Choosing the right Windows 7 Version

Windows 7 is the latest version of Microsoft Windows, a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, netbooks, tablet PCs and media center PCs. The first thing to know before you purchase windows7 is to know about its variants and this article just tells that.

7 Useful Features that Windows 7 has and XP doesnt:

1)PIN:

Pin programs to the taskbar. Pin files to Jump Lists. Just like tacking notes on a bulletin board, you can use pin to keep the things you need close at hand.A lot of us have a fairly small group of programs and files we use a lot. So it makes sense to be able to keep them handy all the time. With Windows Vista, you can pin your favorite programs to your start menu.In Windows 7, you can use pinning to make your PC work even more the way you want. One big improvement is the ability to control where your programs appear on your taskbar. Always want your web browser right next to the start button? Drag the icon where you want it, and it’ll stay there till you move it. You can also pin your program icon to the taskbar, so it’s there all the time. You can even pin specific documents and web sites to Jump Lists on your taskbar.

2) Live Taskbar Previews:

Manage lots of open programs, documents, and browser windows easily with thumbnail and full-screen previews of open windows.With Windows XP, a taskbar shows the programs you’ve got open and lists the associated files you’re working with. With Windows Vista, if you hover over a program on the taskbar you can see thumbnail images of files you have open with that program. But you can’t interact with the files.With Windows 7, you can point to a taskbar icon to see actual images of all of your open files or programs. Then, move your mouse over the image to preview the window full-screen. Click on the full screen image, and you can start working with it immediately. You can even close windows from the thumbnail previews—a big time saver.

3)Snap:

Size and arrange windows by simply dragging their borders to the edges of your screen. Instantly expand to full screen and back, or arrange two windows side by side.Snap is a quick (and fun) new way to resize open windows, simply by dragging them to the edges of your screen. Depending on which edge you choose—top or bottom, left or right—the window will expand vertically, fill the screen, or you can even position windows side by side. Snap makes reading, organizing, and comparing windows a…well, you get the picture.

4)HomeGroup:

Easily share the photos, music, and files on each of the PCs running Windows 7 on your home network. It’s especially handy when you want to share a printer.Have you ever needed to print a file at home when you weren’t connected to a printer? Did you decide that even with a home network, it was easier to just put the file on a USB drive and take it to the PC with the printer? That’s one reason we created HomeGroup. New with Windows 7, HomeGroup takes the headache out of sharing files, devices, and printers on a home network. Connect two or more PCs running Windows 7, and HomeGroup makes it easy to automatically start sharing your music, pictures, video, and document libraries with others in your home.

Concerned about privacy? HomeGroup is password-protected so you just set up one password for all your PCs and you’re ready to go. You can decide what gets shared and what stays private, or use “Share with” to decide who you want to share specific folders with. You can also make your files “read only,” so other people can look at (but not change) your stuff.

You can join a HomeGroup in any edition of Windows 7, but you can only create one in Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate.

5)Aero:

Aero is a set of visual effects that make your desktop more beautiful while making it easier to look through the windows you have open to find what you want.

Introduced in Windows Vista, Aero is a set of visual enhancements that make your desktop more beautiful and functional. Aero has been refined since Windows Vista and we’re introducing new features like Aero Peek and Aero Shake with Windows 7.

Aero visual hallmarks include subtle animations and translucent glass windows, which you can personalize. Pick from the included color palette, or create your own custom tints with the color mixer.

But there’s more to Aero than just a pretty user interface. Point to a program’s icon on the taskbar, and you’ll see a thumbnail-sized preview of all its open windows—even if it’s a running video. Hover on a thumbnail, and it morphs into a full-screen preview. Aero Shake and Aero Peek, meanwhile, cut through desktop clutter by quickly minimizing open windows or turning them invisible. The Aero desktop experience is available in the Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate editions of Windows 7.The One Beelow is a screenshot of AeroFlip 3D.

6)Aero Peek:

Look right through open windows to see the icons, gadgets, and anything else on your desktop, all with a simple move of your cursor.New in Windows 7, Peek gives you the power of X-ray vision, so you can peer past all your open windows straight to the Windows 7 desktop. Simply move your mouse over the little transparent rectangle in the lower right corner of your screen—and watch open windows instantly turn transparent, revealing all your hidden icons and gadgets. That’s a fast way to find files on your desktop, or get a peek at the latest traffic report.To quickly reveal a buried window, just hover over its thumbnail in the taskbar. Now only that window shows on the desktop.

Peek is included in the Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate editions of Windows 7.

7)Aero Shake:

Want to focus on one window? Shake it, and all the other open windows on your desktop will be hidden. Shake again, and they’re all back.Ever need to cut through a cluttered desktop and quickly focus on a single window? Now with Windows 7, you can just click, hold down, and give your mouse a shake. Voila! Every open window except that one instantly disappears. Jiggle again—and your windows are back.

Versions:

Windows 7 comes in six different flavors – Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate. Now picking the right edition from these six variation may seem like a daunting task but in reality, you’ll have only three Windows 7 editions to choose from. Here’s why:

Which Windows 7 edition is not for me?

The Windows 7 Starter edition is meant for basic computing tasks (like checking email, web surfing, etc.) and is optimized for less powerful machines like your Atom powered netbook. You won’t find Windows 7 Starter at the retail stores as it will only ship (pre-installed) with new notebook computers worldwide.

Windows 7 Home Basic is not as limited as the starter edition but it will be only sold in developing countries like India, China, Philippines, etc with new computers. Then you have the Windows 7 Enterprise edition which is just like Windows 7 Ultimate but for businesses who go for volume licensing.

