WINDOWS 7 EDITIONS

Editions

Windows 7 Starter

The least-featured edition of Windows 7; the Windows Aero theme is not included, and it won't be available in a 64-bit variant. This edition will be available pre-installed on computers through system integrators or computer manufacturers.^[6][11]

Windows 7 Home Basic

Windows 7 Home Basic will be available in emerging markets such as Bangladesh, Brazil, People's Republic of China, India, Indonesia,Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Thailand.^[12] It will not be available in countries such as Australia, Canada, France, Germany, The Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom.^[12] Some Aero options are excluded along with several new features.^[12]

Windows 7 Home Premium

This edition contains features aimed at the home market segment, such as Windows Media Center, Windows Aero and touch-screen controls.^[13]

Windows 7 Professional

This edition is targeted towards enthusiasts and small business users.^[14] It includes all the features of Windows 7 Home Premium, and adds the ability to participate in a Windows Server domain.^[14] Additional features include operating as a Remote Desktop server, location aware printing, Encrypting File System, Presentation Mode and Windows XP Mode.^[14]

Windows 7 Enterprise

This edition targets the enterprise segment of the market and will be sold through volume licensing to companies which have Software Assurance contract with Microsoft.^[15] Additional features include support for Multilingual User Interface (MUI) packages, BitLocker Drive Encryption, and UNIX application support.^[15] Not available through retail or OEM channels, this edition will be distributed through Microsoft Software Assurance (SA).^[15] As a result it includes several SA-only benefits, including a license allowing the running of multiple virtual machines, and activation via VLK.^[16]

Windows 7 Ultimate

Windows 7 Ultimate contains the same features as Windows 7 Enterprise, but unlike that edition it will be available to home users on an individual license basis.^[17] Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional users will be able to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate for a fee using Windows Anytime Upgrade if they wish to do so.^[8] Unlike Windows Vista Ultimate, the Windows 7 Enterprise edition will not include the Windows Ultimate Extras feature or any exclusive features.^[17]

[edit]European Editions

[edit]E editions

In response to European Union antitrust investigations, plans were made to ship all editions of Windows 7 in Europe without Internet Explorerincluded (referred to as Windows 7 E).^[18] However, due to negative reactions from computer manufacturers over the plan and backlash over plans not to ship upgrade versions to Europe, the E editions were scrapped in July 2009.^[19]Microsoft had previously proposed a "ballot screen" to solve the anti-trust problem.^[20]

[edit]N editions

Instead of the "E" versions for Europe, Microsoft have still gone ahead and released versions called "N" ("Not with Media Player"), which ship without Windows Media Player on them in the European market, but only for the retail editions; Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate.^[21]This follows what they had to do for later releases of the XP and Vista operating systems before them, following demands from the European Commission previously concerning anti-competitive or anti-trust issues. However users still have the choice whether to buy the standard (non-N) version as they wish, and they are priced identically to the standard versions. This is likely to lead to very low sales of these N editions, just as reported for XP and Vista, as most users would rather make the choice themselves at a later date, if at all.^{[22][23][24][25] [26]}

It is unclear whether some similar-to-N versions will be released in South Korea, as the authorities there also made demands on Microsoft regarding such issues on both XP and Vista.

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