Product Description

With Microsoft Windows 7 Operating System Software Ultimate, you'll be able to run many Windows XP productivity programs in Windows XP mode* and recover your data easily with automatic back-ups to your home or business network. You'll be able to connect to company networks easily and more securely with Domain Join. And with entertainment features like Windows Media Center, it's great for home as well as for business.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34 in Software
• Brand: Microsoft
• Model: GLC-00184
• Released on: 2009-10-22
• Platform: Windows 7
• Format: DVD-ROM
• Dimensions: 1.20" h x 5.40" w x 7.60" l, .40 pounds

Features

• (Includes 32 & 64-bit versions cd-rom) Combines remarkable ease-of-use with the entertainment features of Home Premium and the business capabilities of Professional--get it all with with Windows 7 Ultimate
• Make the things you do every day easier with improved desktop navigation; start programs faster and more easily, and quickly find the documents you use most often
• Run many Windows XP productivity programs in Windows XP Mode; watch, pause, rewind, and record TV on your PC
• Easily create a home network and connect your PCs to a printer with HomeGroup; connect to company networks easily and more securely with Domain Join
• Recover your data easily with automatic backup to your home and business network; help protect data on your PC and portable storage devices against loss or theft with BitLocker

Customer Reviews

Worth the Wait
I'll admit, I've been running Windows 7 for six months now: the preproduction version of it and have just upgraded to the gold code. So I have quite a bit of experience with the operating system. Let's get to the nitty gritty:

Should you upgrade from Windows Vista? YES! I mean it - upgrade today.
Windows 7 is quite simply faster, more stable, boots faster, goes to sleep faster, comes back from sleep faster, manages your files better and on top of that it's beautiful to look at and easy to use. Even the preproduction version of Windows 7 was better than my Vista with SP2.

Should you upgrade from Windows XP? Maybe, but for different reasons.
XP is a good operating system and if you don't need to add new hardware or software, XP is good. However, XP is old as an operating system. Also chances are that if you're running XP, you might not meet the minimum requirements for Windows 7 - check the compatibility site at Microsoft to see if your system will support Windows 7. That said, Windows 7 is light years ahead of Windows XP in terms of functionality, ease of use, etc - to me it's worth buying a new system.

64 bit or 32 bit?
If you don't know what I'm talking about, that's ok skip this section. If you have a core2 duo or core 2 quad or a multi cpu machine, go with the 64 bit OS, it handles memory and the CPUs much better. If you have a single core CPU, one CPU or run special programs that require 32bit, then stick with 32 bit for now.

BEFORE INSTALLATION:
I recommend you have:
-a core 2 duo or core 2 quad machine
-4gig of RAM (That's about $50 in today's market)
-good hard drive with (200 gig - it doesn't need that much but that's another $50)
-back up your files to a USB drive like Western Digital My Passport Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive WDME5000TN (Midnight Black)
-check to make sure your computer is compatible with Windows 7

INSTALLATION:
Installation was very straight forward. You put in the CD and reboot your machine. You might have to enter your bios and enable the "boot from CD" option. Once the machine reboots a nice screen comes up to guide you through the installation. You have the option to upgrade your PC or do a clean installation. I did an upgrade and it brought in all of my files and settings from my windows Vista system. It worked great.
The upgrade did take about 2 hours for me so definitely consider.
I noticed that early on in the installation the operating system went out to Microsoft's site to look for the latest and greatest updates, so I think this should help Microsoft respond quickly to any hiccups with compatibility.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK:
The driver from my old HP Inkjet printer for 2001 doesn't work on Windows 7 so there are some things that will not transition. I had to use a generic HP driver which doesn't give me the quality that I got from an injet - so overall, I'm up and running with that printer but I'm degraded on the inkjet front. That said, I recently upgraded to a HP CP2025DN Color LaserJet Printer that I love so no real loss there. I'll likely pick up a cheap inkjet for the occasional photo that I might need to print. Everything else upgraded.

