Windows 7 SKUs announced: your worst nightmare has come to pass
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted February 3rd 2009 2:59PM
posted February 3rd 2009 2:59PM
- Windows 7 Starter (limited to three apps concurrently)
- Windows 7 Home Basic (for emerging markets)
- Windows 7 Home Premium (adds Aero, Touch, Media Center)
- Windows 7 Professional (Remote Desktop host, Mobility Center, Presentation mode)
- Windows 7 Enterprise (volume license only, boot from virtual drive, BitLocker)
- Windows 7 Ultimate (limited availability, includes everything)
Update: Just to be clear, we've checked specifically with Microsoft on all six versions, and the placement of Home Basic in emerging markets. There's now a full breakdown after the break.
Windows 7 Starter
- Available worldwide to OEMs on new PCs
- Missing Aero UI tweaks
- Limited to 3 simultaneous applications
- Only available in emerging markets
- Missing Aero UI tweaks
- Available worldwide, to OEMs and in retail
- Includes Aero UI tweaks
- Features multi-touch capabilities
- Adds "premium" games
- Adds media capabilities (Media Center, DVD playback, DVD creation, etc.)
- Can create home network groups
- Available worldwide, to OEMs and in retail
- Includes all features of Premium
- Adds enhanced networking capabilities (Remote Desktop host, domain support, offline folders, etc.)
- Adds Mobility Center
- Adds Presentation Mode
- Available only in volume licenses
- Includes all features of Professional
- Adds Branch Cache
- Adds Direct Access
- Adds BitLocker
- Limited OEM and retail availability
- Includes all features of Enterprise
You MUST be kidding me !!!!!!
I don't think it's that bad. One size rarely fits all perfectly.
Manufactured outrage.
Forget it...stick with XP.
I can't even imagine how long it will be to patch the games and software that STILL don't work well on Vista.
Really dude people are still screaming stick with XP. Its 2009 for crying out loud. Yeah Microsoft is pissing me off with 5 different versions of an OS. Which is stuipd, I'm no where near being a mac fanboy but a tleast they didnt force the consumer to pick from a whole bunch of Operating systems. To me it would be nice for them to produce and focus on one thing.
I don't see why people complain about the different versions. The only version that consumers need to know about is Home Premium.
If you're the sort of person who needs the extra features in the Pro, Enterprise, or Ultimate versions, you're smart enough to understand the distinctions. Everyone else just needs Home Premium.
If you're the kind of individual who needs Professional or Enterprise, you should probably sign up with MS TechNet. For about $350 a year you can use any software MS makes on any computer you want.
From the article:
Windows 7 Starter: up to 3 concurrent applications, ability to join a Home Group, improved taskbar and JumpLists;
Windows 7 Home Basic: unlimited applications, live thumbnail previews & enhanced visual experience, advanced networking support (ad-hoc wireless networks and internet connection sharing), and Mobility Center;
Windows 7 Home Premium: Aero Glass & advanced windows navigation, improved media format support, enhancements to Windows Media Center and media streaming, including Play To, and multi-touch and improved handwriting recognition;
Windows 7 Professional: ability to join a managed network with Domain Join, data protection with advanced network backup and Encrypting File System, and print to the right printer at home or work with Location Aware Printing;
Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate: bitLocker data protection on internal and external drives, DirectAccess for seamless connectivity to corporate networks based on Windows Server 2008 R2, BranchCache support when on networks based on Windows Server 2008 R2, and lock unauthorized software from running with AppLocker.
In the end for the consumers this won't really matter. A fraction of people actually upgrade their OS (let's face it: for some most people as long as it works, don't touch it), and most just get a new computer in a couple years time. Windows based consumer computers sold in brick and mortar stores come pre-installed with windows; currently it's Vista Home Premium. Next year it will be Windows 7 Home Premium. Really, there's no confusion as Home Premium is THE version you buy for your home PC, and it will be the version installed on pretty much all the consumer laptops/desktops.
