As you know, Windows 7 available in a total of six different editions: Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions. Starter and Home Basic editions aren’t available in retail stores and they ship with PCs in select regions only And the Enterprise edition is only available for Enterprises.
Windows 7 Home Premium vs Professional vs Ultimate editions
So, end users need to choose between Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate editions. As the name suggests, the Home Premium is designed for home users, the Professional one is for professionals who need advanced features such as remote desktop and location aware printing. The Ultimate edition is for users for users who need or who would like to have every feature present in Windows 7.
Microsoft recently announced Windows 7 pricing and upgrade options. Now that we have Windows 7 pricing and upgrade matrix, let’s check the difference between the most wanted Windows 7 editions: Windows 7 home premium, Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate.
Since Windows 7 upgrade program and Windows7 pre-order program started already, you might want to check out the suitable Windows 7 edition for you.
Below is the official chart that shows you the difference between Windows Home premium, Professional, and Ultimate editions.
As you can see, location aware printing, domain join and group policy controls, remote desktop host, advanced back-up, and encrypting file system features aren’t present in the Home Premium edition and is available only in Professional and Ultimate editions. To get features such as BitLocker and BitLocker To Go, AppLocker, DirectAccess, BranchCache, and MUI language packs you need to go for the Ultimate edition.
You can always upgrade from your current Windows 7 edition to a higher edition without losing installed programs and settings. Check out our how to upgrade from Windows 7 Home Premium to Professional or Ultimate edition guide successfully upgrade to the powerful Windows 7 edition. One can also downgrade from one Windows 7 to another edition with the help of Windows 7 Downgrader tool
We also encourage you check out how to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8 guide.
X (Aumsville OR) says
The 9x era MS had personality. MS actually MADE software for them via different software categories. You could explore these with the Windows CD when it was inserted.
Omkar Soni says
Windows 7 ultimate me corel draw x7 graphic suit support krega
Mark says
Sick and tired of Microsoft, I have Vista and want to upgrade to 7. Heard it was half decent, but new windows o/s is coming out in a year so I will hold off until then.
Harry says
Windows 7 is the most usefull of current operating systems. Its a shame it must be ordered online and is not available in most major retail stores. Windows 7 pro and ultimate offer remote assistance and more network features if your an IT tech. I agree that an operating system should only cost $40 home add $10 for pro and $20 for ultimate. They would sell more computers and virtually end illigal copies. Its sad that you can buy a computer (3 gig dual core with 4 gig ram and 500 gig HD for $150 with Windows 7 Pro installed when it cost about that much for Windows 7 Pro alone.
Ivor says
Very helpfull as i am buying a new PC.
admin says
Upgrading from Windows 7 Home to Professional won’t change Windows settings. To upgrade, please check out our this guide:
intowindows.com/how-to-upgrade-windows-7-home-premium-to-professional-or-ultimate-edition/
mukesh says
dear sir,
my pc working on windos 7 home in lan network now i want to chang my os that is windos 7 professional what can i chang and work properly without changing a lan seting
Viktor says
Then i on PC,i it do every one across Boots.Lose time for
repair PC it is no normal.That i have: Tune Up PC and Power
Suite.My problem,that i not wont to do new stand Windows.
I buy always in last Year new programs and to do new registry it is no very good gift.
tony says
Upgraded from Home Premium to ultimate in my new SONY. Does not work. ELink, SONY’s support system reformatted back to Home Premium. Its a joke. Cannot upgrade!
Robb Ed says
Microsoft!
The ULTIMATE rip off!
Elvis says
It’s just a OS ..It will NOT GET you more pussy! :) :))
Joe says
You forgot a major difference in the Windows 7 editions, the amount of RAM it accepts.
