Datasheet

Chapter 1: Selecting the Right Vista Version

media functionality but not some of the more technically advanced reliability

features, such as system image backup and recovery, EFS support, and domain

support.

The business-oriented versions of Windows Vista, including Windows Vista

♦

Business and Enterprise, include all of the business, reliability, and security fea-

tures but are light in the digital-media arena (e.g., there’s no Media Center, DVD

Maker, Movie Maker, or so forth).

On the high end, there’s Windows Vista Ultimate, which very neatly combines all

♦

of the consumer-oriented features from Windows Vista Home Premium with all of

the business and reliability benefits of Windows Vista Enterprise. Windows Vista

Ultimate is, quite literally, a superset of all the other Vista product editions.

In any event, your options roughly break down between the consumer, business, and

“über” versions of Vista, so you need to decide into which category you fall and then

choose accordingly. The next sections help you break down these choices.

Obviously, there is one other critical consideration here: price. For example, while

Windows Vista Ultimate may seem like a best-of-both-worlds product, it also comes

with premium pricing. Later in this chapter I’ll describe the various ways in which you

can purchase Windows Vista, and the cost of each version.

Choosing between Home Basic and Home Premium

Table 1-11 shows some of the features that differ between the Basic and Premium versions

of Vista for home users. If you’ve decided that a Home version of Vista is all you need,

Table 1-11 will help you decide which of the two available versions will best suit you. Note

that Windows Vista Ultimate also supports all of Vista’s Home features.

Home Basic

♦

—Choose this if you don’t need Media Center capabilities, the capabil-

ity to burn DVDs, or any of the other features that come with Home Premium.

Home Premium

♦

—Choose this if you have a Tablet PC (actually, it is hard to buy a

Tablet PC that doesn’t have at least Vista Premium installed on it) or if you want

the more extensive multimedia features of the Premium version.

Table 1-11: Comparing Vista Home Basic and Home Premium

Home Basic Home Premium

Parental Controls Yes Yes

Windows Movie Maker Yes Yes

Themed slide shows — Yes

Windows Media Center — Yes

Windows Media Center—high-deﬁ nition TV — Yes

Windows Media Center—CableCard support — Yes

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