Windows 7 Editions Clarified

Here is a little clearer description of the Windows 7 SKU’s for those who didn’t quite understand what was posted yesterday. Now, there is only 3 “mainstream” editions of Windows 7; Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, and Windows 7 Ultimate/Enterprise. Below is a description of each edition, quoting Ed Bott from ZDNet:

Windows 7 Home Premium –
This is the successor to Windows Vista Home Premium, and Microsoft expects it to be the most common edition sold, the standard for virtually all consumer PCs. It includes the Aero interface with its Windows 7 enhancements, plus Windows Media Center, DVD playback support, and multi-touch and handwriting features. I’m also told (but can’t yet confirm) that image-based backup is included in this edition for the first time.

Windows 7 Professional –
This edition drops the Business label used in Windows Vista and goes back to the old XP-era name, presumably to give XP users more comfort in their upgrade decision. Unlike Vista Business, this edition contains all features in the Home Premium edition, including Media Center. For the extra cost, you get more traditional business features like the ability to join a Windows domain, group policy based management tools, Remote Desktop host capabilities, network-based backup features, and support for the Encrypting file system.

Windows 7 Ultimate/Enterprise –
In the retail channel, this edition will be called Ultimate; for corporate customers with a Select license agreement, it will be called Enterprise. In either case, the feature set includes everything in Professional edition plus support for BitLocker whole-drive encryption (and the new BitLocker To Go feature, which adds high-grade encryption to removable media). This edition also includes all supported language packs (those cost extra for other editions) and the capability to boot from a VHD.