expensive software.

[Jooleebobs]

Hi All,

 (1)Is there any way you can obtain (legally) Microsoft Windows Home Edition without paying the ridiculous prices i have been quoted.Is there a cheap alternative?(2) Do you have to already have W.H.E loaded on your pc to use the service packs available? 

thanks in advance

[yorks2510]

1) I you are a charity, or educational establishment, you can get special deals on Microsoft products. Of course, you will still have to pay *something*. Or there is Linux, which is a very cheap alternative - although the learning curve, unless familiar with Unix, is quite steep.

2) I don't quite grasp the question's thrust - if you didn't have Windows XP Home installed, you wouldn't need to patch it with the service packs. You cannot "build" a complete copy of Windows out of the service packs, as that would just be... silly?

Hope this helps

[Jooleebobs]

Yorks thanks for your reply, I know i have to pay "something",I was just surprised by some of the prices I had seen quoted ( 150-199 ),but I have since located an on-line store where it is only 61.99,

I was'nt suggesting you could build it through the service packs available, though looking at my original question , it was a little vague, apologies for that.  

[yorks2510]

No probs - and apologies for the facetious answer to your second point...

You can usually get much better prices online for Windows and things like that - however, it may be an idea to phone the supplier to make sure that you *will* get an individually licenced version, and not an "OEM" version (in which case, you would probably get the disk sent through the post and nor much more...!)

again, hope this helps