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Revealed: More Windows 7 RC details (Updated)

Apr. 25, 2009 Paul Thurrott | Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows

Now that we have a near-final release candidate (RC) to play with, Rafael and I have been pouring over the licensing policies for the various Windows 7 SKUs (stock keeping units, or "product editions"). Some interesting details have emerged, and I'm pretty sure most of this is all new info.

AAC/H.264/MPEG-2 support will not be provided to Windows 7 Home Basic and Starter customers. That functionality will only go out to Home Premium, Professional, and Enterprise/Ultimate users. But it looks like there will be add-ons made available (free or paid, it's not clear) to users of low-end Windows 7 versions.

MPEG-2 decoding (i.e. DVD playback) and Dolby Digital support will not be included in Windows 7 Home Basic and Starter. But AAC and H.264 decoding *will* be included. So in going through the licensing policies again--which, in my defense, are hard to read--I discovered an earlier mistake. Sorry for any confusion that caused.

Maximum RAM. All 32-bit versions of Windows 7 "support" 4 GB of RAM, of course. But if you go 64-bit, you can add up to 8 GB in Home Basic and Starter, 16 GB in Home Premium, and 192 GB in Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate.

Windows Media Player Remote Media Experience (RME) is not available in Windows 7 Home Basic or Starter. However, all versions can share media over a home network.

All Windows 7 SKUs support 20 simultaneous SMB connections. This works out to 10 users, apparently.

XP Mode (formerly Virtual PC). As we first revealed yesterday, only Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate are licensed to install XP Mode.

I'll provide an update to my Windows 7 Product Editions: Comparison article tomorrow to address these and other bits of info we've found.