I really don't see what the fuss is all about. This is just business as usual, and it's been working thus far.
The people who buy separate OS licenses are system builders and fairly tech-savvy people.
For home use it's going to be Home Premium if you have sense, and Ultimate if you have cash to burn.
There is no home basic.
Sorry to highjack the thread, but this information is plain wrong: there will only be 5 editions, 1 of them home starter (which means just about anyone one Engadget won't even have the option of buying it, much less having to choose whether to get it or not), another enterprise (same thing applies as to home starter), and then we're left with Home Premium, Pro and Ultimate. Note that Pro is a full superset of Premium (has everything that Premium does), and Ultimate is a superset of the two and probably a complete waste of money. Realistically you're left with a choice of Home Premium (basically Home of XP) and Pro (basically Pro of XP). If you don't like that, then you have 3 editions.
Gee... I don't know, one of the most trusted sources on Microsoft information (Paul Thurrott) or geekzone. I just don't know.
Just curious, but the geekzone article linked to doesn't provide ANY corroborative evidence, and there's nothing that I can see on the official Windows 7 site to confirm this.
Where's the linkage? I'd expect it to be somewhere around here...
"This information has been confirmed by Microsoft... who never listens to us."
Just saying.
Its not that hard:
Starter: If your reading this, this probs isn't for you.
Basic: I would bet its only going to come on netbooks ect.
Home Premium: 80% of home users will get this with there PC.
Professional: Business don't need the media ect stuff, this is for them
Enterprise: For LARGE Business.
Ultimate: People who NEED to-do stuff like join domains, but want the extra media stuff.
Its not any LESS confusing than XP. If you are buying the thing retail, you have the know how to install it thus it shouldnt be hard for you to work out what you need, and 90% of the time that will be Home Premium.
I think the only thing that didn't make sense about the vista SKUs is that Business didn't have bitlocker.
@Mike Cerm: Regular people will be confused about which version they need, you don't see a problem because you are an informed user.
I am a techy and I am already confused about why we need a Starter, 2 home versions and a Pro version of windows 7.
This is all we need:
* Windows 7 Home - standard user
* Windows 7 Enterprise - business user
* Windows 7 Ultimate - power / gamer / multimedia user
the overreaction to this is very amusing.......you thickies make me tingly :)
Unacceptable. What a ridiculous marketing mistake... for the second time.
"up to 3 concurrent applications"
That HAS to be an F'n joke.
So the first adware that the "Starter" user mistakenly installs with more than 2 mutations is going to cripple to OS?
And once again, my fellow PC users will still make excuse for Microsoft, even though we still have:
Windows Geniune Advantage.
Activations.
UAC.
And now, Multiple versions.
To top it all off, there aren't any real revolutionary features in Windows 7, not enough to justify an upgrade from XP. And nothing is going to change unless people decide they've had enough and stop buying Microsoft crapware. That is all.
Blah, I was really hoping there'd be a special XBOX 360 version with a bundled keyboard and a mouse.
Is anyone here really confused about which version to buy?
hmmm....
I didn't think so. I don't see the problem.
Anyone who would be confused, isn't building their own computer. They'll pick it up in the store pre built and will never know the difference.
Mellow out guys. It's just windows.
Look_Around_You, I completely agree with you. "Manufactured outrage." I really think Engadget is making a big deal out of nothing at all.
Breaking News? Seriously?
Like others said before... most people won't even know anything other than Home Premium. There are many versions of Vista now... and guess what comes on all those HP laptops from Best Buy? Home Premium. Only people on the blogs are bitching about the different versions of Windows 7. *cough*
I'd be more interested in knowing how many retail installs of Windows 7 will be 64-bit. That's what I care about. It's time to start shifting everything to 64-bit... OS and apps.
