Ed Bott's Microsoft Report

July 1st, 2009

Microsoft to offer Family Pack for Windows 7 Home Premium

Posted by Ed Bott @ 9:40 pm

Categories: Apple, Licensing, Windows 7

Tags: Apple Inc., Agreement, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Ed Bott

In two recent posts (Windows 7 versus Snow Leopard: How much do upgrades really cost? and Do you need more than Windows 7 Home Premium?), I took a closer look at the differences between Windows 7 editions and their counterparts from Apple. In the Talkback section of both posts, several commenters noted that Microsoft is still far behind its archrival in Cupertino. Until Microsoft comes out with a Family Pack license, they say, Apple will continue to have the upper hand.

Well, maybe the wait is over.

Thanks to a tip from Kristan Kenney, I took a close look at the agreements embedded in the License folder of the latest leaked builds of Windows 7. This is no longer a beta license agreement and is presumably very close to the final agreement that customers will accept. The agreements for retail copies of Windows 7 Home Premium contain this eye-opening clause:

If you can’t read the screen shot, here’s the relevant section: “If you are a ‘Qualified Family Pack User’, you may install one copy of the software marked as ‘Family Pack’ on three computers in your household for use by people who reside there.” (And a proofreading note to Microsoft Legal: Fix the typo in the last sentence of that clause before RTM.)

When I first wrote about Windows 7 pricing last month, I speculated that Microsoft was likely to have a program like this up its sleeve:

What else can we expect to see? Back in early 2007, Microsoft offered a so-called Family Discount for Windows Vista, which allowed anyone with a Vista Ultimate license to purchase two Home Premium upgrades for $49.99 each. I expect to see an improved version of the Family Discount this time around. If Microsoft wanted to aim directly at its archrival Apple, it could sell three Home Premium upgrade licenses (to be used only in a single home) for $199 or less.

I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that Microsoft prices the Family Pack at $189, which is $10 less than Apple’s Family Pack (although Apple’s license is good for five Macs in a single household).

By the way, these same terms are also contained in the license agreement for Windows 7 Home Premium E (the one sold in Europe, sans Internet Explorer), as well as the N, K, and KN Home Premium versions, which are also deliberately gutted of one or more features to satisfy antitrust authorities. The Family Pack language  is not included in the license agreement for any other Windows 7 edition.

Just as with Apple’s Family Pack license (PDF), the deal will apparently be restricted to users in a single household and is not available for business users. Apple’s agreement specifically says: “The Family Pack License does not extend to business or commercial users.” No such clause is in the Windows 7 license agreement, but it’s probably contained in the definition of a “Qualified Family Pack User,” which is referred to in a link that isn’t yet live.

In some respects, this is an extension of Microsoft’s licensing efforts with Office 2007 Home and Student edition, which is licensed for use (PDF) on up to three computers in a single household. In that case, the product carried this restriction: “The software is not licensed for use in any commercial, non-profit, or revenue-generating business activities.”

Update: My colleague Mary-Jo Foley asks some interesting questions about the the Vista predecessor:

Microsoft ended up offering a Family Pack for Vista, but wouldn’t confirm its existence until just before the worldwide launch of Vista in January 2007. The company made the Vista Family Pack available to users who bought Vista Ultimate at retail. (But Microsoft may have phased out the Family Pack offer, as it no longer shows up when searching the Windows site.)

I’ve mentioned that offer several times in the past few years. There are some very big differences between that deal (which was called the Windows Vista Family Discount) and the one that appears to be on its way for Windows 7. As the original press release (linked above) made clear, the Vista Family Discount was a “limited-time offer for customers who buy retail copies of Windows Vista Ultimate.” In other words, it was a temporary discount on products that were otherwise licensed according to standard terms.

Also in that announcement was the news that it was a limited promotion that ran from January 30 through June 30, 2007. This deal, on the other hand, is actually named in the license agreement, which strongly suggests that it is a permanent addition to the list of retail packages and not a temporary promotion.

What price would you pay for a three-pack of Home Premium licenses?

Update, Noon Pacific time: Reached for comment, a Microsoft spokesperson says only, “We will continue to work with our partners and expect to have other great offers in the future as we lead up to and beyond general availability. We have nothing to announce at this time.”

June 29th, 2009

Do you need more than Windows 7 Home Premium?

Posted by Ed Bott @ 1:45 pm

Categories: Windows 7

Tags:

One of the most frequent questions I get these days comes from people who’ve been running the Windows 7 beta and RC and are planning to upgrade to the final version when it’s available on October 22. “Which edition of Windows 7 do I need?”

