It’s quite clear that many of the “high end” features that the more expensive versions of Windows offer, can easily be replaced by just as good freeware apps. If you are debating between Home Basic and Ultimate, you decide. Worth the upgrade? If you are debating between Professional and Ultimate, you might as well swing the extra 20 bucks and go for Ultimate.

Because Windows 7 Ultimate is the highest version, there’s no upgrade to compare it to. Windows 7 Ultimate costs approximately $319 for a full version and $219 for an upgrade, a $20 jump in both cases from Professional. However, this will not give the ease of the built-in language switching capabilities of Windows Ultimate. There are freeware apps out there that specialize in translation and you can download free Microsoft language packs. Multilingual support is one difference, among many, that actually may be hard to replace effectively with a freeware app. However, they may not be as convenient to use. As you may have guessed, there are plenty of freeware apps out there that could easily replace the functionality of Bitlocker. – Bitlocker is an addition that allows you to encrypt your hard drive for better security. Two main things: Bitlocker, and multilingual support. Now, what features does Professional lack from Ultimate. As previously mentioned, Professional adds XP Mode, Domain Join, and network backup upgrades from Home Basic. Windows 7 Professional, the middle class of the Windows versions, will run you approximately $299 for a full version, and $199 for an upgrade. The majority of the time, they use specialized solutions. If you are planning on using this a feature like this at the office, take into consideration that most businesses do not use Windows backup. This is another feature that can be replaced using several of the great freeware apps out there. – Ability to backup to a home or business network. If you must join a domain, you’ll need at least Professional. It allows you to join the computer to a Windows Server Active Directory domain. – Domain Join is not by any means a revolutionary feature. If you want to run Windows XP inside of Windows 7, this can be done for free by using VMware Player and an old Windows XP install disc, if you have one laying around. If you don’t really use older software, XP Mode is not a needed feature. XP Mode is basically a way to allow people to run older software, that is not compatible with Windows 7. – The heavy majority of PC users will never use Windows XP Mode, this includes coders, designers, and developers. To you, does the $100 price jump justify these three features? Consider the following: The next step up from Home Premium is Windows 7 Professional, which adds three major features: XP Mode, Domain Join, and the ability to back up to a home or business network.

Windows home ou pro