Windows 7 early on custom PCs? Maybe, maybe not
A system builder (a k a, a custom PC maker) told TechFlash this week that Microsoft had OK’d folks offering custom PCs to start shipping Windows 7 systems more than a week ahead of the official launch, which is October 22. We’ll see how that goes….
Microsoft and its biggest PC maker partners are planning to make October 22, the date that Windows 7 launches commercially, a big day for the debut of new PCs preloaded with Windows 7. But system builders don’t get the Windows 7 final bits directly from Microsoft, the way that the big guys do. Authoirzed Replicators have to ship OEM software to Microsoft’s authorized distributors. Then these distributors need to fill orders from the system builders.
That adds extra time into the equation. Plus, there’s the fact that the system builders still don’t seem to have the Windows 7 OEM Preinstallation Kit (OPK) and other tools they need to get Windows 7 preloaded on new machines. (One system builder I talked to today, September 25, confirmed that the OPK still isn’t available for him.)