Interestingly, this question also comes up in other contexts as well. When Apple defenders appear in the TalkBack section here, they regularly insist that the Home Premium edition is “crippled” and “stripped-down.” Sooner or later, they insist, any self-respecting Windows user will have to upgrade. Based on that argument, they say that you must use the more expensive Ultimate edition to compare the costs of a Windows PC to those of a Mac, which comes in only a single edition. As you’ll see from the table below, this isn’t accurate.

On the Windows side, many users just automatically assume that more is better. By that logic, Ultimate is obviously the best and lesser versions are inferior. Because they’re power users, they assume that Home Premium’s missing features mean they’re going to be lacking a feature they really need.

But is that true? If you’re buying Windows Home Premium, what features are you missing, exactly? What would you get if you paid extra for Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate? And is it fair to compare OS X and Windows 7 Home Premium?

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June 26th, 2009

Windows 7 versus Snow Leopard: How much do upgrades really cost?

Posted by Ed Bott @ 5:00 am

Categories: Apple, Microsoft, Windows 7

Tags: Apple Macintosh, Upgrade, Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Snow Leopard, Upgrade Cost, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Desktops, Operating Systems

In one of its brilliant “I’m a Mac” ads recently, Apple lampooned the complexity of Microsoft Windows with a dizzying display of fine print that eventually filled up the screen and covered up both characters.

I thought of that ad when I saw Apple’s recent announcement that it was going to make its next Mac OS X upgrade, Snow Leopard, available as a $29 upgrade. That sounds so much better than the broad range of prices that Microsoft is going to charge its customers for Windows 7 upgrades. Too bad the $29 upgrade is not that simple. In fact, according to my analysis of Apple’s own sales figures, 57% of Apple’s customers who bought and paid for new Macs in the past five years are ineligible for those cheap upgrades.

That hasn’t stopped casual observers and even some seasoned analysts from falling for Apple’s ruse. Michael Gartenberg, for example, issued this critique in response to Microsoft’s announcement of Windows 7 pricing:

Apple showed the way. Snow Leopard is also not [a] major update but rather an enhanced version of Leopard. With an upgrade price of $29, that’s about where MSFT should be for the Home Premium version of 7…

Yes, $29 for an OS upgrade sounds like a great deal, if you qualify. But do you? I looked at the fine print for this offer, and was shocked—shocked, I tell you—to discover that the majority of Mac owners don’t qualify for that pricing. In fact, a significant number of Mac owners won’t be able to upgrade to Snow Leopard at any price.

Details after the jump.

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June 25th, 2009

Microsoft to Europe: No Windows 7 upgrades for you!

Posted by Ed Bott @ 6:02 am

Categories: Windows 7

Tags: Europe, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows 7, Operating Systems, Software, Ed Bott

If you live in Europe and you’re contemplating an upgrade to Windows 7 later this year, I’ve got good news and bad news for you.

The good news is you’ll get a better price than your counterparts in other markets. You’ll be able to buy a fully licensed retail copy of Windows 7E (Microsoft’s customized version, with Internet Explorer 8 stripped out to mollify the European Commission antitrust regulators) for the price you would normally pay for an upgrade edition.

The bad news is that Microsoft plans to completely disable upgrade capabilities in Windows 7E.

Yes, you heard that right, and I’ve confirmed the details with a Microsoft spokesperson. The upgrade option will be disabled in all copies of Windows 7E.

Microsoft’s Brad Brooks, Corporate VP for Windows Consumer Marketing, explained the decision in an in-house interview:

We wanted to make sure that all of our customers got Windows 7 at the same time. And because of what needed to occur around testing of Windows 7E, it became very clear that we would not be able to offer a retail upgrade version of that piece of software on October 22nd.

So, we had a choice to make. Either we delayed the launch of Windows 7 in Europe or that we brought it all together and did something different. So, what we decided to do is do something different.

And so in Europe we’re going to basically offer Windows 7E full version at upgrade prices.

For Windows XP users, this isn’t an issue, because upgrades from XP to Windows 7 are blocked already. But anyone running Windows Vista will be disappointed to learn that the upgrade path available everywhere else in the world is unavailable in the EU. If you buy a retail copy of Windows 7E, you’ll be forced to do a custom (clean) install, and then reinstall all your applications and drivers and restore your data files and settings.

