Discuss this week's Win7News Editors Corner here!

I have a Windows Home Server that I use to connect remotely to my home computers when I am away using remote desktop. This feature is built into Windows HOME Server. Why isn't the remote desktop server software built into Windows 7 HOME Premium? Microsoft's naming of its bundled features is confusing at best!

I bought Vista Ultimate and frankly I recieved more free extra's with Windows XP's Power toys.
And I didn't have to pay extra!
They never came out with anything extrodinary with Vista Ultimate.

For me the killer feature in Win 7 Ultimate is that you can change the operating system language to any of a range of 35 or so languages by downloading language packs from Microsoft. With any version of windows you can choose what language you want to be writing and you can install fonts to read it correctly - but this feature means that Windows itself - menus, help, etc - changes according to the language selected by the user. It's easy to change back and forwards.

Uses of this could be an office or home with people of different languages; a student of another language wanting to practise using Windows in that language; an internet cafe catering for international customers, etc.

this is the feature I needed 15 years ago when I moved overseas!

I purchased Vista Ultimate for my machine and Home Premium (because of the additional cost at the time) for my wife's machine. Our other machines stayed XP as we don't use them frequently. When 7 came out I compared and decided we needed pro but when it came time to by we purchased the Home Premium 3 license upgrade pack as the price was perfect. In fact for a little more than the price of 2 normal upgrades we were able to upgrade 6. If they had a 3 license pack for Pro with a similar discount we would have looked at that. I may do the anytime upgrade of some of the machines later. I did find much to my happiness that the 7 installed and ran better on my old Gateway Tablet than XP did though the manufacturer never made drivers other than XP drivers so I can't rotate the screen orientation. It does do handwritting recognition better though.

It's all personal preference and budget. Deb pretty much said it - if you got the money you might as well go with Ultimate that way you have all the bells and whistles 7 has to offer. Some people I have had mention that they have seen better performance in Ultimate vs. Home Premium. I can't see any difference - doesn't make any sense but what do I know??? I use BitLocker and while it might not be the best thing you can use for encryption it works well and a nice feature to have built-in. The HomeGroup is cool too. Several of the features I like the most are common in them all - Snap Windows, Multi-Touch(if your hardware supports it), and the WinKey + Spacebar to turn everything transparent like clicking the right end of the task bar.

If you feel like the additional features in Ultimate are not worth the added cost because you can find similar features in the form of free software that can be installed then I say save some money and go for the lesser version.

Personally as a techie I want all the features in one package that I can get. But what I would really like is a base version of the OS that I add-on only the things I need on an as-needed basis. I know you can turn features on and off but I don't want the stuff there in the fist place unless I decide I want it. Then, depending on what version you have determines what features you have available to be added. Or additional features that are in Pro and Ultimate can be simple add-on options. Kind of sorta like the Anytime-Upgrade but not really.

For Kids - Home Premium is the way to go there. My 3.5 yr old runs Windows 7 and my 7 yr old runs XP. As long as they can get on their sites they don't care what it's got.

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Tim Gardner

ODI Consulting, Inc.




NOTE: Sunbelt MVP’s do not work for Sunbelt, they are volunteers helping out on our Forums. Thanks for being a Sunbelt customer!

I had Vista Ultimate on two machines, and decided to update this machine to Win7. Since I wanted to use the upgrade path, I chose Win7 Ultimate, as otherwise I would have needed a clean install. A rather expensive choice here in Canada. Tax included it was $400

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Joe F Delahaye

I recently installed Windows Home Server and while I am impressed with its stellar ability to backup all my home PCs regardless of OS (aside from Mac - hello MS?), I was disappointed to realize that remote desktop only works on Pro versions of XP, Vista and 7. Fortunately, I've discovered Live Mesh and Microsoft has graciously included the ability to remotely connect to any version of Windows when it's running the Live Mesh client. If you haven't yet tried Live Mesh, it's definitely worth a look.

I purchased my laptop with a free upgrade to Win 7 Home Premium. The one feature that I would use if it was available is BitLocker. I even tried to see if I could purchase it as a separate option. It's funny, but TrueCrypt will do the same thing for free, but I just like the idea of (the appearance of) an integrated product.

Dan

Having basically skipped Vista, I upgraded machines from XP Pro and 2003 Server to the newer OSes. I did have a single Vista Ultimate license so that I could use it and support customers that had it. Wasn't all that impressed with the "Extras" we got, but the Media Center was pretty sweet and is better now in 7.

My current systems are Server 2008 R2 Standard home domain controller. Windows 7 Ultimate laptop, with direct connect, bitlocker, app locker, and Sprint 4G. Windows 7 Ultimate dual quad-core Opteron PhotoShop and gaming rig with VirtualBox running XP Pro and Windows 98SE for older games (yes this works, VirtualBox supports 2D and 3D acceleration). A few other networked clients of various ages running XP Pro and Win 7 Pro. Will all be running Win 7 Pro as I replace hardware through the course of the year ahead.

I'd like my next build to be a new dedicated Media Center, but I'm holding off until I can buy the CableCard tuners over the counter.

