Windows 7 Home vs Ultimate

-2

I was searching around the internet and came across a couple of articles but none of them seems to provide the info I want. I recently purchased a new laptop(dell xps) and It came with windows 7 home premium x64. I have win7 ultimate's dvd with me. So should I install that on my laptop or should I continue with the pre-installed windows? In the past, I would have chosen the former without thinking but this time I'm considering the following:

  1. Dell gives a recovery disk. I can restore my lappy to the factory shipped os anytime but that will be win7 home.
  2. What is actually different b/w the two? I mean feature wise. My major is comp. sc. so I can't just say I won't be using the advanced features of ultimate. But I saw one of the features is remote-desktop and I wouldn't anyway use microsoft's remote desktop, I'd rather use teamviewer or something. So are all other features like this? I mean replacable by something external?
  3. Dell preinstalls various bloatwares so if I restore windows in future, I'd still have those so performing a clean Ultimate install makes sense.

I'm really confused with this tradeoff. Please help me come to a descision.

prongs

Posted 2012-01-20T17:28:28.053

Reputation: 609

Answers

2

  1. After you install Windows 7 Ultimate, you can make a new recovery disk that allow you to recover Windows, just as the Dell disc would (but without the bloat-ware).

  2. The differences are laid out very nicely on Microsoft's Compare Windows page.

Most features are somewhat replaceable, for example, Windows XP mode with VMware and an XP disc..., however, other features such as language packs, aren't easily replaceable with third-party software.

Additionally, although (if you're using Home Premium) you can backup your computer to a network with third party software, sometimes is just better to stick with what Microsoft built into their operating system (the Ultimate edition comes with advanced backup features).

The average home-computer user probably doesn't care and wouldn't notice if he/she is using Windows 7 Home Premium vs. Windows 7 Ultimate, and you wouldn't be losing anything but the bloat-ware and an hour or so, by upgrading.

wizlog

Posted 2012-01-20T17:28:28.053

Reputation: 12 320

I think the link should be tab15 not tab09, so you get the product comparison page. I would edit but I have to change at least 6 letters for it to accept my edit.

– Scott Chamberlain – 2012-01-20T17:44:21.863

So should I delete the recovery partition? – prongs – 2012-01-20T17:45:27.043

Yup, there's no tradeoff here - windows backup works well. Agree that tab 15 would be much more relevant. If you have a home network, a potentially useful feature that is missing from the home edition is Remote Desktop Connection. – mtone – 2012-01-20T17:51:01.527

If you make a new recovery Disc, you won't need that old partition. You could wipe that partition, then replace it with a new recovery-disc (but the data would be on the bootable partition...)q – wizlog – 2012-01-20T17:52:23.933

and what exactly does a recovery disc store? How much space it requires(is a 4gb dvd sufficient)? can the recovery drive dell gives in a new system be modified to store something else(other than factory os)? feel free to go technical to answer these. – prongs – 2012-01-20T17:56:17.387

also, does it stores the installed softwares at the time of creating the disc? as in – prongs – 2012-01-20T18:02:57.530

@prongs I'd verify that deleting the partition doesn't void your laptop warranty. But if not and you're confident in your abilities, I'd go ahead, wipe all partitions in the win7 setup, install on a new partition, set up windows backup when you're done, and forget there ever was a dell recovery disc. Recover from what exactly? Right, nothing. If your HDD fails, you replace it, restore your backup or just install win7 from scratch again. Zip. – mtone – 2012-01-20T18:26:05.933

Asked: 2012-01-20T17:28:28.053

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Active: 2012-01-20T18:19:13.947