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.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #77 in Software
• Brand: Microsoft
• Model: GLC-00182
• Released on: 2009-10-22
• Platform: Windows 7
• Format: DVD-ROM
• Dimensions: 1.13" h x 5.38" w x 7.50" l, .40 pounds

Features

• (Includes 32 & 64-bit versions) 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

Amazon.com Product Description
Windows 7 Ultimate is the most versatile and powerful edition of Windows 7. It combines remarkable ease-of-use with the entertainment features of Home Premium and the business capabilities of Professional, including the ability to run many Windows XP productivity programs in Windows XP Mode. For added security, you can encrypt your data with BitLocker and BitLocker To Go. And for extra flexibility, you can work in any of 35 languages. Get it all with Windows 7 Ultimate.

More work, more play, and more of everything in between. Click to enlarge.

Manage lots of open programs, documents, and browser windows easily with thumbnail and full-screen previews of open windows. Click to enlarge.

With Snap you can arrange two windows side-by-side just by dragging them to opposite sides of your screen. Click to enlarge.

Open files you use regularly in just two clicks with Jump Lists on the improved taskbar.

Designed for people who want it all

Easiest Windows to use ever

• Simplify your PC with new navigation features like Aero Shake, Jump Lists, and Snap.
• Customize Windows to look and feel the way you like by changing themes and taskbar programs.
• Easy to network (with or without a server).
• Back up your complete system over a network.
• Help protect data on your PC or portable storage device against loss or theft with BitLocker.

Faster and more flexible

• Designed to make your PC sleep and resume quicker.
• Takes full advantage of 64-bit PC hardware and memory.
• Windows XP Mode gives you the business flexibility you need.
• Switch between any of 35 languages.

Best PC entertainment experience

• Watch, pause, rewind, and record TV with Windows Media Center.
• Blu-ray read/write support for data files.
• Includes integrated video and Dolby audio codecs.

Simplifies Everyday Tasks

Simple to use

Preview
Manage lots of open programs, documents, and browser windows easily with thumbnail and full-screen previews of open windows.

Pin
Open files and get around your PC faster with the improved taskbar. You can easily pin programs you use often to the taskbar and launch them in just one click.

Windows 7 lets you peek behind open windows to get a quick look at your desktop. Click to enlarge.

Instantly locate and open virtually any file on your PC right from the Start menu with Windows Search. Click to enlarge.

Turn your PC into a TV with Windows Media Center, and enjoy your favorite videos and music with Windows Media Player. Click to enlarge.

Jump Lists
Open files you use regularly in just two clicks with Jump Lists on the improved taskbar.

Snap
Windows 7 has simple new ways to manage open windows. For example, with Snap you can arrange two windows side-by-side just by dragging them to opposite sides of your screen.

Peek and Shake
Windows 7 lets you peek behind open windows to get a quick look at your desktop.

Windows Search
Instantly locate and open virtually any file on your PC, from documents to emails to songs, right from the Start menu, with Windows Search.

Easy to connect

Setting up wireless connections is easier with consistent, one-click connections to available networks. Click to enlarge.

Enjoy the photos, music, and videos on your home PC when you're away from home with remote media streaming. Click to enlarge.

Windows Touch makes PCs with touch screens easier and more intuitive to use. Click to enlarge.

Manage Backup and Restore and other features through Action Center. Click to enlarge.

Search, organize, and edit files across a network in the same way you would a single folder.Click to enlarge.

Wireless setup
With Windows 7, setting up wireless connections is easier with consistent, one-click connections to available networks, whether those networks are based on Wi-Fi, mobile broadband, dial-up, or corporate VPN.

HomeGroup
Connect Windows 7 PCs on a home network in just four clicks and easily get to the photos, music, and files on each one--even share printers--with HomeGroup.

Easy to browse the web

Internet Explorer 8
Visual search helps you quickly find the information you want by adding visual cues and previews to search results from top search providers including Live Search, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Amazon, and others.

Internet Explorer 8
Use Web slices to conveniently keep up with changes on frequently updated websites, like eBay auctions or traffic sites, directly from the IE8 toolbar.

Easy to communicate and share

Windows Live Photo Gallery
Windows Live Photo Gallery makes share your photos to your favorite photo site easy.

Windows Live Mail
Windows Live Mail makes managing multiple email accounts easy.

Windows Live Family Safety
Keep your child safe by managing what sites they can visit and who they can send/receive emails and im communications from.

