Microsoft could drop the price of Windows 7 to around $100 when it announces retail prices later this month, according to calculations based on an earlier Vista cost-cutting move.

Although Microsoft is not expected to go public with Windows 7 retail prices until next week, if it drops them by the same percentages it did in February 2008 when it cut U.S. prices for three editions of Vista, the upgrade to Windows 7 Home Vista could be $106.

If it does cut prices, Microsoft's motivations could range from a recognition of the recession's impact on consumers to a desire to move as many users as possible to Windows 7 -- which has been generally praised by reviewers -- to stem defections to other platforms, such as Apple's Mac OS X.

With both a case and colour scheme in mind, I needed to think of a name for the project. The inspiration for this came during a drive home from work. Names such as Orange Dream Machine, Tangerine Dream and Orange Extreme ran through my head, and eventually, I thought of the film ‘Clockwork Orange’, and finally decided on Overclocked Orange.