Windows 7 - which version, and where to get it from?

[Ow]

I'm currently using Windows Vista Home Premium (I think!) and as I'm thinking of reformatting anyway, I may aswell combine that with an upgrade to windows 7.

I'm not really sure which version I need, is there much real difference between the ultimate/professional and home premium?

I annoyingly missed out on the Ultimate Steal thing Microsoft were doing up until recently where they were selling it for around £30 for students with .ac.uk email addresses so I'm trying to sell where else sells it for a decent price!

I can't remember the last time I bought an OS separately from a PC/Laptop so I'm not sure what the smaller companies/websites are like

Any recommendations on which version to go for, and where the best place to get it is from?

[onlynik]

If you are a student you can get it from here.

http://www.software4students.co.uk/Microsoft_Windo...

Read the small print aboiut the upgrades carefully.

[Funk]

I've found Windows 7 to be leagues ahead of Vista and would thoroughly recommend it. Unless you need features like Bitlocker and Remote Desktop, I'd go with the Home version. If you want to use loads of RAM then you'll need the 64bit version. There's a comparison chart of the features on the microsoft site but I'm on my mobile at the moment so can't easily link to it for you I'm afraid.

[lestag]

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/compare...

[Ow]

Cheers All

I think my current Vista is home premium, so that would probably be fine.

The S4S site looks good, professional is £43 - sounds good to me!

I saw the Microsoft comparison thing, but wasn't sure whether there was any real world difference between them, other than the bitlocker and languages thing.

[lestag]

Ow said:

Cheers All

I think my current Vista is home premium, so that would probably be fine.

The S4S site looks good, professional is £43 - sounds good to me!

I saw the Microsoft comparison thing, but wasn't sure whether there was any real world difference between them, other than the bitlocker and languages thing.

backup to network drive would be the only possible reason to get professional for home use

ETA: oh and the ability to run a virtual XP session fro apps that can only run in XP

Edited by lestag on Sunday 21st March 11:32

[Ow]

lestag said:

Ow said:

Cheers All

I think my current Vista is home premium, so that would probably be fine.

The S4S site looks good, professional is £43 - sounds good to me!

I saw the Microsoft comparison thing, but wasn't sure whether there was any real world difference between them, other than the bitlocker and languages thing.

backup to network drive would be the only possible reason to get professional for home use

ETA: oh and the ability to run a virtual XP session fro apps that can only run in XP

Edited by lestag on Sunday 21st March 11:32

Home Premium is all I need, but I don't think I can get that version for under £43. I'm happy to be corrected though!

[Funk]

lestag said:

Ow said:

Cheers All

I think my current Vista is home premium, so that would probably be fine.

The S4S site looks good, professional is £43 - sounds good to me!

I saw the Microsoft comparison thing, but wasn't sure whether there was any real world difference between them, other than the bitlocker and languages thing.

backup to network drive would be the only possible reason to get professional for home use

ETA: oh and the ability to run a virtual XP session fro apps that can only run in XP

Edited by lestag on Sunday 21st March 11:32

You can do network backup with Microsoft's own SyncToy 2.1 which I use on my laptop to back up over the wireless network to a spare drive on my PC.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?fa...

[Big_Dog]

I have 2 homes and a professional running. They seem to keep a secret that home doesnt include remote desktop. Bit of a shock to me as I use it all the time. There is a workaround but its a bit of a fiddle.
The student version is a professional or ultimate upgrade only. Oddly though it was happy enough to do a clean install, whereas the home upgrade wont.
If that helps any.

[Tycho]

Funk said:

You can do network backup with Microsoft's own SyncToy 2.1 which I use on my laptop to back up over the wireless network to a spare drive on my PC.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?fa...

+1 great utility

[Funk]

Big_Dog said:

I have 2 homes and a professional running. They seem to keep a secret that home doesnt include remote desktop. Bit of a shock to me as I use it all the time. There is a workaround but its a bit of a fiddle.
The student version is a professional or ultimate upgrade only. Oddly though it was happy enough to do a clean install, whereas the home upgrade wont.
If that helps any.

I'd recommend Teamviewer instead of Remote Desktop; it offers everything RD does and more including built-in chat, ability to disable remote input, blank the screen, logon from Windows boot-screen (useful if you need to remote restart), built in FTP... Free for home use, too.

http://www.teamviewer.com/index.aspx

I use it all the time in preference to Remote Assistance or Remote Desktop. You can also configure permanent remote access partnerships to multiple machines with easy one-click login. Superb bit of kit imo.

[lestag]

Funk said:

lestag said:

Ow said:

Cheers All

I think my current Vista is home premium, so that would probably be fine.

The S4S site looks good, professional is £43 - sounds good to me!

I saw the Microsoft comparison thing, but wasn't sure whether there was any real world difference between them, other than the bitlocker and languages thing.

backup to network drive would be the only possible reason to get professional for home use

ETA: oh and the ability to run a virtual XP session fro apps that can only run in XP

Edited by lestag on Sunday 21st March 11:32

You can do network backup with Microsoft's own SyncToy 2.1 which I use on my laptop to back up over the wireless network to a spare drive on my PC.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?fa...

I think you will find a backup program is different to a sync program

[Funk]

lestag said:

Funk said:

lestag said:

Ow said:

Cheers All

I think my current Vista is home premium, so that would probably be fine.

The S4S site looks good, professional is £43 - sounds good to me!

I saw the Microsoft comparison thing, but wasn't sure whether there was any real world difference between them, other than the bitlocker and languages thing.

backup to network drive would be the only possible reason to get professional for home use

ETA: oh and the ability to run a virtual XP session fro apps that can only run in XP

Edited by lestag on Sunday 21st March 11:32

You can do network backup with Microsoft's own SyncToy 2.1 which I use on my laptop to back up over the wireless network to a spare drive on my PC.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?fa...

I think you will find a backup program is different to a sync program

I would call a program that copies all of the files you consider important from one place to another to be 'backing up', certainly in the context of home use.

If you're talking about backing up things like the registry and program installations, that's something most home users would never need to do. SyncToy is excellent in that it makes a differential backup; it only copies changed files (new, renamed, deleted etc) and you can specify how you want it to work:

Synchronize: New and updated files are copied both ways. Renames and deletes on either side are repeated on the other.

Echo: New and updated files are copied left to right. Renames and deletes on the left are repeated on the right.

Contribute: New and updated files are copied left to right. Renames on the left are repeated on the right. No deletions.

I only want to back up data files such as pictures, docs, Outlook's .pst file and music. For that, SyncToy is perfect.

[lestag]

Please excuse me I have worked in IT for too long...

Ah excellent, the contribute on is the one that would do for what I am meaning - A full backup followed by an incremental backup.

Not much point syncing if you accidently delete something ( ie the other half does it ... and sync toy syncs and deletes the sync copy

[Funk]

The 'contribute' action is indeed the one to use, with a little house-keeping every few months to remove old stuff that's no longer required from the backup.