Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade (64-Bit, 3 Users)

Haven't yet upgraded your home PCs to Windows 7? I can understand why: a single upgrade license retails for $119.99, which I find exorbitant for an operating system--even one as solid as Windows 7.

As you may recall, about a month ago, Microsoft rereleased the Windows 7 Family Pack, a three-PC upgrade edition of Windows 7 Home Premium (32 bit or 64 bit, your choice). The price: $149.99. That's a little more like it.

If it wasn't "like it" enough for you, though, your patience just paid off: Dell Home has the Windows 7 Family Pack for $119.99 shipped. (It shows $149.99 on the product page, but drops once you add it to your cart. Curiously, I had trouble adding it in Firefox, but it worked just fine in Internet Explorer.)

That works out to $40 per PC, a much more reasonable price for upgrading your XP- or Vista-powered desktops and laptops to Windows 7.

As I mentioned last time, Vista users can just pop in the disc for an in-place upgrade, but XP systems require extra measures: there's no direct upgrade path from XP to 7.

Fortunately, there are ways around that. A utility like Laplink PC Mover Upgrade Assistant, for instance, makes in-place upgrades from XP to 7 fairly painless. It normally sells for $29.99, but Amazon has it for $19.99.

If you're a little more tech-savvy, try the new Prowess SmartMigrate utility, which turns your entire existing XP installation into a virtual operating system you can run inside Windows 7. It's free for personal use.

One last thing: these Dell deals often disappear quickly, so if you're looking to upgrade multiple PCs on the cheap, I'd act fast.

Bonus deal: Want to learn how to write, edit, and market a novel? For a limited time (I'm not sure how limited), Amazon has the Kindle Edition of "Writing Fiction for Dummies" absolutely free. Don't have a Kindle? No problem: you can also read it on Android, BlackBerry, iPhone/iPod/iPad, PCs, and Macs.