32-bit is maxed out at 4GB of RAM for all editions
For 64-bit it’s:
Starter: 8GB
Home Basic: 8GB
Home Premium: 16GB
Professional: 192GB
Enterprise: 192GB
Ultimate: 192GB
GARETH says
just upgraded from home premium to professional on anytime upgrade.it sent product code to my email but the ***** thing installed it before i could type in.it says profesional now BUT HOW THW FUCK CAN I BE SURE PEOPLE,ANYONE PLEASE RESPOND CLEARLY A SURE WAY TO TELL CAUSE AT THIS TIME I THINK IV BEEN BENT OVER!!??
Derek says
windows 7 home, premium and ultimate is the worst operating system in the world. face it windows has always sucked. but every other version of windows – vista especially was okay. microsoft destroyed there already destroyed name when they came out with windows 7. so many internal software glitches within every single version. professional is one of the worst especially when it comes to the new software needed to be ran for smartphones. example – kies. windows doesn’t allow it to happen. not without a lot of work anyways. the ultimate edition is even worse for this. if people want an os that works properly and will actually perform the tasks you need it to do. linux or mac.
Johnno says
A really helpful article. Extremely easy to follow – unlike the official Windows site and absolutely no information on the Dell website when you are thinking of buying one of their pc’s with this pre-loaded. Thank you !
OneMore says
Thanks for work done, this list is more detailed than at Microsoft (my “site” link points to MS windows compare page), but there is one important feature mentioned at Microsoft, which is missed here:
“Windows XP mode” (not supported for Premium Edition).
For someone, who has a couple of apps incompatible with Win7, which are still necessary for work, it may make a difference.
If the blog author takes time to update the table, it will add more value to this great article.
Many thanks again!
Chav says
actually there is differences in the amount of ram each limits to for usage. look around dont get fooled.
Roy Hedrick says
What is the real differance in the Windows 7 systems. Why would I buy a larger program what would it give me? Is it something that I would appreciate?
Thank You,
Roy
Michael Melvyn says
my computer has Windows 7 Home Premium built in however I upgraded my computer to Windows 7 Professional a few months ago and i love Windows 7 Professional better than Windows 7 Home Premium it has to do with security and users
Gatsheni Ndlovu says
deffinately gotta be WINDOWS ULTIMATE for the ultimate user!!! i luv the searching facility, it sure does save me alot of time!
Mujahed says
Very useful and simple to know, Great!
Luke says
Damn. There is absolutely no need to buy more than Home Premium unless you want to create a Windows 7 computer network..
aboobacker sidheeq says
i very happy , my doubt is finihed . pls send to me such knowledge
aboobacker sidheeq says
???????? . i very happy , my doubt is finihed . pls send to me such knowledge
phallus says
win 7 hp is incredible
bingo says
JULIE Windiows 7 is a second edition of Windows Vista which have better mwmory management!
So what ever you have had in windows Vista is the equal but smoother in Windows 7!
That i s the difference!
Talib says
guys, use *nix os and save your money,
ubuntu is the best for n00bs like me, as far as windows app, you can still run it via WINE,
alex says
thanks for the chart, very straight-forward and simple.
why says
win7 has the newfolder button.. pretty useful . :)
Rej says
Fantastic, Very concise and to the point.
Bill Gates is a jerk still.
This should cost $40
not $180
Eddie says
I found this via a search with Google. I had been to other sites but this one shows the differences very clearly and in a concise manner. Well done! Looks like I need the professional upgrade since I’ll likely need to use the remote desktop host option on the professional version. Could have done with a cost saving though! :-)
amanda says
thank you for this! Now I know the difference between home premium and ultimate :)
felsiya says
wow… i wanted the difference bw windows7 professional and ultimate.. now its very clear… well done
Chase says
Julie: there is a desktop icon; its right beside the date/time. bottom right corner :)
Julie says
Not sure what I feel about Windows 7, kinda seems boring. Vista had the desktop thing going on where if you wanted to go back to the desktop just one click and your there. It’s like I have to read too much stuck to navigate through Windows 7. It’s only been a few hours. I’ll be back..LOL!
pc boy says
Very welldone!!!
lol says
i think you got the full size image and thumbnail mixed up ;)
Mike says
straight to the point! :)