Speaking of the rest of the world, Microsoft is planning to launch Windows 7 in 35 languages in two waves, all in a period of less than two weeks:

October 22: English, Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Chinese (Hong Kong).

October 31: Turkish, Czech, Portuguese, Hungarian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Greek, Ukrainian, Romanian Arabic, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Estonian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Thai, Croatian, Serbian Latin, and Latvian.

By contrast, Windows Vista was released in 18 languages initially, with another 18 delivered approximately 100 days later.

June 25th, 2009

Microsoft unveils 'screaming deals' for Windows 7

Posted by Ed Bott @ 6:00 am

Categories: Windows 7

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Edition, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Ed Bott

Move over, Crazy Eddie. Step aside, Cal Worthington. Ron Popeil, you’ve been pre-empted.

Earlier this year, Microsoft promised “aggressive offers” to win over would-be Windows 7 buyers. Today, the company made it official, touting a “screaming deal” for anyone willing to order a Windows 7 upgrade more than three months before the software officially goes on sale.

First hints of the “special, time-limited offer” first surfaced several weeks ago when a memo from consumer electronics retail giant Best Buy was leaked to Engadget. The details in that memo were correct; in fact, the program is actually more widespread than it first appeared. Here are the details:

• The program kicks off tomorrow, June 26, in the United States, Canada, and Japan. It’s scheduled to end July 11 in the U.S. and Canada and on July 5 in Japan—”or while supplies last,” Microsoft notes.
• The discount is 50% or more over the normal estimated retail price (ERP) of the two mainstream consumer editions. In the United States, you’ll be able to buy a Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade for $50 or get Windows 7 Professional for $100. Outside the U.S., Microsoft says, “the special low pre-order price will vary by country.”
• The offer is available online at Best Buy and Amazon.com. For the first time that I can remember, the online Microsoft Store will match these discounted prices instead of sticking with the full list price.
• If you live in the United Kingdom, France, or Germany, the pre-order period will open on July 15 and close on August 15—or while supplies last.
• Update 11AM PT: There’s a per-person limit of three copies of each edition, according to Microsoft’s FAQ. Also, you qualify for the upgrade pricing with any computer running any version of  Windows XP or Windows Vista. This is true even if you are not able to perform an upgrade installation.

So what happens to pricing when the promotion ends? As part of today’s announcement, Microsoft also unveiled its price list for retail copies of Windows 7 (upgrade and full packaged product). The bottom line? A modest price cut for the most popular Windows edition, Home Premium, compared to its predecessor, and no change for Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate editions. (My colleague Mary Jo Foley has an analysis of the impact of the new pricing on Microsoft’s bottom line.)

Estimated retail prices for packaged retail product in the United States are as follows:

The ERP for Windows 7 Home Premium is reduced by $10 (8%) for the upgrade and $40 (17%) for the full packaged product. Based on the newly unveiled prices, the limited-time early upgrade offers represent savings of at least 50% (for Professional edition) and as much as 58% (for Home Premium).

Mary Jo Foley: Is Windows 7 pricing too high, too low, or just right?

Microsoft’s announcement today left out several important details: There’s no hint of what price it plans to charge for its Windows Anytime Upgrade product, which allow a Windows user to move up from one edition of Windows 7 to another in a few minutes. Based on this price list, I would expect the upgrade from Home Premium to Professional edition to be $100 or so, with the upgrade to Ultimate edition adding another $20 or so.

Even more curiously, there’s no feature matrix to help you understand which features are in each edition. Microsoft has revealed some details about the differences between editions, but they’ve left it to bloggers like me to ferret out the longer, more detailed list. (See From Starter to Ultimate: What’s really in each Windows 7 Edition?)

Today’s announcement also confirmed details of Microsoft’s global 
Windows 7 Upgrade Option program, which allows PC makers and retailers to offer free upgrades to Windows 7 (fulfilled by Microsoft) for any PC purchased with a premium edition of Windows Vista. The program starts June 26 and ends January 31, 2010; PCs with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate qualify for upgrades to the equivalent Windows 7 edition.

Finally, another detail slipped into today’s announcements has a major impact on European customers planning to purchase a retail copy of Windows. I’ve got those details in a follow-up post.

June 18th, 2009

How good is Microsoft's free antivirus software?

