Choosing the Right Windows 7 Version [Flavor]

The hype is sky high, and we have seen,  Windows 7 lives upto it. At the time of writing, only few hours remain for October 22nd launch, and already I see Twitter flooding for Windows 7.

PC users are rushing to get their copy to either run on existing machines or buying a new one having Windows 7 pre-installed.

Windows 7 comes in large no. of flavors, the top of the line being Windows 7 Ultimate. Not everyone needs all those professional and business class features. You should spend wisely and chose just right version for yourslef.

Here is a guide that will help you decide and compare which version is right for you:

Image is scaled down version of wikipedia.

Ok let’s start:

Windows 7 Starter is the lightest of all featuring almost nothing. Potentially it’s targetted for Netbooks.  There is no visual appeal on this one, I am yet not convinced on buying this one for Netbook.

Tweak Windows 7 for Netbook

There’s not much difference between Home Basic and Premium. Basic doesn’t come with Multitouch, games, media center.

Home Basic serves all basic needs a normal user needs in day-to-do use.

Windows 7 Home Premium is the minimum version recommended for regular PC home for $119. Aero Peek for previewing programs and clearing the desktop, Aero Snap for resizing program windows, and the Aero skin with its translucent Taskbar and window borders are all in full effect. Aero Shake is also enabled, which is a quick way to clear the desktop by clicking and holding down on one program window and lightly shaking, hiding all the other open windows.

Read: Taranfx’s Why choose Windows 7 series

Theme switching and customization is activated, and the  Media Center and Media Player will allow users to stream video directly to their desktops. Multitouch features are available.

To ease networking, Home Premium user can create a Home Group: for sharing music, video, and other files between computers that are all members of the same group. Home basic can only join such groups.

Premium built-in 64-bit support can accommodate upto 16GB of physical RAM. Home Premium can be upgraded using the Anytime Upgrade to either Professional or Ultimate.

Location-aware printing, presentation mode, and XP Mode are not available.

Note: XP mode needs Hardware based Intel vPro support

Top Windows 7 Tricks, Keyboard shortcuts

Other features unaviaable in Home Premium but available in Pro and Ultimate are:

BitLocker: Encrypts drives for secure storage.

AppLocker: Restricts Appication execution to a particular user from the Group Policy settings. Few such advanced features.

Remote desktop host: A Terminal services Server that will allow remote computers to connect to your machine.

Aero glass via remote: the Aero Glass transparency for Remote PCs.

Windows 7 Backup and Restore: Backup and restore data to local or remote network drives

Windows 7 Professional is the power user edition, retailing for $199.99. It is ideal for Home and Office use. It will support up to 192GB (though that will be restricted to 8 to 16GB via hardware) of physical RAM in 64-bit mode.

Windows 7 Ultimate, retailing for $219.99, supports all those features plus virtual hard-disk booting and a subsystem for Unix applications. Good for developers and office/home power user.

All in all, there’s a lot to choose from, I recommend Home Basic for average home user and Home Premium for more Daily PC user. Professional and Ultimate goes with Power Home and business users.