- (Includes 32 & 64-bit versions cd-rom) Combines remarkable ease-of-use with the entertainment features of Home Premium and the business capabilities of Professional–get it all with with Windows 7 Ultimate
- Make the things you do every day easier with improved desktop navigation; start programs faster and more easily, and quickly find the documents you use most often
- Run many Windows XP productivity programs in Windows XP Mode; watch, pause, rewind, and record TV on your PC
- Easily create a home network and connect your PCs to a printer with HomeGroup; connect to company networks easily and more securely with Domain Join
- Recover your data easily with automatic backup to your home and business network; help protect data on your PC and portable storage devices against loss or theft with BitLocker
Product Description
With Microsoft Windows 7 Operating System Software Ultimate, you’ll be able to run many Windows XP productivity programs in Windows XP mode* and recover your data easily with automatic back-ups to your home or business network. You’ll be able to connect to company networks easily and more securely with Domain Join. And with entertainment features like Windows Media Center, it’s great for home as well as for business.Amazon.com Product Description
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I switched from Windows to Mac about 4 years ago. Since then Macs have been close to flawless, and yes Windows had some hiccups, but I still want to keep up with it. All Macs now can run windows, as I’d like to, but the pricing/copy protection system is out of whack. Microsoft is so paranoid about piracy that it’s hugely difficult to install Windows without a new valid copy. I know that might sound like I’m just advocating piracy, but if anyone at Microsoft is listening, hear me out: Folks won’t be calling into MS and costing you money with tech support without a valid license, some just want to throw a copy on a separate partition of their Mac hard drive for occasional use. This is beneficial for Microsoft in many ways, i.e. it bumps up Windows market-share, it would probably engender more sympathy that MS is a ‘play nice’ company and not just a behemoth that needs strict regulation, if it’s priced fair it would throw a few more dollars in the MS coffer, and it would help with general PR (which MS is having a really hard time with). Either it should be more affordable for the occasional user, or made easier for folks to install while forgoing any tech support.
In the Mac world when you buy a new OS, you can install it on any Mac that can handle it (hardware-wise). It’s so easy and seamless. I understand it’s a different financial situation for MS, but they’re not helping anything with their overly strict pricing system.
I hope this review can be read without jumping into the all-too-common ‘Mac vs. PC’ fight. I’d like to imagine a world where they both learn from each other and thrive
Rating: 2 / 5
Windows 7 sounds great, but I am not pleased with the upgrade pricing. I purchased a new laptop 14 months ago and paid the premium to have vista ultimate as my os. Microsoft needs to look at ending the pricing penalty currently built in that gives users no credit/discount for their previous purchase.
Rating: 3 / 5
I have been using Windows 7 Ultimate for about a month now.
All the features of Vista, but without any of the problems. Specifically:
Pros:
- Superfast file movement over a network.
- Automatically updates for all your drivers, no need to go to OEMs directly.
- Sleep and Hibernate modes that work very well. No need to shutdown and restart your system, ever.
- The most secure OS yet. Much safer than Windows XP, but without the UAC annoyances of Vista.
- Very astetically pleasing, and easy to use.
- Very good Task Bar, Application Management, and Start Menu.
- Cool new look, and visual effects. Including desktop pictures that rotate.
- Increased Widgets and Desktop Gadgets.
- Increased support for Dual Displays.
- Great opportunity to use all your RAM, but upgrading to 64 Bit, if you haven’t already.
- New improved MS Wordpad.
- New improved Calc.
- New improved MS Paint.
- Full MS Live integration.
- New Windows Movie Maker.
- With 64 bit version, Speedboost works wiht more than 4GB.
- Improved power management.
Cons: Kind of expensive.
Rating: 5 / 5
I have experience in every Microsoft and Apple/Mac upgrade product in that I own both PCs and Macs. Yesterday I decided to attempt an upgrade from Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate at on Dell PC w. Intel Core i7 920, 12 Gb RAM. I inserted the Windows 7 Upgrade DVD and followed the simple directions (and held my breath). I was advised by the system that I needed to (1) “deauthorize” my iTunes, (2) that my ATI drivers would no longer work, and that I would need to update them. The upgrade took about about 2 hours to complete (fully automated – no actions on my part), and to my astonishment, it worked perfectly. Just like a Mac, all but one (1) my Applications and files were preserved and migrated. I lost use of the HP Printer Software for Officejet Pro L7680 All-In-One Printer/Scanner. I went to the HP website, and HP does not have new software available yet. The post-upgrade speed of applications/programs opening is much faster, but my boot-up speeds are not noticeably faster. Mac still rules when it comes to boot-up speed. I did have to download and install (free) Windows Email (since it no longer comes bundled with Windows 7). The Windows 7 interface is easy on the eyes, and there seems to be some additional Aero features. All in all, this the best upgrade in Microsoft history.
Rating: 5 / 5
I am extremely pleased with this product. I will limit my comments specifically to the VMware users who install this product in a virtual environment. The installation into a virtual machine was relatively trouble free. Note, you get random crashes under VM Workstation 6.5 so download the beta for WS 7. For the upgrade you can create a new machine under vmware 7 (beta)([...]) temporarily add a pointer to your old virtual hard-drive for Windows XP Professional/ Vista (etc) and install. Note, I went from Windows XP 32 bit to Windows 7 64 bit; there is a warning in the package about backing up your data (good advise). Other things to consider if you have itunes, audible, or other software that needs to be de-activated before you change the OS that may also be a good idea. It is really annoying if you use up the number of activations you have by obliterating old machines (which is very easy to do in a virtual environment).
Rating: 5 / 5