog: Why is Windows 7 cheaper in the UK than in the US?

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