Posted by Ed Bott @ 1:00 pm

Categories: Microsoft Security Essentials, Security

Tags: Microsoft Windows 7, Malware, Antivirus Software, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Security Essentials, MSE, Microsoft Windows, Cyberthreats, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Operating Systems

Microsoft has officially unveiled its long-awaited consumer antivirus offering. Formerly code-named “Morro,” it’s now been christened Microsoft Security Essentials, and it will enter public beta testing next week. If you have a licensed copy of Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or above), Windows Vista, or Windows 7, you’ll be able to download and install the software at no additional charge. No subscription is required for ongoing definition updates, either. The final release is scheduled for this fall. (My colleague Mary Jo Foley has more on what beta testers can expect next week.)

The public beta will be limited to 75,000 downloads, Microsoft says, and the targets are global. The initial beta release is limited to the United States, Israel (where a core development team is based), and Brazil. Next month, the beta will open up for users in China. It’s no coincidence that Microsoft is rolling out early in Brazil and China, which are large-scale vectors of malware infections because of the sheer number of Windows users running without antivirus protection. According to Microsoft, barriers to adoption of paid security software are especially high in developing markets, where internet access is slower and credit cards are unavailable to a large percentage of the population.

Microsoft Security Essentials requires validation, which means it won’t be available to anyone using a pirated copy of Windows. But it won’t require registration or personal information of any kind. In an interview last week, Theresa Burch, director of product management for Microsoft Security Essentials, confirmed that decision in no uncertain terms: “We collect no information from you at all,” she told me. No Windows Live ID, nothing. You agree to the EULA, validate, download, and you’re done.”

Over the past few days I’ve been testing recent builds of Microsoft Security Essentials on two machines, one running a 32-bit edition of Windows Vista, the other running a 64-bit copy of the Windows 7 release candidate. The software I describe in this post is a more recent build than the current beta that has been floating around back channels on the Internet. Here’s my report:

Page 2: Microsoft Security Essentials in action –>

June 17th, 2009

Hands on with the Windows 7 Touch Pack

Posted by Ed Bott @ 6:00 am

Categories: Windows 7

Tags: Microsoft Surface, Multi-touch, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Surface Globe, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Ed Bott

Last month I had a chance to see a quick demo of Microsoft’s new Touch Pack for Windows 7. This collection of a half-dozen multi-touch-enabled programs won’t be available for download by Windows buyers. Instead, Microsoft plans to allow PC makers to load it on touch-enabled PCs that pass Microsoft’s logo testing. The idea is to provide a suite of fun and interesting applications that show off the capabilities of touch-screen PCs.

Yesterday I finally got a chance to try this for myself. A copy of the Touch Pack software arrived in a plain brown wrapper on a USB flash drive. I installed it on a Dell Latitude XT running a recent build of Windows 7, using N-Trig’s latest multi-touch drivers.

The installation routine was a little unusual. Instead of a conventional setup program, the Touch Pack uses a Windows command script, which also installs the XNA Framework and a copy of Microsoft’s Virtual Earth 3D (recently renamed Bing Maps for Enterprise, which pretty much took all the fun out of it). All in all, it took about 350 MB of disk space.

The package includes three games, all designed for Microsoft by Fuel Games: Microsoft Garden Pond requires you to move paper boats on the surface of a serene Japanese pond by flicking the water with your fingertip. Microsoft Rebound looks like it would be a fun and loud two-player air hockey game, if only I could figure out its rules (alas, none of the help screens are available yet). Microsoft Blackboard was the clear winner for me: a multi-level puzzle game in which you drag objects (girders, fans, and spring-loaded platforms) to move balloons and balls toward goals and away from sharp objects. Is it addictive? Hey, I’m up to level 9, and this post would have been finished two hours ago if I hadn’t gotten stuck on level 6.

The other half of the package consists of three applications that all use the Microsoft Surface brand.

Microsoft Surface Collage does basic photo arranging. You drag photos from a strip along the bottom of the window, resize and rearrange them using multi-touch gestures, add custom backgrounds, and save the results as a file.

Microsoft Surface Globe is probably the single most impressive use of touch technology in the entire package. Built on the Virtual Earth engine, it allows you to spin the globe, pick a country, and then zoom in to street level. I spent a few minutes zooming through downtown San Francisco before heading to the other side of the world for a close-up of Tehran.

Finally, there’s Microsoft Surface Lagoon, an interactive screen saver. On an all-in-one PC with a large screen, it might be fun to poke at the water and watch the fish rush over to investigate the commotion. On the Latitude’s 12-inch screen, the effect falls flat.

