Microsoft released Windows 7 Beta few weeks ago and the only version that was released during this beta was Windows 7 Ultimate. However, a select testers were invited for a separate Windows 7 Home Premium Beta program. It is still unclear about the different Windows 7 versions that Microsoft is planning to release. A chinese website has leaked the Windows 7 build 7025 screenshots which could have answered the different versions of Windows 7, Microsoft is planning to release.
Without any further discussion, below is the leaked screenshot:
So, there you go. It looks like Microsoft is still going along Windows Vista's path in releasing a Windows 7 Starter and Windows 7 Home Basic editions. It is really disappointing to see a Windows 7 Home Basic edition - May be it is a 'touch-free' version or would it be a version specifically targeted towards netbooks?
One more thing to notice in the leaked screenshots are the good old Quick Launch and Show Desktop Icon!
Neowin had reported earlier that IE 8 RC1 is due soon and the leaked screenshots do confirm that IE 8 RC1 is on its way!
If you've missed our coverage of the new features in Windows 7, check out the links below:
- Windows 7 Beta quick review
- Windows 7: Windows Backup Overview
- Windows 7: Explorer Search overview
- Windows 7: Superbar overview
- Windows 7: HomeGroup Overview
- Windows 7: BitLocker To Go & Biometric improvements overview
- Windows 7: Easy Connect
- Windows 7: Problem Steps Recorder
- Windows 7: Action Center Overview
- Windows 7: User Account Control (UAC) Overview
- Windows 7: Calibate Your Display
- Windows 7: Federated Search
- Windows 7: Device Stage
- Windows 7: Internet Explorer 8 Overview
Images Courtesy: PCBETA
Another "bloat" parrot... Bloat, bloat, bloaty bloat! Rawk!
Windows 7 - Home
Windows 7 - Business
Windows 7 - Ultimate
Last edited by M2Ys4U on 25 Jan 2009 - 22:38
although you are right, all those versions of XP didnt sit on retail shelves side by side. it was home edition and professional.
But see, that's the thing. The version thing is only made a big deal by tech people. They really don't sit side by side. If you buy a computer from someone like Dell, it'll likely have Home Premium. You'll probably also have the choice to get Ultimate, if you're a power user, or Business, if you're a business user.
None of that is so confusing. Then you have Stater which is for developing markets, so that's not even in the mix most place, and home basic, which, I agree, is somewhat pointless.
So in the end, there is arguably one too many versions. You could probably blend both Home versions together, but at the same time, there is an argument for both. Home Basic is fine for my grandparents, and hell, probably my parents. Home Premium is fine for more advanced users, or users who want more features, and Ultimate is mainly for people who need top of the line features or are enthusiasts who want it all.
So overall, why is it bad to have choice? If someone is too lazy to sit down and read the feature comparisons and decide what they need, that's their problem. Don't shoot the company that offers choice.
None of that is so confusing. Then you have Stater which is for developing markets, so that's not even in the mix most place, and home basic, which, I agree, is somewhat pointless.
So in the end, there is arguably one too many versions. You could probably blend both Home versions together, but at the same time, there is an argument for both. Home Basic is fine for my grandparents, and hell, probably my parents. Home Premium is fine for more advanced users, or users who want more features, and Ultimate is mainly for people who need top of the line features or are enthusiasts who want it all.
So overall, why is it bad to have choice? If someone is too lazy to sit down and read the feature comparisons and decide what they need, that's their problem. Don't shoot the company that offers choice.
i'm with you on that. i always thought vista's setup (minus home basic) was fine. these days i think people are always buying a computer with an oem copy preinstalled. quite obvious the 'business' edition is going to be for business use. home premium for home, and ultimate for everything. the stupid part for sure though was home basic & home premium.. especially when they differ by $10 in price now.
Or Home Basic. Or Business. (and yes, I've experienced Dell laptops in all these shipping configurations, and no, it's not even rare to have Basic laptops -- that's often their budget segment)
And they do sit side by side, check the online stores...
Without looking it up can you guys list the differences between all the versions?
Just think how the Average consumer feels when presented with this choice.
Without looking it up can you guys list the differences between all the versions?
