It appears as if Windows 7 will not need to reach its designated release date to make a big splash in Europe. According to several sources, Microsoft's European online store crashed within hours of offering discounted pre-order copies of the new operating system.

The sale officially encompassed the major markets in the United Kingdom (UK), France and Germany, where both Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional editions were being sold at very reasonable discount prices.

Win7: More than Half-Off the List Price

Windows 7E Home Premium is now selling for 49.99 GBP (Great Britain Pound) in the UK, a 67% discount from the list price of 149.99 GBP. On the other hand, Windows 7E Professional is now selling for 99.99 GBP, a 55% discount from the list price of 219.99 GBP.

While the outage continued to rage on, users were treated to the following message informing them of the heavy traffic on the site: "Due to the eagerly anticipated Windows 7 pre-order offer, we're experiencing a higher level of demand on our website than usual. This means you can't access the site right now and we're sorry about that." (Source: computerworld.com)

Number 1 Best Seller at Amazon

As expected after a message like that, Amazon.com's French and German stores reported sell-outs for both special-priced editions at the end of the day. Instead of turning away the droves of excess paying customers, when the sell-out was announced, the German store went back to taking pre-orders of the Windows 7E Home Premium for a fee closer to the original list price.

The successful discount campaign earned Windows 7E Home Premium and Professional the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on Amazon's French and German software bestseller lists.

More Units Sold: 8 Hours versus 17 Weeks

In the UK, the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) reported that Amazon's store sold more copies of Windows 7 in the first eight hours of the sale than it did in the 17-week run of a similar pre-order offer in 2006 for Windows Vista.

Microsoft announced in an earlier statement that the discounts will be good through August 9 (if you can still manage to find a copy) or until supplies last. (Source: channelregister.co.uk)

Microsoft would also like to remind those that ordered one of the two special-priced editions that they will not be receiving their physical copies until (or after) October 22, the day the operating system is set to be released to the public.