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Windows Vista Home Basic vs. Home Premium vs. Business vs. Ultimate

Microsoft applauded shipping in excess of 60 million Windows Vista licenses in the operating system's first six months of general availability. However, the Redmond company is right on track to correct this little slip up.
windows - comments - 20.8.2007

Vista Home Basic on 512MB? Hey, it works!

Everyone knows Windows Vista is a resource hog. Everyone says it doesnt even get out of first gear without a gigabyte of RAM, and it takes 2 GB before it stops stuttering and stammering with each mouse click.
windows - comments - 12.5.2007

Enable both Aero and Glass in Vista Home Basic

I'm gonna give u some tips for people who are stuck up with Vista Home Basic I really never wanted to have the Vista Home Basic. But when i got my Lappy i had no other option, but to stick on with this OEM version.
windows - comments - 28.10.2007

Vistalizator - Install Multiple Languages MUI on Vista Home, Basic & Starter Edition

Windows Vista Home, Basic and Starter editions are available at low prices compared to Windows Vista Ultimate edition however Vista Home, Basic & Starter editions have many restrictions like support for only one language, No Aero support, no remote desktop etc.
download - comments - 4.8.2009

Do you need more than Windows 7 Home Premium?

One of the most frequent questions I get these days comes from people whove been running the Windows 7 beta and RC and are planning to upgrade to the final version when its available on October 22. Which edition of Windows 7 do I need?
windows - comments - 1.7.2009

Windows 7 RTM Home Basic Screenshot Gallery

Microsoft first confirmed the Stock Keeping Unit strategy for Windows 7 at the start of February 2009, promising a simplified product line-up, as well as a marketing strategy focusing in particular on the Home Premium and Professional editions.
windows - comments - 22.8.2009

Windows 7 Home Premium beta released to testers

A trusted source has indicated that Microsoft has released Windows 7 Home Premium beta to a select group of 1000 users to get a firsthand look at the next major release of Windows.
windows - comments - 8.1.2009

Windows 7 Home Premium full edition for 45 [UK]

If you're a brit and in need of a cheap copy of Windows 7 then its bargain day for the UK today.
windows - comments - 14.9.2009

Maximum Hardware Specifications for Small Notebook PC (Netbook) on Windows 7 Starter (and Home Basic in China)

Microsoft has a list of Windows 7 minimum recommended system hardware specification requirement for desktop, notebook, netbook, nettop, laptop computer and tablet PC that intends to run any versions and editions of Windows 7.
windows - comments - 23.7.2009

Home Computer - Home Network - Home Server

In the 1960s & 70s the idea of a home computer was unheard of outside of science fiction circles. Before the late 1980s home networks were unheard of.
microsoft - comments - 2.12.2007

Windows 7 Professional $99.99 and Home Premium $49.99 Discounts Now Live

On the same day that it announced officially the pricing of Windows 7, Microsoft also revealed that customers would have the opportunity to buy the two main editions of the next iteration of Windows at discounted prices.
windows - comments - 26.6.2009

Buy Windows 7 Ultimate for Just $99.99, Home Premium for Just $49.99

While the Windows 7 SKU official pricing is nothing short of being on par with that of Windows Vista's editions, with the exception of Home Premium, Microsoft does have something special in stores for consumers.
windows - comments - 25.6.2009

New Vista Home Page Launches

Microsoft has launched the new vista home page.
windows - comments - 29.1.2007

Microsoft: virtualization not mature enough for home Vista users

In general, nobody reads end-user license agreements (EULAs). They are long, boring, and full of legalese that few people care to take the time to understand. Occasionally, however, unusual wordings in EULAs are used to question a company's policies and intentions, especially when that company is Microsoft.
microsoft - comments - 25.11.2006

Microsoft Announces the Availability of Vista SP1, XP SP3 and Windows Home Server

Microsoft is currently hard at work cooking the first service pack for Windows Vista and the third and final service pack for Windows XP. On top of these two refreshes for its last releases of the Windows client, Microsoft has also debuted in the area of home servers in July 2007, with the RTM of Windows Home Server.
windows - comments - 9.10.2007

The Piratebay returns home!