Note: Windows Live components need to be downloaded separately.

Works The Way You Want

Faster and More Reliable

Resume from sleep
We designed Windows 7 to help PCs sleep and resume from sleep more quickly by improving the way Windows 7 manages drivers, programs, and power.

Faster and more reliable
We reduced the amount of memory your PC needs for open windows and to execute commands to help it be more responsive to commands.

Fewer clicks and less interruptions

Makes New Things Possible

Media on your terms

Windows Media Center
Turn your PC into a TV with Windows Media Center.

Windows Media Center
Watch shows for free when and where you want with Internet TV.

DirectX 11
DirectX 11 technology delivers breathtaking game graphics so real, it's unreal.

New ways to engage

Windows Touch
Windows Touch makes PCs with touch screens easier and more intuitive to use.

Media on your terms

Windows Media Player
More and more consumer electronics, from TVs to digital photo frames, can be connected to home networks. With Play To in Windows 7, you'll be able to easily send music, photos, videos from your PC to a networked device throughout your home.

You can enjoy the photos, music, and videos on your home PC when you're away from home with remote media streaming.

Work anywhere

Location Aware Printing
Windows 7 will automatically pick the right printer for you when you move from home to work networks.

Work anywhere with less effort.

• Get connected in three clicks wherever there's a wireless network connection.
• Keep documents on your PC and on network servers in sync automatically.
• Your PC will automatically use the printer you prefer for whatever network you're on.
• Simplify making presentations special settings that keep your PC from sleeping and turn off messages, notifications, and screen savers.
• Instantly locate virtually any file, email, or document on your PC just by typing a word or two.
• Get around your PC faster with the improved taskbar.
• Open programs you use regularly in one click and files you use regularly in just two.
• Manage lots of open programs, documents, and browser windows easily with thumbnail and full-screen previews of open windows.
• Manage multiple email accounts, including Hotmail, Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo! Mail Plus, all in one place with one simple program.
• Get to the files, photos, and music on any PC with Windows 7 in the house from any other.
• Print to any printer in the house from any PC with Windows 7 in the house.

Safeguard your hard work.

• Advanced Backup and Restore makes it easier to keep your work safely backed up to external or network drives and accessible if you need it.
• File encryption helps keep proprietary and confidential information on a PC secure if it is lost or stolen.
• Preserve your investment in programs designed for Windows XP with Windows XP Mode.
• Windows Internet Explorer 8 helps keep your PC safer from malware and you safer from fraudulent websites designed to fool you into divulging private information.
• Easily add your PC to a secured, managed, network with domain join capabilities.
• Group policy controls help administrators more easily and effectively manage the security and configuration of multiple PCs.

Choose the Windows 7 Edition That Is Best For You

Features	Windows 7 Home Premium	Windows 7 Professional	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.
Make your web experience faster, easier and safer than ever with Internet Explorer 8.
Watch, pause, rewind, and record TV on your PC.
Easily create a home network and connect your PCs to a printer with HomeGroup.
Run many Windows XP productivity programs in Windows XP Mode.
Connect to company networks easily and more securely with Domain Join.
In addition to full-system Backup and Restore found in all editions, you can back up to a home or business network.
Help protect data on your PC and portable storage devices against loss or theft with BitLocker.
Work in the language of your choice and switch between any of 35 languages.

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Customer Reviews

Windows 7: Performs better than XP, Looks better than Vista
Let me preface this review with my qualifications so that you may understand the extent I've gone to with operating systems to end up proudly claiming, "I'm a PC."

I use Linux (RedHat) at work, I've tried Ubuntu and Lycoris long before it, I've tried Debian and Slackware and however many other flavors of *nix in the past just to say I tried them. I've messed with BeOS (Zeta development was an exciting time), I've played with Mac OS X on numerous occasions (beautiful OS), and I've tried countless obscure operating systems that I doubt even 1% of those reading this would know about (and trust me; there's a reason for you not knowing about them, lol). Why have I messed with them all? Because I enjoy operating systems and I find them to be amazing achievements. There's no denying that Mac OS X is a beautiful OS that performs quite well within the structured hardware environment Apple has created. Linux is hella useful on an enterprise level (though Windows Server is easily comparable these days) and even home flavors of Linux have become quite nice (Ubuntu)! The fact of the matter is that I'm partial to Windows through my experiences with having tried just about every flavor of every OS out there over the past 10 years or so. I used to collect beta versions of operating systems (not just Windows, but others as well), so I've not only tried the final products, but I've also gained appreciation for them by seeing them and playing with them through their development cycles. Where Windows is concerned, at one point or another, I've instally just about every build of every version currently out there (and trust me, there are TONS of builds - alpha and beta bits from every version of Windows, including obscure bits like Windows Neptune). I've ridden the roller coaster through the highs (Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP, and now 7) and lows (Windows ME, Windows Vista's initial release) and I couldn't be happier that I've stuck it out.

