Windows 7 Product Editions: Only a Little Bit Simpler

As with Windows Vista, Windows 7 will ship in many different product editions. On the surface, this seems confusing—just as confusing, in fact, as the Vista product line. But this time, Microsoft made a few commonsense changes to the product lineup that should make things easier on most people. So assume the Lotus position, breathe deeply, and relax. It’s not as bad as it sounds. For starters, though there are, in fact, almost as many Windows 7 product editions as there were for Windows Vista, most individuals will only need to consider a handful of commonsense product editions. And with Windows 7, unlike with Vista, these product editions are all true supersets of each other, so there are no overlapping feature sets, as there were with some of the Vista product editions. That’s good news, both for those migrating to Windows 7 and for those Windows 7 users who think they might want a more powerful product edition.

Consider a typical issue with the Windows Vista product editions. In that version of Windows, the Windows Vista Business edition didn’t include Windows Media Center, a fun digital media application that was part of the Home Premium product. But business users enjoy digital media too, especially when traveling, and they told Microsoft that this division in the feature set didn’t make sense. Okay, here’s what Microsoft is offering with Windows 7:
Windows 7 Home Basic (developing markets only)
Windows 7 Starter
Windows 7 Starter x64
Windows 7 Home Premium
Windows 7 Home Premium (x64)
Windows 7 Home Premium N (European Union only)
Windows 7 Professional
Windows 7 Professional (x64)
Windows 7 Enterprise
Windows 7 Enterprise (x64)
Windows 7 Ultimate
Windows 7 Ultimate (x64)

See the big change? That’s right: the Starter and Home Basic versions have switched places this time around. In Windows Vista, Starter edition was aimed at developing markets only and wasn’t available to mainstream Windows customers, while Home Basic was broadly available worldwide on budget PCs. In Windows 7, this is no longer the case. Now, Windows 7 Home Basic is made available only with new PC purchases in emerging markets, while Windows 7 Starter will be sold worldwide, primarily on netbooks and other very low end, budget PCs.