BENEFITS
-faster boot time
-faster go to sleep
-faster wakeup
-faster about 20% to 30% faster at running applications than my Vista - seriously (but those are my results without any benchmarks or anything like that, just seeing how fast Adobe Illustrator loads, and how fast all the applications respond)
-joining wireless networks is much easier
-the interface is just plain beautiful
-my wallpapers are now a slideshow that can be set to change every few minutes (I'm not stuck with the same picture)
-Gadgets - these are wonderful little small applications that you can drag onto your desktop. I have a weather gadget and a calendar gadget on my desktop that tell me
-Better taskbar management - hovering over the taskbar icons shows me mini windows of what's running
-Better file management - I can organize my files into Libraries that are sortable not only by type but by folder or other data. It's great! I can browse through my presentations or illustrator files!
-Windows Media appears to be smoother which I love.
-You get some virus protection and firewall with Windows 7 but consider something more comprehensive like McAfee Total Protection 3User 2010. Yes, it'll make your computer run a bit slower but

CONS:
- Some older programs might not work and some drivers might not be available like my inkjet driver.
- Other than that, there aren't too many drawbacks to Windows 7 - it's a great OS.

WHICH VERSION SHOULD I GET?
I got the ultimate version because I have clients who ask, "is your hard drive encrypted?" -- I wanted to be able to say yes and have sensitive data encrypted one of my computer volumes - Bitlocker is only available in the Ultimate version. Ultimate also includes Multilanguage support.

If you're a home user that doesn't do a lot of networking, you might consider just the home premium edition. If you're using a laptop and connect to networks at work, you might want the Professional version of the operating system to help you with domain joining. Also Windows Professional gives you the option to run applications in XP mode so if you have old applications you can use that nifty feature. I already have 1 application running in XP mode - it's nifty to run an old application.

NOTE:
The box contains both the 32 bit and 64 bit OS.

OVERALL:
It's very hard to write a comprehensive review on an entire operating system so I didn't even try - I'm sure magazines will devote entire articles to the operating system and several books will come out. My goal here is just to give everyone a glimpse of what I've found to date with this new OS. I do hope this has helped you in making a decision.

Hats off to Microsoft on Windows 7. It's more of a refined Windows Vista than an entirely new operating system but it was needed. Thank you.