Just think how the Average consumer feels when presented with this choice.
sure.. home basic - like home premium but missing things like media center, window transparency, dvd maker, etc.. business has ability to join domain as key feature for business use. ultimate provides all features.
i think the confusing part is home basic and premium. one 'home' edition would be best. and you'd have to be stupid to not agree that the name 'business' is self explanatory. theres no way average joe should order a PC configured with home premium and wonder if he should be upgrading to business or not. actually, business is an even more clear name than professional was for xp
What version you have is displayed on the login screen, and in the control panel.
If Apple can have 7% of market so can MS. Period. Oh, wait...!
classic!
Sounds like the problem is your father's, not Microsofts.
Anyway, if you are the kind of user that does not even know which version you are using, it usually means that you do not need to know.
Yeah, that would be awesome but this is still an improvement. No one is going to ever install Starter, so really it's only 4, and Basic is pretty useless also so really it's only three. I do get what you are saying though.
And that's why it shouldn't be marketed as either a separate product, or bundled with computers. It'll only make Windows 7 look worse and spread bad PR as a less capable OS. My parents are two among many who got Vista Home Basic on their Dell computer, and it's henceforth known as Vista by them. It really doesn't look good.
I can't imagine why they turned it on in a screenshot...
May be to just confuse people
It's a little better behaved in Vista (vs XP), but turning it off with the Toolbars menu doesn't do it permanently - have to right click and set to hidden or turn off advanced text services.
I dearly hope that this is just a customized installation where these features were explicitly enabled. They were pleasant absences from build 7000.
The real annoyance for me is when you connect through Remote Desktop from a system with a different keyboard layout set, when you disconnect the host then keeps the language bar, with the option for that keyboard listed, and there is no way to get rid of it without a reboot, as your regional & keyboard settings don't actually list that language.
In the sources folder look for ei.cfg
Open it and notice why you can't choose which edition of win7 you want during install.
People have test it, removing that files will allow you to select which edition you want but strange part is fact the the beta keys won't allow you to activate it
Or possibly just the disc that's in the drive.
... Most likely.
Actually, no. But I'm tired of hearing rumors that go out of control... People just need some patience, as well as credible sources....
Last edited by TCLN Ryster on 26 Jan 2009 - 11:59
This is where id really agree with Apples stand point. Just one version. After all even a business owner would love to have the multimedia options that Home premium or ultimate might have. Just does not make that much sense..
Oh well.. either way even if we cry about it, Microsoft is still going to put out these other useless versions of Windows 7. Absolutely ridiculous.
It's not like they have different versions of the xbox360's software, or the Zune firmware.
I also think it is a HUGE mistake not to let Windows 7 upgrade from XP. That is where the real money is for MS this time around. 7 is fast and light enough to work quite well on even older machines that choked on Vista. It's good enough to convert the holdouts...period.
It's that simple, really.
dont do it this time Ms.
dont do it this time Ms.
Ultimate is a combination of Home Premium and Business. It is NOT Home Premium + Extras.
Three years and people still don't get it.
Wow, that's a damn bold statement to make, especially on Neowin, following the flood of complaints that arose at one point.
Nobody, are you sure about that?
Nobody, are you sure about that?
In my case, Nobody has a point. I could care less about the Ultimate Extras. While Media Center is included in Home Premium, Remote Desktop is not, and as a home user supporting other home users, Remote Desktop is far too useful. Not all technical users work out of a cubicle or even at a corpoate locale. Another big user group for Vista Ultimate is telecommuters (this may likely be the biggest group of atypical Ultimate users), as a multi-purpose desktop or notebook deserves an operating system that can fit just as well on the boardroom as it can at the LAN party. Sorry, but neither Home Premium or Business cuts the mustard there.
I hope they include both.
...both are included.
I am glad that they added this. I don't like the new thingies on the taskbar.
I Want My Quick Launch Toolbar Back! You might have noticed that the old faithful Quick Launch toolbar is not only disabled by default in Windows 7, it’s actually missing from the list of toolbars. As is probably obvious, the concept of having a set of pinned shortcut icons is now integrated directly into the new taskbar. Based on early user interface testing, we think that the vast majority of users out there (i.e. not the kind of folk who read this blog, with the exception of my mother) will be quite happy with the new model, but if you’re after the retro behavior, you’ll be pleased to know that the old shortcuts are all still there. To re-enable it, do the following:
Right-click the taskbar, choose Toolbars / New Toolbar
In the folder selection dialog, enter the following string and hit OK:
%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
Turn off the “lock the taskbar” setting, and right-click on the divider. Make sure that “Show text” and “Show title” are disabled and the view is set to “small icons”.