It looks like The Piratebay is back home again. The Piratebay had to move because the Swedish police raided their servers. But, after a short stay in The Netherlands the torrent tracker returned to their provider ?PRQ? in Sweden.
common - comments - 15.6.2006

Home Server: The best kept secret ...

Windows Home Server was a secret for a long time. We had over 1,000 internal testers at Microsoft prior to announcing the product at CES 2007, some of these people used the product for over a year without leaking anything about it.
windows - comments - 26.7.2007

At Home with HomeGroup in Windows 7

Like many places weve spent the past few weeks under quite a bit of snow, which is pretty unusual for Seattle! Most of us on the team took advantage of the snow time to install test builds of Windows 7 on our home machines as we finalize the beta for early 2009I know I felt like I installed it on 7000 different machines.
windows - comments - 1.1.2009

Microsoft Home of the future v2.0

In a teenager's bedroom of the future, the interactive wallpaper will combine images of friends, favorite bands and places to create something akin to an online MySpace page in the real world.
microsoft - comments - 2.10.2006

Microsoft's Testing New Home Page

The software giant is testing a new home page, and do I detect some AJAX?
microsoft - comments - 18.11.2006

Windows Home Server Preview

At the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week Microsoft previewed its long-awaited Windows Home Server (WHS) product, a Windows Server 2003 R2-based server for consumers that dispenses with the complexities of most Windows Server versions and provides the core storage, sharing, and remote access functionality that digital media and home networking enthusiasts require.
windows - comments - 8.1.2007

New information on Windows Home Server

Joel Sider, Senior Product Manager, Windows Server PR Microsoft Corp. provided some new information about Home Server.
windows - comments - 17.1.2007

Windows Home Server Blog

The Microsoft Home Server Team started Blogging, some interesting facts from the first posts.
microsoft - comments - 5.2.2007

More Buyers home in on Office 2007

Before you get right down to the numbers regarding Office 2007 outselling Office 2003 (so far), Ill tell you why I think this is.
microsoft - comments - 14.2.2007

Microsoft WGA phones home?

Analysts over at the German web site Heise Online have uncovered a curious behavior with the latest Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) update.
microsoft - comments - 10.3.2007

Microsoft: Build Your Own Home Server

Microsoft this week released a beta software development kit for Windows Home Server, the company's newest operating system version for connecting multiple PCs and digital devices in a home.
microsoft - comments - 8.4.2007

Windows Home Server patch is out

Hewlett Packard now has its hands on the Windows Home Server (WHS) update for which it decided to delay its MediaSmart Home Server.
windows - comments - 20.9.2007

Windows Home Server goes on Sale in the US

Windows Home Server is finally available in the US! You can pick it up at Newegg.com for $190
windows - comments - 11.10.2007

Serious Windows Home Server concerns

As is the case with my problems with the Xbox 360's Fall 2007 Dashboard Update, where I am having many issues that no one else seems to be having, I'm sort of hoping that what I'm seeing on Windows Home Server (WHS) lately is just me.
windows - comments - 22.12.2007

Windows Home Server - Now available on MSDN

A key benefit of Windows Home Server is the versatility and power it offers as a development platform. Even when Windows Home Server software was still in the beta stage, we published a software development kit (SDK) so that 3rd party developers could develop interesting add-ins for the product. See the original post, "Developers, Developers, Developers".
windows - comments - 25.3.2009

Windows 7 Home Premium beta released to testers

A trusted source has indicated that Microsoft has released Windows 7 Home Premium beta to a select group of 1000 users to get a firsthand look at the next major release of Windows. The Home Premium beta comes listed with an assortment of features, few less than the public release of Windows 7 due on Friday to everybody, mentioned in tonight's annual CES keynote. The Home Premium is a perfect suit for home users, with a cheaper price tag, compared with Vista Home Premium, to Vista Ultimate, and a few less built in programs, that are only available to the full version.

Read full story.....
neowin.net - 08.01.2009

Look who's buying Vista Home Basic (hint: it's not home users)

Ed Bott: Who's buying new PCs with Windows Vista Home Basic? Judging by the name, you'd assume those OS editions would be loaded on underpowered machines headed for tract homes in the burbs and studio apartments in the city. But you'd be wrong.