One word --> Overpriced!
Having been a loyal Windows customer and paying full retail price for Vista Ultimate the pricing for this product when compared to the other versions of Windows 7 is a slap in the face first of all so one star off just for that! Microsoft should've provided some discount for prior Vista Ultimate customers at least.
Charging an extra $200 or more for a couple of features that noone will use and some outdated ones like Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications is just plain tacky.
The only one that really adds any value is the new feature called "VHD Boot". With that you can boot your entire Windows out of a Virtual Hard Disk file as those used with Virtual PC or Virtual Server which can come in handy if you are a developer or like to install alot of beta products or games and want to make sure you don't screw up your main install.
Anyways, having upgraded my overpriced install of Vista Ultimate 64 bits the first thing you notice is that Microsoft actually downgrades you by removing the few Ultimate extras they did provide with Vista!
That's right Windows7 doesn't merely tell you it won't deliver another DreamScene content pack but that it's going to take away the ones you already had including Tinker, come on, Microsoft, that's just mean. After removing your Vista extras the upgrade form Vista goes smooth for the most part. I just had to reinstall drivers for my netgear wireless usb which Win7 couldn't find or provide. XP users are totally out of luck though since they will have to do a clean install and reinstall all their programs.
Other than the fact that Windows 7 forcibly removes your extras if you are already running Vista I wouldn't be in a rush to go out and grab a copy, especially not at the current price, since the improvements are little and subtle coming from Vista. If you are still running XP on the otherhand though you should've definitely upgrade asap.
I've used the bitlocker feature on a 2TB drive and it works as advertised and that's one area where the improvement compared to Vista are noticeable. For one you know longer have to create your own partition to install bitlocker since windows 7 takes care of it for you but it still takes forever to encrypt a 2TB drive, roughly several hours, but at least it's a one time deal unless you need to decrypt it to clone it or update your bios for example.
If you are trying to scrimp on hardrive space or memory Win7 does use a bit less than Vista but still more than XP, since Movie maker, mail, and several other programs that always used to come with Windows have been removed and are now a optional download. That won't make the few people that use or depend on those programs happy but for the rest I'm sure they are happier for a slimmer Windows. The other changes people upgrading from Vista will notice is the annoying sidebar is gone and the taskbar is huge and works way different than Vista so it takes some learning to figure out where Microsoft moved everything to. It took me a while to figure out where all my stuff went since Win7 tries to be helpful and hide more stuff from you like Macos x. For example your taskbar notifications are still there but hidden by default. Nothing else really impressed me since almost all the stuff in Win7 was already there in Vista. Problem Step Recorder is a nice addition for those that help others troubleshoot their computers or is a quick and dirty way to make your own tutorials. And contrary to what others are seeing Win7 is not noticeably faster than Vista for most stuff except maybe networking and hibernation does seem to work better now. Then again since it never seemed to work before now that it does work is certainly an improvement. Windows 7 is also alot more helpful in trying to troubleshoot incompatible applications and games since a little wizard pops up trying to help you but if your program/game didn't work in Vista it most likely isn't going to work in Win7 either. Oh and another thing I turned off right away was Aero snap since it kept trying to be helpful by rearranging my windows for me which I hated. Alot of others seem to love this feature though. Other little things that Microsoft finally got around to adding to Windows is native burn support for ISO so you don't have to install Nero, usually one of the first pieces of software I install, and Blu-ray burn only support. This still doesn't make up for the lack of virtual desktops support, which Linux and Mac OS X have provided for the longest time and is one of the most useful features ever devised. This is one of the biggest oversight Microsoft continues to make which each new release. Maybe if they threw in native Blu-ray playback support for the Ultimate edition it would make sense to charge more.
So that's my take from someone that used Vista since the day it was released and has been using Win7 since it was released roughly a month ago.
Oh and finally I'm not too happy that even this latest more secure version of Windows can easily be rendered non-functional just by installing an old game. Any old game that using StarForce will install a driver that will immediately cause a blue screen of death upon reboot. For example Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Collection. Microsoft should really put a hardblock on this since I was only able to recover my system due to my technical skills. So much for compatibility with older games.

Here Comes Windows 7
Here comes Windows 7, nearly three years after Windows Vista and eight years after Windows XP. By most accounts, Windows 7 is what Vista should have been. Do we finally have a worthy successor to XP?

** CLEAN UPGRADE UPDATE BELOW 10/29/09 **

PROS:
- Fast startup and performance
- Stable
- Nice aesthetic and functional changes to the desktop
- Improved networking, power management & security
- 32-bit & 64-bit versions included
- Windows Media Center
- Windows XP Mode

CONS:
- User Account Control still annoying
- Upgrade can be challenging
- Expensive

** CLEAN UPGRADE UPDATE 10/29/09 **
It seems that a lot of upgraders have been complaining about the upgrade process, especially from XP. Most of us expected to be able to format our hard disks and be prompted for either the XP disc or product key. Alas, this is not the case. The upgrade is much more complicated than it should be and some workarounds have been discovered

Method A (simplest)
If you already have an older version of Windows on the hard drive, finish the Custom Install, without entering the product key. After installation, go to your System Properties and click the link to activate Windows. Enter your product key and it should activate. This has worked for me twice.

Method B (hardest)
If Method A doesn't work, try the registry hack.
1. Finish the custom install without entering the product key then click Start and type regedit.exe into the "Search programs and files" box.
2. In the registry, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/. In the pane on the right, you'll see an entry for MediaBootInstall. Double-click on it and change the value from "1" to "0" and click OK.
3. Close regedit and go to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories then right-click on Command Prompt and select "Run as administrator." You'll get a UAC alert, click Yes.
4. At the command prompt, type: slmgr /rearm and hit Enter. Reboot.
5. Now try to activate. If it fails, make sure there are no pending Windows Updates to install. If there is, install them, reboot and start over from Step 4.

Method C (most time consuming)
Perform the Custom Install and skip the product key. Once completed, run the upgrade again from within Windows 7 but this time, enter the Windows 7 upgrade key and then activate Windows.
** END UPDATE **


I had been running the Windows 7 release candidate for 3 months and the full version 2 weeks before official release date. The experience convinced me to finally upgrade my Windows XP systems to 7. This review briefly touches upon some of the key features and enhancements of Microsoft's latest OS.

