The biggest selling point is BitLocker disk encryption, which now works on USB flash drives as well. In the retail channel, Ultimate edition was perhaps the biggest marketing fiasco for Windows Vista, which is maybe why it’s being downplayed here. Two different names for essentially the same product. Oh, and did I mention a licensed virtual copy of Windows XP for those one or two pesky legacy apps? The feature set is long and interesting, with the ability to run a Remote Desktop server, encrypt files, make network folders available offline, and join a Windows domain. It has the full Aero interface, Windows Media Center, and a few interesting surprises depending on your hardware.Īfter a brief name change (to Business edition) in the Vista era, the preferred upgrade for businesses and enthusiasts returns to its roots, name-wise. This is the entry-level edition for most consumers. The fact that all editions install all bits is what makes the Anytime Upgrade feature work so well. Actual usage for you will depend on the amount of RAM installed (which dictates swap file size) and whether you've hibernated the machine and thus created a hibernation file, which will be the size of available RAM.

For 32-bit editions, the disk footprint is around 11 GB for 64-bit editions, disk space used is about 13 GB.

I used a mix of x86 and 圆4 editions 32-bit for Starter, Home Basic, and Professional, 64-bit for Home Premium and Ultimate. : Several people asked about the differing disk sizes in the original graphic above. And no, I'm not going to reshoot this screen again! The difference between those two values, 2.7 GB, almost exactly accounts for the difference in size. The newer Home Premium install has about 400 MB of volume shadow (restore point) space in use. Because it's an older installation it has many more automatic restore points saved. The Ultimate install is the original one for this system. If you're wondering why Ultimate is using about 3 GB more disk space than Home Premium, there's a simple answer.

Windows 7 home basic 32 bits