None of the above mentioned editions of Windows 7 will be available for general retail in boxed offerings. Your choice is therefore simplified to the remaining three editions – Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate.

Compare Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate editions

The various editions of Windows 7 are designed such that each version has all the features of the previous editions plus something extra that makes that edition unique. Also, you can use the Anytime Upgrade feature to purchase a serial key online and upgrade your existing Windows 7 license to a more advanced edition. For instance, if you decide to buy Windows 7 Home Premium today, you can use Anytime Upgrade and shift to Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate edition anytime.

To help you decide which edition of Windows 7 to buy, here’s a quick rundown of features that are available in each of the Win 7 editions.
Windows 7 Home Premium

Windows 7 Home Premium, like XP Home and Vista Home Premium, is for home consumers worldwide with a very pleasing Aero glass user interface. Home Premium edition includes Windows Media Center to help you play a wide variety of multimedia formats (including DVD) and there’s a built-in DVD maker to create DVD movies or for burning files and disk images to CD, DVD, and Blu-ray disks directly from Explorer.

Windows 7 Home Premium also includes a backup utility that can create full system images (so you save a copy of everything that is currently on your computer). It also includes the “Previous Version” functionality that was earlier available with Vista Business edition only.  This feature is very useful for retrieving files that you may have just deleted or changed accidentally.

Windows Virtual PC now supports all editions of Windows 7, whereas Virtual PC 2007 only supported XP Professional and Vista Business or Ultimate editions. With Virtual PC, you can run another operating system (like Windows XP, Vista or even Linux) on top of Windows 7 if you wish to do so. Finally, Windows 7 Home Premium supports up to 2 physical processors with unlimited cores, and up to 16 gigabytes of RAM.

Windows 7 Professional
Windows 7 Professional includes all the features of Windows 7 Home Premium, and then adds some advanced networking features. For instance, the Location Aware Printing feature lets you choose different default printers for different networks and is useful for people who use the same laptop in multiple locations – for example, at work and at home.

The “offline files” feature of Windows 7 Professional caches the network files to your local drive so you can continue working even if the network connection get dropped. The built-in Windows Backup tool can backup your data to the network and you may use the encrypted file system to better protect files on the computer. Windows 7 Professional features Domain Join that lets you connect to company networks more securely and access can be managed through group policy from the Windows server as well.

Like Vista and XP Professional, Windows 7 Professional also includes remote desktop feature that enables others to connect to your Windows 7 computer across the Internet from virtually any computer.

That said, the most interesting feature in Windows 7 Professional is XP Mode. In simple English, if you buy Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Ultimate, you get a fully licensed version of Windows XP that will run inside Windows 7 through Virtual PC. The XP mode is primarily for business users who want to run legacy apps in Windows 7 that otherwise only work with Windows XP.

The amazing thing is that Windows Virtual PC + XP Mode enables you to run XP software programs inside your native Windows 7 desktop – that means you can run legacy XP programs just like any other Windows 7 compatible program.

XP Mode for Windows 7 Home Premium

If you are a Windows 7 Home Premium users but also own a licensed copy of XP, you can use Virtual PC to make your own XP mode. However, if you do not already own a copy of XP for this purpose, you will likely come out cheaper by simply buying Windows 7 Professional if you wish to use this feature.

Windows 7 Ultimate
Windows 7 Ultimate includes all the features of Windows 7 Home Premium and Professional, plus some extra enterprise and security related features. Ultimate also lets you use multiple languages on the same PC.

The enterprise-centric features include Federated Search (for searching across network drives), Direct Access (you can access corporate e-mail servers, shared folders, or intranet Web sites securely without connecting to a VPN), BranchCache (it caches local copies of content from Web and file servers to improve performance) and a system that lets you run UNIX applications on Windows.

With Windows 7 Ultimate, you get the ability to boot from a virtual hard drive and the new BitLocker-to-go feature lets you encrypt files on your computer as well as removable disks like that USB flash drive.

Windows 7 Prices
While choosing an edition, price will be also a deciding factor for many users. Home Premium is the cheapest retail version of Windows 7, but it will also come as a Family Pack allowing you to use the same license on up to 3 computers in one home. If you have multiple desktop and notebook computers to upgrade, you will see significant savings from the Family Pack offer.

Windows Home Premium

Windows 7 Home Premium Full: $199.99
Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade: $119.99
Windows 7 Family Pack (Home Premium): $149.99
Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Home Premium: $79.99
Windows 7 Professional

Windows 7 Professional Full : $299.99
Windows 7 Professional Upgrade: $199.99
Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional: $89.99
Windows 7 Ultimate

Windows 7 Ultimate Full: $319.99
Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade: $219.99
Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Ultimate: $139.99

Features

Windows 7 Home Premium

Windows 7 Professional

Windows 7 Ultimate

Estimated Retail Pricing (ERP) for upgrade license.		Buy now$119.99	Buy now$199.99	Buy now$219.99
Make the things you do every day easier with improved desktop navigation.
Start programs faster and more easily, and quickly find the documents you use most often.
Make your web experience faster, easier and safer than ever with Internet Explorer 8.
Watch, pause, rewind, and record TV on your PC.
Easily create a home network and connect your PCs to a printer with HomeGroup.
Run many Windows XP productivity programs in Windows XP Mode.
Connect to company networks easily and more securely with Domain Join.
In addition to full-system Backup and Restore found in all editions, you can back up to a home or business network.
Help protect data on your PC and portable storage devices against loss or theft with BitLocker.
Work in the language of your choice and switch between any of 35 languages.