Which version of Windows 7 do you need

There are lots of Windows 7 versions available, they’ve just gone live for download for the IT Pro’s and Developers who subscribe to Technet and MSDN, but which version do you need?  This is the simple guide:

Home Premium: Most home users will want this, you get all the media features (like Media Center).  It’s the sweet spot, most consumers will want this.

Professional:  Most small businesses will be going for this option, it’s also good for home users who fall into the “enthusiast” category – that is if you like to play.  You can join a business network (a Domain or Active Directory) with this.

Ultimate: If you want EVERYTHING including the ability to encrypt USB drives to keep them secure.

Enterprise: If you’re a big business you’ll want this.

Home Basic: This version is lower priced, but misses out on most of the media features and other cooler stuff.

Starter: You might get this if you buy a net book, otherwise you won’t be likely to come across it.  It’s the most basic version suitable for low powered PCs.

How to tell if your new hardware is Windows 7 compatible

 The Windows Blog has some interesting information about the Windows 7 logo scheme.  For those who don’t know about it, which is probably most people, the logo scheme helps to clearly identify devices that give the best experience with Windows 7.  The networking changes in Windows 7 are superb and it’s even easier to set stuff up quickly and most importantly securely with Windows 7.  The logo scheme gives you the guarantee that everything will work perfectly, including things that have traditionally gone a bit awry such as UPnP or discovering other devices on your network.

Also worth noting is that any network device that support media playback, like TVs and network speakers with the logo will be fully DLNA compliant too so there’s a good chance they’ll work with other components of your DLNA setup.  Logoed devices will also appear in Device Stage so you’ll only have to go to one place to configure your devices.