Overall, the Touch Pack does a very impressive job of showing off the touch experience. The Latitude XT, with a 1.33 GHz ultra-low-voltage processor, isn’t exactly a speed demon, but touch gestures were smooth and screen redraws were quick In every one of the games and Surface apps.

It’ll be interesting to see which PC makers try to push touch screen PCs this fall when Windows 7 is released. Hopefully, this sample pack will inspire some smart designers and developers.

June 15th, 2009

Microsoft fumbles the digital TV transition

Posted by Ed Bott @ 8:40 am

Categories: Digital media, Media Center, Windows 7, Windows Vista

Tags: Media Center PC, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Corp., TV, Digital Television, Service Alert, Media Center PCs, Microsoft Windows, Personal Technology, Home Entertainment

Microsoft’s Media Center program is nearly seven years old, and the version included with Windows 7 will be its fifth major revision. It’s one of the most polished features in the entire Windows family, especially in its support for multiple TV tuners: analog, basic cable, over-the-air digital (ATSC), satellite (in Europe and Japan), and CableCARD (in the United States).

With all that experience, you’d think that Microsoft would have sailed through the long-awaited transition to all-digital over-the-air TV broadcasts in the United States this past Friday. Instead, the company failed, in dramatic fashion.

It’s not like it caught the company by surprise. A Service Alert has been visible on the home menu page for Windows Vista Media Center users for the past two weeks or so:

Clicking through the multiple explanation screens produced a series of clear-sounding messages about what to expect in Media Center, depending on the type of tuners you were using. According to this screen, for anyone using an ATSC tuner there was “no additional action needed.”

That advice was wrong. Microsoft apparently forgot to plan for one of the side effects of the transition, in which some broadcasters changed broadcast channel numbers along with the switch.

I first noticed that something had gone wrong on Sunday, when I saw that a couple of shows on CBS and ABC had failed to record on Friday and Saturday, complaining that no signal was available. When I tried to tune in the channels manually, I got an error message instead of the programming I expected.

In postings over the weekend at The Green Button, the Microsoft-owned (but independently operated) community forums, I found other users complaining of the same issues. Media Center MVP Chris Lanier also noted the problem this morning.

There are workarounds for Windows Vista and Windows 7 that involve editing an XML file (in Windows Vista) and adding DTV channels manually (in Windows 7). Neither of the workarounds have worked for me.

If you’re a Media Center user, has this issue affected you? Leave a comment in the Talkback section below. I’ll be following up with Microsoft to see if I can understand what happened and when to expect a fix. If I hear from enough users, I’ll put together a more detailed follow-up post.

Update: A vigorous discussion at The Green Button here along with some possible workarounds.

A pair (so far) of cryptic updates from Microsoft here. The most recent was posted by chrisboedy around 21 hours ago [typos and punctuation errors in original]:

All, our services are all running as expected, however there was an issue which is causing the new data feed with some of the updated frequencies not to process through. We are currently working to resolve this and I’ll provide additional updates as I have them. I don’t expect this will be difficult for us to resolve, however the at that point, it’s just time waiting for the data to propagate to the front end servers for you all.

Expectation should be however that this will take ~24 hours to complete processing.

Additional input from GeekTonic and Ben Drawbaugh at EngadgetHD.

June 5th, 2009

Will the Windows 7 price be right?

Posted by Ed Bott @ 11:29 am

Categories: Licensing, Windows 7, Windows Vista

Tags: Best Buy Co. Inc., Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Operating Systems, Software, Ed Bott

[Updated 12:20PM PDT with Microsoft comment.]

Engadget says they’ve unearthed a confidential memo from Best Buy that gives away some pricing information for Windows 7.

According to the memo, Best Buy will kick off its Technology Guarantee program on June 26. Beginning on that date, you’ll be able to buy a PC with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate and get a coupon good for a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it’s released in October. That matches up with information I’ve heard as well and is consistent with how Microsoft has handled product launches in the past.

The other, more interesting detail is that Best Buy plans to pre-sell select versions of Windows 7 online, for a 16-day period that runs from June 26 through July 11. If the memo is accurate, you’ll be able to buy a Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade package for $49.99 and a Windows 7 Professional upgrade package for $99.99.