Based on my observations of the PC market over the past year or two, I think consumers have rejected Home Basic in favor of Home Premium. But small, budget-conscious businesses have embraced the low-end OS.




winbeta.org - 10.10.2008

Microsoft was advised not to brand Home Basic as Vista

A key area of controversy in an ongoing lawsuit is whether Microsoft misled consumers by allowing computer makers to label PCs as "Vista Capable" when they could only run the most basic version of the Vista operating system, known as Vista Home Basic. Turns out Microsoft was advised to not put the Vista name on Home Basic computers at all.




winbeta.org - 22.01.2009

Amazon Begins Selling Windows Vista

Online retailer Amazon.com has begun to accept pre-orders for Windows Vista, which it says "will be released on January 30, 2007." The company is charging $399 USD for the Ultimate Edition of Vista, $239 USD for Home Premium and $199 USD for Home Basic. Vista Business is priced at $299 USD...
betanews.com - 29.08.2006

Microsoft cuts Windows Vista price to $66 in China

As was noted a couple days ago, Microsoft has now officially dramatically cut the price of Windows Vista in China in a bid to boost sales of its new operating system.



Microsoft cut the retail price of Windows Vista Home Basic in China to 499 renminbi ($65.80), from 1,521 renminbi -- a 67 percent reduction. The Home Premium version of Vista also got a significant price reduction, down 50 percent from 1,802 renminbi to 899 renminbi.



The new prices, which were introduced Wednesday and outlined in a statement from the company on Friday, represent a steep discount compared to what users in the U.S. and elsewhere are charged for the software. Microsoft's Web site lists the recommend U.S. retail price of Vista Home Basic at $199, with Home Premium priced at $239.



Microsoft sold 60 million Vista licenses by the end of June, but many in the industry remain unimpressed by the new operating system. ..
winbeta.org - 03.08.2007

Discover Windows Vista Home Premium

Columnist S.E. Slack shares her favorite features of Windows Vista Home Premium...
microsoft.com/windowsvista - 23.11.2006

Consumer Versions of Vista Available Early

mwave.com lists several editions of Windows Vista as in stock and ready to ship



Although the official launch of Windows Vista won't take place until January 30, that hasn't stopped some online retailers from making the operating system available early. mwave.com is listing three Vista SKUs on its website that are in stock and ready to ship.



The OEM versions of Vista listed on mwave.com's website are significantly cheaper than the retail pricing for Vista listed below:



* Windows Vista Home Basic, $199/$99.95

* Windows Vista Home Premium, $239/$159

* Windows Vista Business, $299/$199

* Windows Vista Ultimate, $399/$259



The editions available include Vista 32-bit Home Basic OEM (Microsoft Part Number: 66G-00576) for $89.90, Vista 32-bit Home Basic OEM 3-pack (Microsoft Part Number: 66G-00613) for $268.90 and Vista 32-bit Business OEM (Microsoft Part Number: 66J-02289) for $139.90. As of today, there were no listings for Vista Home Premium or Vista Ultimate on the site.




jcxp.net - 22.01.2007

Vista Home Premium: $86 Shipped

Good deal at Micro Center: The OEM version of Windows Vista Home Premium for a mere $80, 1/2 or 1/3 of the retail price and $22 less than Neweggs normal price. With $6 shipping you can be enjoying Vista on the cheap. Just remember that, as an OEM version, it can only be installed on one computer and cannot be moved to another PC later on.




winbeta.org - 02.10.2007

Windows Gets Back to Basic

Will retailers and OEMs put a little Vista coal in this year's holiday stocking? Windows Home Basic and integrated graphics SKUs could lead to surprisesas in uh-ohs, not wowsfor some holiday shoppers.



Whether there is coal or not may depend on the elf. Some OEMs are offering surprisingly good Vista SKUs and even no Windows Basic configurations.