Use the dividers to rearrange the toolbar ordering to choice, and then lock the taskbar again.
If it’s not obvious by the semi-tortuous steps above, it’s worth noting that this isn’t something we’re exactly desperate for folks to re-enable, but it’s there if you really need it for some reason. Incidentally, we’d love you to really try the new model first and give us feedback on why you felt the new taskbar didn’t suit your needs.
Change to small icons, disable grouping, unpin items from taskbar.
Please also note that it does not state a "64 bit version of Ultimate" either (I am working with the 64 bit version at the moment (build 7000))!!!
I am VERY suspicious of this picture indeed !!!
Why ? Simple .... Two IE icons in the "Quick Launch" area and most surprisingly Media Player out of the area.
Lastly the Windows Explorer icon..... In one screenshot its in the "Quick Launch" area and in the other it is NOT !
But . . . I'm not really sure if it would be appropriate for MS' bottom line. Their business model is quite different, and frankly it might be too late to do what Apple does in this area.
If Apple had a much larger market share, and dominated the corporate world, then Steve Jobs would be an idiot for not releasing a Business version of OSX that included specific corporate-level technologies while removing features that are inappropriate and insecure for a corporate network. Likewise, if Steve Jobs was working with OEM hardware companies to compete in the Netbook market, he would be an idiot for not introducing a lighter version of OSX to compete at a lower price point and lower hardware requirements.
There will always be a need for 'Home' and 'Business' versions of the O/S. Ultimate is for power users, and while Basic was for low-end hardware, it will most likely be redirected towards the Netbook and UMPC market
When you have the vast majority of the Home AND Business-level market share, work with hundreds of hardware vendors, support a wide variety of complex and scalable systems(such as Nuclear Submarines), and become the exclusive target of every brilliant hacker mind in the world, you need to have enough flexibility to meet the demands of each specific market. Microsoft has this flexibility by releasing multiple versions of it's software, as do most other software developer on the planet.
Apple does not do any of these things, and chooses not to, so they only need one version. It makes perfect sense for Apple, and it makes absolutely no sense for any other company that differs from their company strategy.
bull****e. You're just buying the marketing 101 spin hook, line, and sinker. With modern computers, there's no REAL reason not to have one version of Windows 7 and MS deliberately GIMPS their flagship OS just to create market segmentation to charge different prices to different people. All it really does is **** off OEMs, cause a lot of support problems all through the chain, and confuse the Hell out of end-users worldwide. It was a dumb idea for XP, ludicrously expanded for Vista, and completely unnecessary for Windows 7.
OEM vendors love the different versions, as it allows flexibility in their hardware pricing. They can sell their average models at a more competitive price by licensing Home Premium instead of Ultimate, while using Ultimate as a selling point on their higher end models. Vista Business can be a major selling point with Business executives who are willing to spend top dollar for that carbon-fiber Sony Vaio.
OSX doesn't need to compete on different hardware platforms at different price points, because there is only one: Apple. However, other vendors, both hardware and software alike, have to compete across multiple markets.
If you are going to bash Microsoft for splitting their software features across multiple markets, then you should also bash every other hardware and software company that is guilty of doing it too. Oh wait.. every other company does the EXACT SAME THING. They must all be wrong, right?
I for one love the new taskbar.
Is it so impossible the user just did those changed? I have my B1 machine set up like that.
Home Basic - NEVER/RARELY seen even low end PC's and netbooks can run Aero, so it might just be a "cheaper option" on machines, or perhaps "basic" just means "no Media Center".
Business - more tech savvy/Professional users that don't need Media Center
Ultimate - those that want it all
Yeah, Windows 7 N, N for Nothing but the Command Prompt
Just install the last beta and calm down. It wasn't very impressive.
EDIT: Just heard it's a fake :-)
I for one don't see the need for it anymore. I'll just pin the apps I always use to the new taskbar, and pin other less frequent apps to the start menu. For anything else just use the start menus search box to type in the name and run it that way.
Hack the registry? its just a simple short cut toolbar you make lol, no registry needed.
The start button is taller than the taskbar. Everybody knows the start button is same height as the taskbar in Windows 7.
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