Discuss this Article 22

gorath
on Apr 25, 2009
Although I disagree with some of these decisions, I can "sort of" understand them. Things like codec licensing costs money, so they're excluded from the cheaper versions. (cough) fair enough, I suppose. But RAM limitations? what the hell?
darkmax
on Apr 25, 2009
Why the limitation on the codecs, still exist after all these years, is seriously beyond me. All it does is drive consumer to download open source media player with better codecs support, like VLAN or free codec to install into WMP. Is it really that difficult? Or is MS underestimating the consumers again?
robertsjoe
on Apr 25, 2009
All these Windows 7 editions, as it's been for all previous versions of Windows, are a lame idea. "Windows. Always lame. (tm)"
robertsjoe
on Apr 25, 2009
Another in the multitude of reasons as to why OS X is superior to Windows. You pay for ONE edition of the OS and you get everything. You're not paying the Microsoft tax.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Apr 25, 2009
As a reminder to those who forgot (or any trolls intentionally trying to confuse the issue for whatever bizarre purpose gives them some odd sense of happiness): Consumers in most nations will only see Home Premium and Professional as a retail update or full package product and will only see Starter bundled on the lowest end netbooks and equivalents. Windows 7 Home Premium is the typical option for consumers. Windows 7 Professional is the typical option for businesses. Windows 7 Starter is only sold with limited functionality hardware as part of the hardware sale itself. If you aren't buying a low-end netbook you'll never see it. That's it. The capabilities of the other versions are really not something the typical consumer will ever run across. Home Basic is generally only available in "emerging market" countries, typically as part of government or NGO sponsored programs to get computers into hands of the general population. Pretty safe to say if you read this blog you will never see it just like you didn't see the equivalent programs offered with Windows XP and Vista. Ultimate is a niche product designed for those very few consumers (typically professionals in the software and IT industries) who need to have access to all features for testing and planning products. If you're in one of those niches, you'd care. If not you'll probably not see it. Enterprise is only available with corporate license agreements. If you are, say, the CIO of a major corporation, talk to your Microsoft account team. If are not in a role where you have a Microsoft account team, you probably don't care.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Apr 25, 2009
Or, trimming down Paul's post to things that involve the two versions that a typical consumer or business will buy: Maximum RAM. All 32-bit versions of Windows 7 "support" 4 GB of RAM, of course. But if you go 64-bit, you can add up to 16 GB in Home Premium, and 192 GB in Professional. XP Mode (formerly Virtual PC). As we first revealed yesterday, Home Premium is not licensed to install XP Mode
kent909
on Apr 25, 2009
So back in 1971 you had a choice of 11 different, driver side, outside rear view mirrors for a Ford Mustang. Something for everyone. Ford eventually realized that the inventory costs to offer 11 choices was hurting the bottom line. Maybe someday MS will realize that maintaing all these versions of Windows also is a waste of resources. When you function from a pricing strategy that is market based instead of cost based, sometimes the costs eat your profits before you realize what is happening. So let's just call this a MS stupid tax.
Waethorn
on Apr 25, 2009
@mike, all: Virtual PC has never really been designed for home users. It always gives you a warning when you try to install it on a consumer version OS.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Apr 25, 2009
Waethorn, No question about it. XP Mode is meant for small to medium businesses.
DRWAM
on Apr 25, 2009
Most computers have the OS preinstalled, and people will choose the hardware, rather than the OS, which will be the appropriate or recommended OS for that hardware. Pretty obvious that most home users will get Home Premium, and some hard core people will get Pro, while businesses get Enterprise & Ultimate. And not convinced that these multiple sku's will matter much. I have had only 3 friends ask me what version of vista that they should buy, and I've had many ask me to help them pick a computer. Of course, this comment is anecdotal.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Apr 25, 2009
kent909, Where your analogy breaks down is that the Ford Mustang mirrors weren't subsets of each other that could be ugraded as the customer needs changed. Microsoft has the ability to manufacture a product where the customer can buy the options they need and move up to the more complex versions if their needs grow thus letting people avoid paying for options they don't need. It's hard or impossible to do that with atoms but relatively easy with bits. This precisely avoids a "stupid tax" of making consumers buy more than they need to "simplify" the product line to only the most expensive version.
lotsamystuff
on Apr 25, 2009
"I have had only 3 friends ask me what version of vista that they should buy, and I've had many ask me to help them pick a computer." The one with the Apple logo on the box. :-) (Cue smarmy comment from "Wae" or "Mikegalos" in 3, 2, 1...)
kent909
on Apr 25, 2009
mikegalos That logic works both ways. Let's say the Home Premium has everything I want and need, except for an animated desktop. I will have to pay the difference between Home and Ultimate for that one feature. Granted I will have to pay more to get it in any event, but the gap will be less. I would rather have everyone pay $139 for Windows 7 and get a complete OS than have to pay $200 or a $100 delta to get an animated desktop. Actually if I remember correctly many paid for Vista Ultimate and the animated desktop feature and never did get it. I guess I would call that a rip off tax.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Apr 25, 2009
lotsa I think you've pretty much maximized the smarmy to content ratio. But it's nice to know that all you look at when you make your choices is the logo on the package. It's so nice to have my suspicions confirmed so clearly.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Apr 25, 2009
kent909, It IS a balancing act no matter what. On one extreme would be charging for every possible choice and ending up with literally thousands of versions, the other extreme would be to sell only the most expensive version with no choices. Remembering that there are people here who think 4 choices are just too hard and that the Mac trolls keep saying that 2 choices is too hard (and maybe it is for them), I don't think a full pay by feature option would play that well with the public. As for going from Home Premium to Ultimate, that's unlikely unless you really have a strong need to have Enterprise level domain attachment features. If you look at Paul's chart at http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/win7_skus_compare.asp, which he's upgrading tomorrow, I think you'd be surprised at how easy it is to choose between Home Premium and Professional and how rare it would be for a non-Entrprise user to care about Ultimate features.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Apr 25, 2009
kent909 "I remember correctly many paid for Vista Ultimate and the animated desktop feature and never did get it. I guess I would call that a rip off tax." You don't remember correctly. The only case where somebody had Vista Ultimate and didn't get the animated desktop is if they never used Windows Update since it was available as a free update when both optionally when it was in beta and when it was released. I guess you're complaining about a "being misinformed" tax. (There seem to be a lot of those around - a lot involving tea bags)
robertsjoe
on Apr 25, 2009
@mikegalos: It's not about choice. It's about making people pay the exorbitant Microsoft tax. Microsoft is like a drug dealer. The first hit is free (or cheaper), then you pay for many many years down the line.
kent909
on Apr 25, 2009
mikegalos, Well here is another analogy for you. Cable companies have the basic package of channels. But if you want ESPN you have to buy extended basic. That gets you ESPN and another 35 channels you don't want. The question is why do cable companies not let us buy alacarte? Because the only way to sell us the crap is to package it with the stuff we want. Over 300 channels and nothing to watch. A multitude of packages to choose from and the only purpose it to confuse the consumer. Sorry you will never be able to convince me that anything other than one or two choices is all any of us could ever need.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Apr 25, 2009
kent909 So are you advocating for hundreds of individual choices (as most of your last post and the previous one suggest) or no more than one or two as your closing comment suggests?
kent909
on Apr 25, 2009
mikegalos, My point is that MS objective is to fatten their wallet. They will design it in some form that serves them not us. If I could buy the kernel and then the features that I want I could support having many choices. It is when someone packages things to suit them and tries to tell me they are giving me choices, then I need to disagree. It would be like selling me a TV that only gets certain channels and if I want it to get other channels, I have to pay more. Now why in the world do we accept what MS does or the TV content providers do. Because we really don't have a choice, only the illusion of it.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Apr 25, 2009
kent909 So you're saying you want an unlimited number of choices just for you but everyone else should be limited to one or two choices? You seem to be sending out rather mixed messages of what you think would be ideal (although you seem to be clear on casting Microsoft in a bad light no matter what choice is offered) Again, what is it you think would be ideal for an actual product? One choice? Two choices? Millions of possible combinations?
kent909
on Apr 26, 2009
mikegalos, I have no idea how you got what you got from what I said. If you remember I started this conversation by saying MS was increasing it's costs by having different versions of Windows. Why incur those costs if it is not necessary. Apple doesn't. But if you want to pay $200 for Windows Ultimate(subsidizes Starter Edition) than go ahead. I think OX 10 is a better value and choice for the money at $139.

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