Because Paul Chapel is such an XP fan I'd like to enumerate the various flavours of that version that he struggled (but ultimately succeeded) to choose from:
Starter
Home
Professional
Tablet PC Edition
Media Center Edition (2 different versions)
Volume License
Home-N
Professional-N
XP Professional 64-bit
Wow! How did all you XP users (and Joshua Topolsky apparently) manage to survive such a difficult choice?
For ppl confused on the 3 concurrent apps, I'm guessing this is for the embeded market; not for you or mainstream.
How come there's so few Windows 7 choices. I think there should be at least two more below the base Starter level. I usually only run one or two apps concurrently so the three concurrent app level is far more than I need and I'll be forced to pay for that. Choice is everything in life.
Now Microsoft is forcing me again to use Bittorrent to get a reasonably priced version. Of course, I can always stick with Windows Best, good ol' WinXP Pro SP3. I wasted good newsserver bandwidth to get Vista Ultimate and had to remove it from my laptop because it sucked up too much processing power when doing absolutely nothing. It was Ultimate, alright. An Ultimate waste of coding and advertising.
I'm not going to be fooled again by downloading Windows 7 Ultimate when it might turn into another Vista debacle.
What is MS going to be charging for the Starter package, anyway? I sure hope it's less than $50, otherwise people are not going to buy it to install on some $350 netbook if they can get Linux for free or just continue to use good ol' WinXP. If MS charges $300 for Windows 7 Ultimate, then they're not gonna get any sales at all.
Home Premium is gonna be the one that everyone except nerds buy. $150 isn't cheap, but MS needs at least that much to cover up their sales losses on Vista. MS will probably tell buyers that anything lower than Home Premium is really for third-world losers and you won't be able to do all the necessary things with anything less. Plus, any version lower won't look as pretty. A typical bait and switch tactic. They should also offer a fall-back to Windows XP option. If Windows 7 runs poorly on your present machine you get a free Windows XP install disk instead.
Good luck with that multi-version crap. I'll stick to one size fits all and get Snow Leopard. Can't go wrong with that.
What difference does it make how many versions MS wants to sell? So what if Ultimate costs more, I'll be pirating it anyway. Everyone should. The idea behind 5 versions is to make MS some extra money. Does anyone really believe they built the cripple version first, then spent more money to build ultimate? No, they built ultimate and then stripped stuff away to make a 'low cost' version that actually raised the cost of the project as a whole while being entirely unnecessary. If they want to charge extra for something that didn't cost extra that's as much theft in my mind as pirating their shit is. They stop playing their game, I'll stop playing mine.
Angus: that's wrong.
That was the case last time, where Pro didn't have the media features. But this time it appears Pro has the media features and thus should be the highest version most people need to consider.
I'm sorry but Microsoft not including Remote Desktop is just ridiculous. I want Media Center functionality, but I also want to be able to use Remote Desktop - So just because I use those 2 functions on the same machine I'm going to have to use Ultimate??? c'mon now!
I use My Windows "Tenament" version, it has all the VERY basics....
OS X has 1 consumer version and 1 server version.
Windows has 7 consumer versions and at least 4 server versions they are selling right now.
Wait...why are people worried?
There will only be 3 versions at your local BestBuy...
Starter is for OEMs only.
Home Basic is for emerging markets.
Enterprise is for volume licensing.
Can I exchange my Vista Ultimate for 7 Home Premium 64-bit?
@nomi
3 versions yes but they would be..
Home Premium
Professional
Ultimate
You people must have a nervous break down when you hit the cereal isle at the grocery store.
PAY ATTENTION: ***THERE ARE ONLY 3 VERSIONS THAT WILL BE MARKETED TO THE HOME USER***
Starter only runs three apps. They have designed this kernel as the next windows mobile OS or for small netbooks.
Basic will NOT be available in the U.S.
Enterprise is for corporations purchasing huge volumes of licenses.
Therefore, there are 3 options. A version for home users, a version for small business, and a version for the tech geek that wants all the bells and whistles. Holy crap this is not rocket science...
Yeah, see my worst nightmare would be for my country to be plunged into a violent civil war, my family raped, tortured and murdered or left to die in concentration camps whilst everything burns.
