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Chapter 1: Selecting the Right Windows 7 Edition
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Choosing Windows 7 Ultimate
Windows 7 Ultimate combines all of the features that are available in all of the
other Windows 7 versions, adds some unique features of its own, and comes with a pre-
mium price tag. In fact, Windows 7 Ultimate is so expensive compared to Windows 7
Home Premium and Professional that the only serious reason to get it is if you absolutely
must have two drive encryption features, BitLocker and BitLocker To Go. Frankly, it’s not
worth it for most people.
Purchasing Windows 7
There are almost as many ways to purchase Windows 7 as there are Windows 7 product
editions. This can make acquiring Windows 7 somewhat complex, especially if all you
want to do is purchase a Setup disc and install the operating system on your own PC. Here
are the ways in which you can acquire Microsoft’s latest operating system.
With a New PC
The single best way to acquire Windows 7 is with a new PC from a major PC maker such
as Dell, HP, or Lenovo. That’s because Windows is cheaper when bundled with a new PC,
and PC makers spend huge amounts of time testing every hardware device that they sell
in order to ensure that customers have the best possible experience.
One thing that has sullied this market, of course, is crapware, a practice in the PC market
where PC makers include useless or unwanted preinstalled applications on their precon-
figured PCs. The good news is that this practice is slowly going away: Dell and other PC
makers now offer new PCs without crapware, either for free or for a small fee.
The cost of Windows on a new PC varies from PC maker to PC maker and from machine
to machine. Generally speaking, a copy of some version of Windows 7 will be included
in the price of virtually every PC sold today, and the actual cost to you will range from
roughly $30 to $80. The cost of upgrading to more expensive Windows 7 versions will vary
as well. Based on some informal research (OK, we simply browsed the sites of PC makers
online) it looks like you can typically move from Windows 7 Starter to Home Premium
for less than $30, which is an excellent deal. The upgrade to Windows 7 Professional will
typically set you back a bit more, say $35 to $80. And the upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate
is about $125 to $150. (These additional costs are all based on a core system running
Windows 7 Starter, and can, of course, change over time.)
As an example, Figure 1-1 shows Dell’s “configurator” for a typical home PC.
The cheapest way to get Windows 7 Ultimate will be with a new PC, and when
PC makers have occasional special offers that make it cheaper than usual. Keep
your eyes open for such offers: if you can get Ultimate edition for little additional
cost, it will absolutely be worth having, since it’s the full meal deal.