Freezebyte

I'm just curious what the OS guru's would suggest for me. I've only had Vista for a year now after finally saying goodbye to Win Xp Pro for almost seven years. Its been a pretty good OS honestly, but i've been hearing so many good things about Windows 7 and after finding out that I can purchase OEM copies much cheaper then I thought, I've decided i'll give Windows 7 a go once it arrives next week.

Kinda hoping that my slow ass network and file transfers, weird boot up issues, random computer freezes, HDD trashing and just plain strange vista "occurrences" will go away with with upgrading Win 7.

The only question remains is, is it worth the extra cash to get the Professional 64bit version over the Home Premium? This will be primarily for my game machine listed below. My home network is just workgroup and not domain name run on a gigabit network with a 360 and a MCE 2005 OS downstairs on my HTPC that I wanna still be able to function with Win 7.

The Win XP compatibility mode intrigues me in case I have stuff that may no run on Win 7 or has never worked with Vista like some of my older games. Dunno how much i'll use it, but i'm curious none the less.

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RapidFireGT

Looking through the version comparisons, it looks like the only difference is the XP mode. Everything else can be replaced with 3rd party (and probably better) software.

Personally, I never had any problems with old apps not running properly in Vista, so I don't expect it to be a problem in Windows 7 either.

The thing that I am curious about is whether or not you could use XP Mode on Home Premium? It says that XP Mode will be a separate download for Professional and Ultimate. Does that mean if you can acquire the download by other means, that it will install on Home Premium?

/me thinks there may be a way to get XP Mode on Home Premium, if you're willing to go that route

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zodac

XP Mode is the main difference. I haven't come across a program that worked in XP and didn't in Win7 since one of the earlier builds. Not sure what the price difference between the versions is, but unless they're very close in price, Home Premium will suffice.

Plus you could always dual-boot with XP if you need to.

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mcastaneda68

Win 7 Pro has 3 features not available in Home Premium:

1.- XP Mode
2.- Domain Network support
3.- Backup to network devices

1.- XP Mode is a virtualization solution as described here by www.tomshardware.com
Since you own a legal copy of WinXP, you can make it work using VMware server (free download) or MS Virtualbox while still using Win 7 Home Premium.

2.- Seems that you don't need it
3.- It is a nice to have that can be replaced by other software.

Although it is different from Win 7, I ran my laptop with a retail version of Vista Ultimate for 2 years and finally went back to the original Vista Home Premium. None of the Ultimate features were worth it. I am running it now with Home Premium.

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P55 motherboard specification tables (Asus)

V.I.P.

Do you guys see a big improvement over Home Premium? I'm a student and I can get the Home Premium for $30. But, if I can get Pro in place of it would it be worth the wait or a bit more cost?

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zodac

Not unless you need XP Mode. Everything else can be replaced with other programs, or isn't useful.

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todd2008

Good for E-Peen, apparently.

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