PERFORMANCE & STABILITY
One of the welcome enhancements Microsoft made was start-up time. The shutdown time has been improved as well. Also, in my non-benchmarked experience, Windows 7 has been at least as fast as XP if not faster. The kernel changes and ability to run the 64-bit version probably has a lot to do with that. Most benchmarks from around the Internet seem to support my observations.

64-BIT
I am elated to finally upgrade to a 64-bit operating system in order to take advantage of more memory support and modern processors. I have Intel Core 2 Duo processors in both my systems with 4GB of physical RAM but XP only allowed 3.25GB for system use.

DESKTOP
At first login, you'll notice the changes to the taskbar. The taskbar is no longer just a place to store quick launch icons and view open windows. It now provides functionality in the form of Jump Lists, which allow you to select your most frequently opened files or links from the apps you have "pinned" on the taskbar. The clock and calendar are improved and the Show Desktop icon is now integrated in the far right corner. Other desktop enhancements include Aero Peek, Aero Shake, Snap, new themes and wallpapers. You also get gadget support. All of these features combine to create a much improved and enjoyable desktop experience.

LIBRARIES
Windows 7 introduces a new feature called libraries. Previously, your system had shortcuts to My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, etc. which had files residing in only those specific folders. Files can now reside anywhere on your system and be organized inside libraries. It's similar to how many music and photo applications organize files.

NETWORKING
Even as good as XP was, networking was cumbersome. Windows 7 makes connecting two or more Windows 7 systems together easy, using HomeGroup. This enables easy sharing of files and devices. One downside is that HomeGroup is only supported between Windows 7 systems. File transfer performance between computers has been vastly improved and connecting to a wireless network has never been easier on a Windows machine.

SECURITY
Security in Windows 7 is good and comes with Windows Firewall and Defender. Still, you'll probably want to invest in a more comprehensive Internet security suite, like Norton's. User Account Control (UAC) has been tweaked in order to give user accounts more flexibility in controlling their own security as well as providing more detailed information so the user can make better decisions about whether to allow certain actions. Coming from XP however, it is still annoying. Also, in Windows 7 Ultimate, you can encrypt entire hard drives as well as external portable storage devices, like USB thumb drives. Though this is a welcome integrated feature, much of the functionality can be found in a popular open-source program called TrueCrypt.

POWER MANAGEMENT
Power management has been improved overall and you should be able to squeeze more battery life out of your laptop, even when using your DVD drive. Sleep and resume has also been improved. XP wasn't always consistent when entering or resuming from sleep mode, but Windows 7 has been perfect.

WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER
I've only briefly played around with WMC but it looks promising. It has some fun options for media, especially when you're connected to the Internet. It may even be an adequate replacement for component DVR's should you choose to use it as the centerpiece to your entertainment center. The biggest advantage for me is that Windows 7 now includes a DVD decoder. This means that I can now watch DVD's natively. WMC is available in all Windows 7 editions except Starter.

WINDOWS XP MODE
For applications that ran in XP, but won't on 7, there is now XP Mode. It isn't perfect and your system has to have virtualization support and turned on. Go to your system BIOS to check. If supported, then install Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode. Check your hardware if you intend to use XP Mode.

RECOMMENDATION
If you're an XP holdout, like I was, I recommend upgrading. Vista SP2 users may have less reason to upgrade but might want to just for the changes to the taskbar and the UAC improvements. For users who don't need to use their computers in a corporate environment, then Windows 7 Home Premium edition is a good choice. I'm guessing most power users will choose Professional. I suggest a clean install for best results. If you're a Mac OS X user, there is probably nothing in Windows 7 compelling enough for you to consider switching.

SUMMARY
Windows 7 is the premium Microsoft OS that Windows users have been waiting for. It's fast, secure, stable, visually appealing and fun to use. Windows 7 will make your old system feel fresh and new again. New system owners with Windows 7 pre-loaded can feel confident that they're getting the best Windows OS ever produced.