That said, in a rush to drive down notebook prices even further, some OEMs and retailers are pushing Basic SKUs for the holidays and continuing the trend of integrated graphics. While most retailers offer many more Home Premium SKUs than Basic, the biggest advertised sales are for laptops with Windows Basic. Surprising: the operating system is finding place in higher-priced SKUs, which is a holiday trend.




winbeta.org - 27.11.2007

Microsoft to Offer Vista Family Pack' Discount for Ultimate

Please keep in mind that the source of this news posting is a blog. Microsoft has not officially announced or commented on the discount. Mary Jo Foley blogged: "sources said that Microsoft will announce some time over the next few days that the company will allow Vista Ultimate customers to purchase two additional copies of Vista Home Premium for somewhere between $50 to $99 a piece."

Only if you purchase a retail a copy of Vista Ultimate ($399 USD) do you qualify for the "Family Pack" promotion. Let me emphasize that again: retail does not mean OEM. As a part of the Windows Anytime Upgrade marketing plan, a user would be able to use the Vista Ultimate DVD to install the Home Premium licenses on the additional computers. These "sources", however, cannot agree on the price of an additional copy: either $49.95 or $99.95. Even if it is the latter, that's still over twice as cheap (Home Premium retails at $240).

Let's do some basic math, shall we? If you purchase Ultimate and two additional Home Premium copies, you will be paying $600. That is much cheaper than buying 3 x Home Premium which would leave you dishing out $720. And you get Ultimate. However, you'll need at least 3 computers in the household that are Vista-ready or you won't really be saving much.


neowin.net - 16.01.2007

Vista Licenses Limit OS Transfers, Ban VM Use

"TechWeb has posted an article regarding Vista's new license and how it allows you to only move it to another device once. How will this work for people who build their PCs? I have no intention of purchasing a new license every time I swap out motherboards. 'The first user of the software may reassign the license to another device one time.

If you reassign the license, that other device becomes the "licensed device," reads the license for Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate, and Business. In other words, once a retail copy of Vista is installed on a PC, it can be moved to another system only once. ...

Elsewhere in the license, Microsoft forbids users from installing Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium in a virtual machine. "You may not use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system," the legal language reads. Vista Ultimate and Vista Business, however, can be installed within a VM.'" Overly Critical Guy points out more information about changes to Vista's EULA and the new usage restrictions. "For instance, Home Basic users can't copy ISOs to their hard drives, can't run in a virtualized environment, and can only share files and printers to a maximum of 5 network devices."


neowin.net - 13.10.2006

Bargain: Windows 7 Home Premium full edition for £45 [UK]

If you're a brit and in need of a cheap copy of Windows 7 then its bargain day for the UK today. Tesco is currently offering Windows 7 Home Premium for £49.97, coupled with a discount code from the folks at HotUKdeals, you can get the full edition of Windows 7 Home Premium for £44.97 delivered. Here's how:Visit the Tesco listingadd to basketcheckoutuse voucher code TDX-SFFT If you're not sure whether Home Premium is good enough for you then checkout our feature comparison chart to see the difference between the editions. Obviously the copy won't arrive until October 22 when Microsoft's latest OS is released. Enjoy.

Read full story.....
neowin.net - 13.09.2009

Microsoft Windows Vista Editions Finalised

According to sources close to Microsoft, the company has finalised the editions that they will be releasing mid-end of October 2006.

To co-inside with the 5 year anniversary of Windows XP, Microsoft will release the following editions:

-Windows Vista
-Windows Vista Business
-Windows Vista Business N
-Windows Vista Home Basic
-Windows Vista Home Basic N
-Windows Vista Home Premium
-Windows Vista Small Business
-Windows Vista Ultimate

Microsoft is clearly adhering to the European Commissions ruling that an unbundled version of Windows (without Windows Media Player) needs to be available to all OEMs and retail outlets hence forth.

Unfortunately we're unsure of the specifics of each version as this has not been finalised yet.


jcxp.net - 13.02.2006

Wal-Mart: Microsoft should kill Vista Home Basic

Preston Gralla: You may think of Wal-Mart as a down-market PC seller, but as emails in the Vista "junk PC" case show, Wal-Mart was furious at Microsoft's Vista Capable scheme, and thought that Vista Home Basic never should have been developed, much less released. They're not alone. Other retailers, notably Office Depot, thought Vista Home Basic should have been killed. Here's all the dirt, including emails.