Enter Windows 7.

Windows 7 is amazing. There is no other way to put it. It's being hyped as, "Vista done right," or something of that nature. Well, Windows 7 is soooo much more than that. True, the user interface may resemble Windows Vistas, but only at first glance. The single-most revolutionary aspect of Windows 7 is the new task bar. It has provided so much additional functionality that you would never know you wanted (or needed). The ability to pin tasks, the ability to move items around on the task bar, the privacy of not having titles of your windows down in the task bar for anyone to see, the new interactive thumbnail previews, the new placement of the show desktop button... I could go on. It may take you a bit to get used to the new task bar, but trust me... you will and you will absolutely come to love it. Going back to anything less just won't feel right.

Next on the docket is HomeGroups. Look, file sharing between home computers has never been easier. NEVER. I have Windows 7 on my desktop and on my laptop. The desktop, I recently built, so while awaiting my wireless card for it, I wanted to see if I could tether my laptop's internet connection. In the past, it wasn't exactly difficult to set it up, but it was much more involved than it is now. All you need is a regular ethernet cable, connent one end to your laptop and the other to your desktop, give permissions to share (made simple through HomeGroups) and voila! I can use the internet on my desktop via my laptop's internet connection. And not only that, I was able to set up the laptop and desktop to share files between one another via the same cable... and it was incredibly simple! I won't walk through the steps here since this review is already getting a bit lengthy, but the long and the short of it is that file and resource sharing between Windows 7 computers is RIDICULOUSLY intuitive.

Lastly, are you still on XP? Are you one of those business who decided way back when that you would just skip Vista and roll out Windows 7? Well, guess what? Windows 7 is here and it's time you make good on your decision. As the title to my review implies, Windows 7 bests both Vista and XP. There is no longer any excuse for you to stick with XP when Windows 7 performs EVEN BETTER. The only learning curve for XP users will be getting used to the new user interface and the change in location of certain files/folders (which admittedly irked me at first, but those changes came about in Vista, so I've been long used to them). Bite that bullet. It's worth it, trust me. Oh, and cost? Windows 7 is worth its weight in gold. It's an operating system. Think about everything it does for you, all the applications it allows you to run, the tasks it allows you to perform... in the grand scheme of things, the cost of Windows is one of the best investments you can make for yourself, so go ahead and treat yourself to Windows 7. Seriously. Don't buy into the stupid Mac hype videos of, "more of the same" and pay no mind to the Microsoft commercials where people say Windows 7 was their idea. Go try it for yourself. Download a free evaluation copy, install it, and give it a whirl. See for yourself.

Since Amazon removes links from posts now, search Google for Windows 7 Enterprise 90-Day Evaluation. You will need a Windows Live ID and though it's an evaluation of Windows 7 Enterprise, it looks and feels like every other SKU.

-Stephen
MSFTKitchen (Google it)

I thought about placing this review on all the SKUs of Windows 7, but since I use Ultimate on a regular basis and not the other SKUs, I think it's only appropriate to leave it here, as-is. Thanks for reading (if you made it this far, that is)!

Windows 7 Is Impressive - Painless Installation & Easy To Use
When I got my copy of Windows 7 Ultimate, I really wasn't sure what to expect. I had not been running any beta or release candidate, so I had no idea how I would like Windows 7 or even the install process. I am running a Dell XPS desktop, and I had recently installed 8GB of memory in anticipation of formatting and installing Windows 7 64 bit edition. Sounds like overkill I know, but I got a great deal on the memory and wanted to go to a 64 bit version when Windows 7 came out. I will get into some of the differences shortly, but let me just say that the installation was painless...I mean really painless. My desktop is a few years old, and I expected to be hunting device drivers online to get everything working. I didn't have to! I was quite surprised when the install process completed and everything was working great. I didn't have to download a single device driver...and that IS a first for me when changing operating systems!