This on the other hand is a straightforward choice that anyone with an IQ greater than that of a lettuce leaf isn't going to have much difficulty with.
Just thought I'd get that into perspective.
why not the LS2LS7?: Seems i might be wrong, I would be surprised if they where on by default though.
And if you have a hard time choosing a OS version, then god help you turning on the media stuff.
Keyword: Convoluted
All I'm going to say is "Arrr."
I'll get Ultimate, but everyone else will be confused if they learn about these multiple editions, which any good *shopper* (not necessarily tech person) will. This will cause a demand for a different OS, and then Google will save the day!
Too right, I wonder what it's like to have so much free time you look for things to get upset about.
Lets make it simple for the frothing masses.
W7 starter: the MID edition (you can't buy me.)
W7 home basic: the you can't buy me in any country Americans have heard of edition. (you can't buy me in any country with a gdp.)
W7 enterprise: the you've got offices in several states edition. (you can't buy me if you're reading engadget on a Tuesday afternoon.)
which brings us to;
W7 home premium: the I bought my dell at walmart edition. (you can probably buy me at walmart.)
W7 professional: the I have an IT department, or I built my own home server edition. (you can buy me at best buy, but probably not at walmart.)
W7 ultimate: the I know enough about computers that I'm not wingeing about how many editions of windows 7 there are edition. (you can buy me at the same place you ordered your waterblocks.)
So there we have it, 3 versions you can actually purchase.
lay off the fud and revel in the marvel that is Microsoft. ;)
Why not point at the official Press Release - which makes it very clear there are TWO editions.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2009/feb09/02-03Win7SKU-QA.mspx
There is Home Premium and there is Professional.
Anything else is for a special channel or market and won't be presented to consumers...
LOL your all bloddy wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (encludeing engadget.)
Windows Xp came in more versions than 7 will come in. read the wiki
page!
I dont see what your all moaning about. your only going to see 3
versions.
1.) Windows XP Home Edition (home users)
2.)Windows XP Professional Edition (domain's/enterprise)
3.)Windows XP Media Center Edition (Media Center PC's)
4.)Windows XP Tablet PC Edition (notebook/laptop/tablet)
5.)Windows XP Embedded (embedded devices)
6.)Windows XP Starter Edition (limited to three apps)
7.)Windows XP Fundamentals (thin-client)
They also had pre-paid editions and as we all know all of these where
also in 64 bit
(information from wikipedia. link below)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP
I don't see what's the big fucking deal with multiple SKU's, only 3 at most 4 will be available to the average consumer. Home Premium is most likely all anyone is ever gonna need, Professional for the Pro, and Ultimate for those who need it for it's PEF. Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill.
Reven's right. Just like xp, only 2 edtions will be avaiable to the average consumer (it sound like Ultimate is a special-order type deal). So: Home premium or pro? thats it. Well, except for 32 v 64 bit. So 4 editions. but whatever. No reason to panic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtSDlSVDibA
Dear Engadget:
I hate really shitty FUD. I like this blog.
Don't make me chose.
Love,
Eggo
I was really hoping to see an article about the new Windows 7 without the mentioning of how great XP is compared to Win7, or how superior OSX is cause it only has one version, or seeing a mindless comment from Paul Chapel, but i guess i cant have everything.
Ha! And you haven't counted the special mod versions for the EU marked E, N etc... that include/exclude media player, include/exclude calculator, include/exclude desktop backgrounds etc... just to make the EU bureaucrats happy...
I think the only real worry from the consumer point of view is that the netbooks/mids currently running xp home will end up with an even more crippled starter. I hope AV does not count as one of the 3 concurrent apps.
Fro a small business point of view having pro, ultimate and enterprise sucks sucks. It makes it hard for us to pick up machines of the shelf with bitlocker (osx has home folder encryption as standard).
No. God no. No no no no no.
I'd say something, but you pretty much just summed up my thoughts.