I was an early adopter of Windows 7, jumping on the Beta train. I had Ultimate installed on my main system the day it came out, but that was mainly because it was the only one that had the language packs I needed for my Japanese studies. On my notebook I have been running Windows Vista for the last 3 years and don't see a need yet to switch. I decided just yesterday that my notebook was getting too big and clunky to carry around with me in my photo backpack, so I went out and bought an Acer netbook. So far I am loving the little guy for what it can do, but my biggest concern has been the Windows 7 Starter Edition OS that came on it. I hit the desktop background limitation right away and could have thrown it out the window right then and there. (If it didn't take a quick search to find Starter Wallpaper Changer (http://www.box.net/shared/9hx8hyd9qo) I almost definitely would have. Then I hit the snag of only 3 programs open at a time, which I guess for a netbook is okay because they are not good at multi-tasking anyways.

It it wasn't for the price of the upgrade to the next level up, Home Premium which is $90 using the Anytime Upgrade, I would definitely be jumping up to a higher version. I have gotten used to the little perks that Ultimate has to offer that it is actually hard to get used to something that is so limited. It has almost got to the point that I have been thinking of throwing a copy of XP Pro that I have licensed and sitting around collecting dust onto it just to have more customizable options. For some the perks of a more open operating system are useful, but I suppose for the average user Starter Edition might not cause too many problems to just do those simple everyday tasks of checking email and the news. As just a very portable computer that can fit anywhere and have enough power to run a camera tethered and do some simple editing, I think that some people are even well suited with the lowest of the low versions of the operating system. It all depends on the particular use that machine is going to function as.

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- Cacc -

I have a unique situation where I was in the investment banking industry and earning a high salary (and living in Japan), but I decided to make a career change (moving back to Hawaii) and get another degree. Now I am a student, living at the poverty level. I did buy Vista Ultimate (full version - not upgrade - I always preferred clean installs) when I was an investment banker, and Office Ultimate, but now with limited income, I can no longer afford Win 7 Ultimate. Luckily for me, students get to upgrade to Home Premium (Ultimate wasn't available for a discount - and I believe still isn't) for just $25 dollars, so I had to go with that version. I too was an early adopter by jumping on the beta train and changing to the RC. When the full release came out, I went and paid my $25 and got Win 7 Home Premium, but it is an upgrade version, so I had to re-install Vista Ultimate, to run the upgrade. MS also had a deal on Office Ultimate for students at $56, so I sprung for that. I also got the Japanese language pack at a student discount so for around $100, I got Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, Office Ultimate 2007, and the Japanese language pack and the backup DVDs. At that level, it was within my budget.

The only issue I have is that everyone seems to be mentioning that to get the language pack is available on versions higher than Home Premium. Since I did live in Japan for 20 years, I am fluent in speaking, reading and writing Japanese (passed the Level 1 Japanese proficiency test - and spent most of those 20 years using mainly Japanese). Japanese works fine, in everything (not just Office), including Google/Bing searches in Japanese (where the search is in Japanese, not just the results), but I only have Win 7 Home Premium. I don't think that there is a student version of the OS that lets one use language packs, what am I missing here? Why is there a requirement to get Pro or higher to use the language packs? I know I don't have Win 7 Ultimate, because I am missing the features in the features list that exist in Pro and Ultimate. I'm also pretty sure that MS isn't so cruel to offer the language packs at student discounts for use with Win 7, but require a version higher than Home Premium, which is all they offer at that student price (you do have a choice of 32 bit or 64 bit, however).

Ok, the steps I did were: 1. Wipe RC (where I never thought about the language packs). 2. I did a clean full install of Vista Ultimate 64 bit, Japanese. 3. Attempted the Win 7 Home Premium Upgrade, but it failed, indicating that it was an incorrect version of the OS. But I also had a Vista Ultimate SP1 64 bit English. 4. installed the Vista Ultimate SP1 64 upgrade. That actually worked. 5. Upgraded to Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit. 6. Loaded the Japanese language pack. 7. Loaded in Office Ultimate and other applications. Is there something left behind by the Vista installs?

Edited: 3/11/2010 at 5:20 AM by ManoaHI

@ - ManoaHI

When you purchased the Student version of Win7 you actually had a choice at checkout to get either Home Premium or Professional. It isn't however an obvious choice, and was not well advertised. I'm not sure that you have any recourse at this point, but it can't hurt to write a quick note to someone at the point of purchase to ask.

The reason for offering the Pro version is that some schools have course work which requires you to join the school domain. There are also all kinds of schools that are doing IT related course work that requires features available in Pro that are in the lessor versions.

I think there are definitely too many versions or editions of Windows. That goes for the server as well as the client. I'd much rather work toward two versions that are customizable during installation.

Buying a new computer and/or OS upgrade can be a little like setting up partitions on your hard drive. It all makes perfect sense at the time but things don't always go the way we think they will. Eventually you run out of space on one partition and have plenty of extra space on another. Features that weren't important when you made your decision can become important. The only defense against this is to over spend on the higher cost edition.

Simplify, simplify, simplify.