There is a small learning curve because some things have changed and you will have to spend a few minutes trying to find them, but it's not a big deal.
I wold suggest spending some time just looking around to see where things are located as well as what new shiny bells and whistles are available.

The Start Menu: I was one of those guys who always changed my start menu back to the Windows 2000 type. I hated the XP menu with a passion.
Imagine my horror when I figured out there was no way to change it in Windows 7! I was certainly upset at first, until I started actually using the new menu.
I have a habit using the old start-run option and typing in some of the programs I use. For example, I would use start-run winword to open Microsoft Word. I know, it sounds crazy, but my computer days started with DOS, so I still have some love for the command line! I noticed in Windows 7, there is no run command...but after using it I realized it didn't need one because the search box actually does the same thing. Once I figured out how to pin programs to the start menu, I realized that I am finally happy using a new menu interface.

Windows 7 32 bit or 64 bit?

Windows 7 comes with two disks, one for 32 bit and one for 64 bit. You can choose which one you want to use based upon your devices, and your needs.
If you are upgrading from another version of Windows, you can't change unless you do a fresh install. If your computer supports 64 bit and you aren't using extremely old software, I would suggest going to 64 bit if you are doing a new install anyway. It will still run 32 bit programs, and you will may benefit from the 64 bit version. You might consider adding some memory as well if you want since you can use more than 4GB memory with the 64 bit version. If you are using an older computer with minimal memory anyway, I would just stick with the 32 bit version. Microsoft has a nice feature on their Windows 7 website to check compatibility with Windows 7 in both 32 bit and 64 bit, so you can see which of your programs may be an issue.

Summary:

I am really happy with Windows 7. Not only was it easy to install, without needing me to find any drivers, etc...but the interface is also easy to use. You won't be having to make a hundred changes just to do something as you may have in Windows Vista. There are no more major issues with User Account Control for those of you who are using Vista now! Is Windows 7 worth the upgrade? I think it is. I have two versions, one is the full version of Windows 7 Ultimate and the other is Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade for my laptop (currently running Vista). I have found Windows 7 to be stable, with no cryptic error messages to stop me from doing what I want to do. I believe Windows 7 is an operating system that people will actually enjoy using...it's a big improvement from Vista, and I think most people will be happy to finally have a reason to upgrade from Windows XP.

More than just Vista done right...
It seems as if the unofficial tagline for Windows 7 is "Windows Vista done right!" Though that may be true, I'd say it's more. With Windows 7, it is clear that Microsoft made performance their number one goal. After the tragic train wreck that was Windows Vista, Windows 7 offers much more in overall performance. Installing Windows was fast and easy; it took me exactly 12 minutes from start to finish. When Windows finally launched, I was pleased to see that my drivers, (ATI Graphics Card, HP AIO Printer, Audio Drivers, etc.) were already installed and ready to use on my system. Startup and shutdown times were noticeably faster--just as fast as Windows XP running on my desktop.

I was also pleased to see that all of my software installed and functioned flawlessly. As a college student majoring in Digital Media, I was ecstatic to see that I was able to run Adobe Photoshop, Premiere, and Lightroom all at once without having much of a lag (if any at all). Switching from program to program was smooth and seamless. This was definitely a major improvement since Vista--I use to have to actually wait when jumping from application to application.

Windows XP Mode (included in Professional and Ultimate editions) can be very useful if you've a program that runs only on Windows XP (though I've yet to find a program which runs on XP alone). You'll be able to run XP software natively within Windows 7, having full functionality of the program and the operating system simultaneously.

The user interface has been improved without altering or taking away from its usability. Everything including the windows and taskbar are crisp and clean. The best part, however, is that Windows Aero does not consume all of my computer's resources. I can finally enjoy the sleekness and innovation of Aero without having the pay the cost of allocating the majority of my system's RAM towards it.

Many of the classic Windows applications have been revamped. The "Ribbon" concept, first introduced in Microsoft Office 2007, has been implemented throughout the operating system in programs such as Microsoft Paint or WordPad. Though I don't know anyone who ever uses these, the improvements are quite nice; I even found myself using the new "brush" tool in Paint for a school assignment.

Overall, improving functionality and performance were obviously a major priority for Microsoft when designing the operating system. Now I can actually enjoy using my PC without hoping it doesn't crash on me midway through a project. We now finally have an operating system that not only looks pretty, but allows the computer to run like it should and the user to enjoy their computer experience.