Several months ago, Microsoft’s General Manager for Windows, Mike Ybarra, told me that we we can expect “aggressive price points and some very good offers” when Windows 7 is released. This certainly qualifies on both standards. The comparable prices for Windows Vista are $129 and  $199, respectively, and the discounted prices at retailers like Newegg and Amazon typically knock only 10 bucks or so off the sticker. If Microsoft prices Windows 7 in line with Vista, the Best Buy deal represents a discount of 50% on Professional edition and more than 60% on Home Premium. Yeah, that’s aggressive.

Obviously, this limited-time promotion is lower than the average selling price that Windows 7 will command when it’s officially released. But I expect it’s only the first of many deals to come from Microsoft’s retail partners.

What else can we expect to see? Back in early 2007, Microsoft offered a so-called Family Discount for Windows Vista, which allowed anyone with a Vista Ultimate license to purchase two Home Premium upgrades for $49.99 each. I expect to see an improved version of the Family Discount this time around. If Microsoft wanted to aim directly at its archrival Apple, it could sell three Home Premium upgrade licenses (to be used only in a single home) for $199 or less.

Asked to comment on the contents of the Best Buy memo, a Microsoft spokesperson offered the following:

As announced earlier this week, we’re continuing to work with our retail and OEM partners to provide Windows 7 Upgrade Option programs and other offers to consumers interested in experiencing Windows 7, which will be publicly available on October 22nd. We’re excited to share additional details regarding these programs soon, but do not have additional details to announce at this time.

I’ve been told by other sources to expect additional details later this month and will pass them along when I receive them.

June 3rd, 2009

From Starter to Ultimate: What's really in each Windows 7 Edition?

Posted by Ed Bott @ 11:07 pm

Categories: Windows 7

Tags: Enterprise Edition, Microsoft Windows 7, Network, Feature, Edition, Feature Set, Home Basic, Aero, Windows Search Component, Professional Edition

Over the course of its Windows 7 development effort, Microsoft has been incredibly controlled about releasing details, pursuing an agonizingly deliberate disclosure plan. This week, they finally announced the official release dates: RTM next month, on sale beginning October 22. The last remaining pieces of the puzzle? There’s the price list, of course, which I don’t think will be revealed publicly until close to the on-sale dates. The other missing detail is the exact breakdown of features in each edition.

I’ve been pestering contacts at Microsoft for an official features list for months, and they’ve politely but persistently refused every one of my requests. So, as part of the research for Windows 7 Inside Out, I did the work myself. I installed copies of each Windows 7 edition from the Release Candidate (build 7100) code on a single machine, resulting in a five-way multiboot system. Then I tallied up which features were in each edition, trying out each one to see if I could identify unexpected behavior.

[Update 4-June noon PDT] Several people in comments complained that the original illustration I used above was hard to follow because I used different partition sizes. I was surprised to read that, because I had originally intended this screen shot to be an illustration showing that I had five operating systems installed on a single system (on a single drive, in fact). I didn’t realize that people would be interested in the numbers. So, dear readers, I went back and made those partitions identical in size and reshot the screen and uploaded it here and added this update. I installed a few utility applications in different partitions. For example, the Starter partition has Windows Live Essentials installed. None of the installed programs were large, but they do affect the numbers slightly.

If you’re wondering why Ultimate is using about 3 GB more disk space than Home Premium, there’s a simple answer. The Ultimate install is the original one for this system. Because it’s an older installation it has many more automatic restore points saved. The newer Home Premium install has about 400 MB of volume shadow (restore point) space in use. The Ultimate install has 3.1 GB in use. The difference between those two values, 2.7 GB, almost exactly accounts for the difference in size. And no, I’m not going to reshoot this screen again!

[Update 4-June 10AM PDT, revised noon PDT] : Several people asked about the differing disk sizes in the original graphic above. I used a mix of x86 and x64 editions; 32-bit for Starter, Home Basic, and Professional, 64-bit for Home Premium and Ultimate. Disk space was a constant. For 32-bit editions, the disk footprint is around 11 GB; for 64-bit editions, disk space used is about 13 GB. Actual usage for you will depend on the amount of RAM installed (which dictates swap file size) and whether you’ve hibernated the machine and thus created a hibernation file, which will be the size of available RAM. The fact that all editions install all bits is what makes the Anytime Upgrade feature work so well. Hope that clarifies.]

When I did this exercise for Windows Vista more than three years ago, I created tables to highlight the differences between editions. This time around, I decided that producing a monster feature table is the wrong way to present this information. Instead, in this post I’ve created profiles for each edition and given each one its own page. I start with a master list of features common to all editions, followed by high-level feature lists that describe the unique features added with each upgrade level.

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