Tech Talk
Windows 7Microsoft Windows 7

Windows 7 Professional for small and mid-sized businesses!
Help customers understand why Windows 7 Professional is right for their business…

“Why should I invest in Windows 7 Professional today?”
Investing in the Windows® 7 Professional operating system can bring long-term value to your business, while helping your workers be more productive - at home, at work, and on the road. New PCs with Windows 7 Professional are designed to be faster, more reliable, more secure, and easier to use than older PCs running Windows XP or the Windows Vista® operating system. More sophisticated networking and mobility features help mobile workers access their computer programs, files, and network resources away from the office. PCs with Windows 7 Professional can do more to protect your valuable business and customer data. At the same time, compatibility features let you run many of the applications and devices you use today - including applications for Windows XP.

“How is Windows 7 better than Windows XP?”
Windows 7 Professional is easier to use, more reliable, more secure, and faster than Windows XP. Windows XP is nearly a decade old, with limited support for new hardware and software. On the other hand, Windows 7 Professional has been specifically designed to meet the growing demands of modern technology users with more sophisticated networking, mobility, entertainment, data protection, and compatibility features. And with Windows XP Mode,* you get the compatibility of Windows XP in Windows 7 Professional.
“Will my legacy applications work with Windows 7 Professional?“
Windows 7 Professional has an option to run some applications in compatibility mode. There is also Windows XP Mode,* a valuable transition tool that lets you run many existing older Windows XP applications. Windows XP Mode is easy to find and access from either the Start menu or the Windows 7 taskbar.

“Why do I need a new PC when my old one may run Windows 7 Professional?”
New PCs are designed to get the most out of Windows 7 in ways that older PCs simply can’t handle. Windows 7 Professional is preinstalled, preconfigured, and fully supported on a new PC, which helps to maximize performance for faster start-up, shutdown, and Web browsing. New PCs are also optimized for the latest peripheral software and mobility devices - supporting multi-touch functionality, all your wireless devices, Blu-ray, WiMAX, digital tuners, and much more. And with the improved battery life, you can keep going longer without having to stop and connect.
“Why choose Windows 7 Professional over Windows 7 Home Premium?”
With Windows 7 Professional, you get all of the home and entertainment features of Windows 7 Home Premium, as well as key business features. This gives users the experience that they are looking for in a PC. Backup Advanced lets you schedule a periodic backup to save your data or an entire system image to a network location or a local drive. This helps you quickly restore individual files or folders that get accidentally deleted. The Encrypting File System feature helps you protect your confidential information with powerful technologies that encrypt your files and folders. And Location-Aware Printing detects whether you’re at work or at home - automatically sending your documents to the right printer.

“How is Windows 7 Professional better than Windows Vista?”
With Windows 7 Professional, we listened to our business customers. First and foremost, we strengthened fundamentals around performance, reliability, and security. We improved ease of use through user interface (UI) improvements, better wireless networking, and more comprehensive (and comprehensible) troubleshooting. We added Windows XP Mode,* giving businesses the option to extend the life of older productivity applications by running them in a virtual Windows XP environment. And we made it easier to make the transition between work and home with features like Location-Aware Printing.
“How much time do I need to invest to learn how to use it?”
Using Windows 7 Professional is intuitive and easy. Everyday tasks have been streamlined and simplified—with commonly used resources put within easy reach and clutter minimized on the desktop. UI improvements make finding things easy - simply type a few letters in the search box, and documents, applications, or even menus appear in seconds. Easily access programs you use the most with one click by pinning them on your taskbar. Or with a simple keystroke, you can minimize or maximize windows or arrange them side by side.

“What are some of the new features in Windows 7 Professional?”


Feature highlights of Windows 7 Professional include:

Windows XP mode*

Run many older Windows XP productivity applications in Windows XP Mode.**

Domain join and group policy

Easily and more securely add Windows 7–based PCs to a domain network. With Group Policy, customers can better manage the security and costs of multiple PCs.

Advanced backup*

Schedule a periodic backup to save data or an entire system image to a network location or a
local drive.

Encrypting file system

Encrypt files and folders to protect confidential information ranging from customer information to financial data.

Location-aware printing*

Windows detects whether the user is at work or at home and automatically sends the documents to the right printer.