I bought Win7 Pro expecting XPMode to be the deal breaker. But it has failed (or I have missed something) on the two things I have attempted. Installing Nero 7, which ran fine on my XP box would not recognize the DVD writer in the system, only the Image writer. As well, the Original Call of Duty would not run. It seems XPMode doesn't use the hardware drivers of the current system but some generic ones - probably the same reason why Nero7 didn't find a DVD drive. I could have saved a few bucks and bought home premium and save myself the irritation of having XPMode not live up to my expectations.

Maaybe some additional research before making my purchase might have warned me that this would be the case.

It would make a lot of sense I think to have a "Desktop" version of OS and then a "mobile" version for lower powered mobile systems such as netbooks. On higher powered laptops you would be able to run the desktop version. The mobile version would simply be called "Window"

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Tim Gardner

ODI Consulting, Inc.




NOTE: Sunbelt MVP’s do not work for Sunbelt, they are volunteers helping out on our Forums. Thanks for being a Sunbelt customer!

When it comes to the lack of REMOTE DESKTOP in WINDOWS 7 HOME PREMIUM, why not just use WINDOWS LIVE MESH BETA? It's free, and it works great.

I went with 7 Home Premium, got the OEM version from Newegg, since I have never called Microsoft about any system problems. Their web site and Google have always been enough. Didn't know Remote Desktop Server wasn't on it, though, but that wouldn't have stopped me, since I just wanted a 64-bit OS to allow 8 gigs RAM for FSX, and reports about 7 were better than Vista and XP64.

Regarding third-party remote solutions, at least as of now, well, LogMeIn busted my HDCP last week. I installed LogMeIn about three weeks ago, but did not test it, and was still able to watch DVDs. Last week I logged in from work for the first time to start some gigabyte-size downloads, everything went fine. Came home, popped a DVD in, and Media Player flopped. Said there was a break in the HDCP chain or something. Uninstalled LogMeIn, still the same error. I had to use System Restore back to a point before I used LogMeIn.

I have no beef against LogMeIn, in fact we use their service plenty at work, because one of our main programs at work doesn't play nicely with MS Remote Desktop. I'm sure LogMeIn will figure out how to get HDCP to stay connected, but I'll look into lloydkuhnle's suggestion of Live Mesh.

Meanwhile, set those restore points before using any third-party remote software, or you might be sold down the river next DVD you think you'd like to see...

I checked BestBuy's site for pricing (upgrades). Pricing variation is similar for full versions.

Home Premium = $120
Professional = $200
Ultimate = $220

For your typical home computer I think Home Premium is all you really need. Especially if it is just a family PC. Typically home computers are stationary and your data is not out and about so encryption is not as important (not to say it is not). It's also pretty rare that people are going to have a network setup as a domain in their home.

Pro is a win/loose situation where it lacks the Media Center features but has features that appeal to the corporate environment as well as road warriors. It has Bitlocker and the ability to join a domain. But it lacks the Media Center but usually on most corporate systems there is not much of need for that. In a case where you may want the Media Center feature such as in a conference or media room you simply go with Ultimate.

To me the minuscule difference in price between Pro and Ultimate prompts me to say "why bother with Pro?" But when you are looking at dozens or hundred of computers, that's hundreds or maybe thousands of dollars.

As for me personally, I have to have all of the bells and whistles because I have to be able support them and consult people on what they need and why they need it. Sometimes I have to tell them what they don't need too.

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Tim Gardner

ODI Consulting, Inc.




NOTE: Sunbelt MVP’s do not work for Sunbelt, they are volunteers helping out on our Forums. Thanks for being a Sunbelt customer!

Edited: 3/14/2010 at 8:47 PM by timg101

CORRECTION: Forget what I said... Win 7 Pro DOES have Media Center features in it. Deb pointed out my error.

Deb,

Thanks for catching my error. I think I must have slipped into the parallel universe called Vista when I wrote that. It’s sad considering I just setup a bunch of Win7 Pro systems and used GP to lock things down. I don’t know what I was thinking! Lack of sleep???


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Tim Gardner

ODI Consulting, Inc.




NOTE: Sunbelt MVP’s do not work for Sunbelt, they are volunteers helping out on our Forums. Thanks for being a Sunbelt customer!

Ultimate offers 2 things that Professional doesn't:
Bitlocker (encryption)
Additional Language Support

For anyone having info on their systems that they want to protect/hide, Ultimate makes perfect sense. That would include pretty much all businesses (large and small) and a few shared computers at home. For anyone needing the language support, Ultimate is obviously the way to go.

Its a shame that someone needing the language support must buy Ultimate, as that should be an option on Home Premium and up. My opinion is that Microsoft greedily leveraged Ultimate as a must have for many users who will never need the other features included.

Also, surprising to me that we seem to have better pricing in AU for Win 7 than the USA (for a change). We usually have to pay much more than the difference in the exchange rate for hardware/software:
OEM Windows 7 Professional 32 or 64 bit = $160AUD
OEM Windows 7 Ultimate 32 or 64 bit = $220AUD
:-)

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System Builder, owner of Ultramax Custom Computers