The recently unsealed Microsoft emails are part of the lawsuit against Microsoft for a marketing scheme in which people claim that Microsoft misled consumers into buying the Windows Vista Capable PCs, even though the PCs couldn't run the most important features of Vista...




winbeta.org - 05.03.2008

Windows Anytime Upgrade & Family Discount Announced

Nick White, Product Manager at Microsoft working on the Windows Vista launch team and Featured Communities leader has posted up the pricing for the Anytime Upgrade option available from within Windows when you buy a version of Vista lesser than "Ultimate".

On January 30th Windows Anytime Upgrade will allow customers to purchase and download a digital key to upgrade to a more feature-rich edition of Windows Vista. The user will then complete the upgrade process by inserting the Windows Vista DVD that came with their PC or with their retail purchase of Windows Vista. The program will be available in the US, Canada, Europe and Japan.

The pricing is as follows:Micro soft have also launched the Windows Vista Family Discount, as posted here earlier in the week. This offer applies to the US & Canada only, here's how that works:

neowin.net - 19.01.2007

More clues: Why Microsoft backtracked on its Vista virtualization plans

Last week, Microsoft nixed at the last minute planned changes to its Windows Vista end-user license agreement (EULA) that would have broadened virtualization rights. Since then, speculation has been mounting as to why Microsoft did this.

Fear of Mac OS X and Linux on the desktop? A desire to thwart Parallels and VMWare? DRM concerns?

Queries to Microsoft regarding why company officials nixed the planned easing of Vistas virtualiztion license were met with We have nothing further to say. Period.

I realized over the weekend that none of us press/bloggers who was briefed by Microsoft on the planned changes had run the text of the EULA wording Microsoft officials provided to us. Maybe one of you out there will see some clues the rest of us missed as to why Microsoft decided to continue to ban users from running legally Vista Home Basic or Vista Home Premium in virtualized environments...
winbeta.org - 25.06.2007

Is Microsoft 'capable' of stopping Vista Capable lawsuit?

Microsoft would dearly love the Vista Capable lawsuit to just go away, but once the wheels of justice start grinding, can any amount of grease stop the squeaky wheel?



Microsofts Vista Capable class action lawsuit is in the news again, this time because Microsoft wants an appeals court to reverse the decision to have granted the case official class action status.



The whole situation bubbled up because a number of consumers felt duped by the Vista Capable sticker that implied a computer with such a label would be able to run Vista, presumably at least the Home Premium version of Vista with the fancy Aero graphics, instead of the Vista Home Basic version which had no such capability.




winbeta.org - 11.03.2008

Class Action Lawsuit Claims 'Vista Capable' is Misleading

A lady in Washington state who apparently purchased a computer in late 2006 bearing the "Vista Capable" sticker, and who only later discovered it was only capable of running Vista Home Basic, has filed a class action lawsuit against Microsoft in her home state, seeking in excess of $5 million...
betanews.com - 04.04.2007

Windows 7 Home Premium and Server betas available to public

Microsoft released the Windows 7 betas to the public last week. The software company also sent out a hardware newsletter to its ecosystem partners on Friday January 9th detailing the Windows 7 beta. In the newsletter the spokesperson mentions "If you are a hardware partner but do not have a Winqual account, you can access the Windows 7 Beta by entering invitation ID Win7-3HQW-RF74 on the Microsoft Connect homepage." By using this ID on the Connect site you can gain access to Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Server betas. Last week We revealed that Microsoft is currently only offering the Home Premium bits only to 1000 testers for Windows Any Time Upgrade testing.

Read full story.....
neowin.net - 15.01.2009

Consumer Versions of Windows Vista Available Early

The official launch of Windows Vista is planned for January 30. Some online retailers have, however, made the operating system available early. mwave.com states that it has Vista 32-bit Home Basic OEM for $89.90, Vista 32-bit Home Basic OEM 3-pack for $268.90 and Vista 32-bit Business OEM for $139.90, all in stock and ready to ship. Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate are currently unavailable. Customers are limited to two copies of Vista Home Basic OEM or Vista Business OEM and they must be purchased with hardware for licensing reasons. You can probably get away with ordering a really cheap piece of hardware and still saving a lot over the retail price of Vista. Overclockers UK has previously also started listing OEM versions of Vista.


neowin.net - 22.01.2007