Presentation settings in Windows Mobility Centre

Users can apply options to help ensure optimal PC behaviour during presentations (e.g. automatically turning off instant messages from Windows LiveTM Messenger or Microsoft Office Outlook® notifications).

Remote desktop host

Access documents and programs on a computer remotely from another computer.

Offline files

Work offline and automatically synchronize between PC and network content.

Additional resources

Which Windows 7 is right for you?

Oct 21, 2009

Windows 7 officially will be released to the public on Thursday, and judging by our information, most readers have already decided to upgrade. For those who haven't, or for those who want a bit more information on just what you're getting with your Windows 7 Starter, Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate, take a look at the chart and explanation below.

windows 7 table

Windows 7 Starter is the lightweight version of the new operating system that only comes with Netbooks. It's not available for upgrade from Windows XP or Windows Vista, and it's fairly hamstrung. The 64-bit version isn't available, and the Backup and Restore Center won't work with network-based drives. It also lacks many of the key features that make Windows 7 appealing.
Aero is disabled, as is the new theme manager.

Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player aren't included, and so it shouldn't be surprising that none of the more advanced features is baked in, either. XP Mode, which will allow Windows 7 to run XP-only programs, Remote Desktop Host, BitLocker Drive Encryption, and multitouch support are all not available in Windows 7 Starter.

So just what does Starter offer? Users can pin programs to the Taskbar, and the helpful jump lists remain active, too. Snap still functions for quickly resizing program windows, although it doesn't have its slick Aero look. The revamped Windows Search will work, and other under-the-hood improvements--such as better Wi-Fi and device management--are also fully functional. Users can use the in-place Anytime Upgrade option to buy an upgrade from Starter to Home Premium.

Windows 7 Home Premium is the basic version that should appeal to most casual users. Most of the big features that Microsoft wants you to know about are included here. Aero Peek for previewing programs and clearing the desktop, Aero Snap for resizing program windows, and the Aero skin with its translucent Taskbar and window borders are all in full effect. Aero Shake is also enabled, which is a quick way to clear the desktop by clicking and holding down on one program window and lightly shaking, hiding all the other open windows.

Theme switching and customization is activated, and the Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player will allow users to stream video directly to their desktops. Multitouch features are enabled, and Home Premium can be used to create a Home Group, which simplifies sharing music, video, and other files between computers that are all members of the same group. It's also available in 64-bit, but can only support up to 16GB of physical RAM. Home Premium can be upgraded using the Anytime Upgrade to either Professional or Ultimate.
Although it sounds full-featured, Home Premium definitely offers less than Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Ultimate. Location-aware printing, presentation mode, and XP Mode are not available. Neither is BitLocker, AppLocker, the remote desktop host feature, nor Aero glass via remote. AppLocker is the new feature that allows system administrators to restrict program access from the Group Policy settings. You also can't use the Windows 7 Backup and Restore feature to work with network drives, just like Windows 7 Starter. That feature doesn't come in until the Pro version.

Windows 7 Professional is the power user edition of the new operating system. In addition to all the features in the Home Premium edition, Pro is designed to be flexible for dual use in the home and small business. It will support up to 192GB of physical RAM in 64-bit mode, it supports legacy Windows XP productivity programs via XP Mode, it can work with two physical processors, and it can back up your data to a networked drive. It still lacks the AppLocker and BitLocker features, it can't handle the pretty but superfluous remote Aero glass support, and it lacks the multilingual interface support pack.

Windows 7 Ultimate, supports those features plus virtual hard-disk booting and a subsystem for Unix applications. Although it's possible to conceive of some home uses for Ultimate, the features that separate it from Windows 7 Pro set it in a class that's almost exclusively for intensive international or network use. For most office or home power users, it's not really recommended.

There are several other versions of Windows 7 available. Windows 7 Home Basic is for emerging markets such as Bangladesh, China, India, and Mexico, and places itself between the Starter edition and the Home Premium edition in terms of features. Aero is partially enabled, for example. Windows 7 Enterprise is identical to the Ultimate edition, but is only available via volume licensing. The Europe-only "E" version was going to come without Internet Explorer, but that has changed to the "N" version that lacks the media player.

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