Datasheet

26
Part I: Surviving Setup
Why not just have one or two product editions, as we did back when Windows XP first
shipped? Microsoft says that it has over one billion Windows users worldwide and that their
needs are diverse and cannot all be met with a single product. So it has instead moved to
a “Russian nesting doll” model, where as you increment up the list of Windows 7 product
editions, features or capabilities are simply adopted from the previous editions. They are
true supersets of each other, and additive, not arbitrarily different.
Understanding the Differences and Choosing
the Right Version
The first step is to understand the differences between each Windows 7 product edition.
Then, you need to understand the various ways in which you can acquire Windows 7,
either as a standalone product or as an upgrade to an existing version of Windows (includ-
ing, confusingly, Windows 7 itself). After that, you can weigh the various trade-offs of
each option—features, price, and so on—and act accordingly.
Let’s do it.
Step 1: Whittling Down the Product Editions List
While the clinically sarcastic will dryly complain that there is precious real-world differ-
ence between Vista’s 18 product editions and Windows 7’s 12, that’s just a smoke screen.
In the real world, most people will have to choose only between two Windows 7 prod-
uct editions. To get to this number, we need to temporarily forget about the differences
between 32-bit and 64-bit versions (don’t worry, we’ll get to that) and just skip over the
versions that really don’t matter. Once we do this, the following list emerges:
Windows 7 Starter (32-bit or x64)
Windows 7 Home Premium (x64)
Windows 7 Professional (x64)
Windows 7 Ultimate (x64)
Okay, this is four options, not two, but it’s still a much more manageable list than what
we started with. Before we whittle this down to just two options, let’s take a closer look at
the four options now in front of us. After all, there were 12 product editions in the original
list. How did we cut it down this far so quickly?
Because of antitrust regulations in the European Union (EU), Microsoft created
special “E” versions of the various Windows 7 versions that do not include Internet
Explorer. Unlike other versions of Windows 7, these Windows 7 versions don't
allow you to add or remove Internet Explorer via the normal Control Panel-based
mechanism. But Microsoft is making Internet Explorer available to users of these
products separately, and of course, PC makers in the EU will always include a
Web browser with their Windows 7 E-based machines. Aside from the absence
of Internet Explorer, the Windows 7 E versions are functionally identical to their
U.S.-based counterparts. Note, too, that the Windows 7 N Editions, also sold only
in Europe, do not include IE 8 either.