People often ask us which version of Windows they should purchase for their new PC build. Generally speaking Windows 7 Home Premium Edition has everything that most end users would need for normal day-to-day usage of their PC. There is no use in paying extra for Windows 7 Professional Edition if the added features will be of no benefit to you. Here is a list of the major differences between Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional.
Memory support
Home Premium: 16GB of physical memory supported
Professional: 192GB of physical memory supported
(*64-bit editions only.)
Recent tests of a mid range Windows 7 based PC with configurations of 4GB, 8GB and 16GB of system memory have shown only a marginal overall performance benefit between 8GB and 4GB. No performance improvement was evident when moving from 8GB to 16GB, therefore I do not see the 16GB physical memory limitation of Home Edition to be an issue when choosing an operating system.
Backup and restore
Home Premium: Limited to local HDD or DVD
Professional: Local HDD, DVD and Network
The Backup and Restore centre was first introduced in Windows Vista and provides users with the ability to back up files, folders, libraries or even their complete hard drive. Backups can be automatically scheduled by the user to any frequency they like. The only limitation on Windows 7 Home Premium Edition is that it cannot backup data to a network location such as a network-attached storage device (NAS), another PC on the network, or to a network server. Full hard drive backup can be performed by choosing the “Create a system Image” option. This image can be used as a complete disaster recovery option (as long as the image is not stored on your operating system drive). In the event of a mechanical failure or data corruption on the Operating System drive in the PC the “system image” can be restored to a new HDD and your PC can be back up and running in an hour or two, complete with all data and programs intact.
Encrypting File System
Home Premium: No
Professional: Yes
Encrypting File System (EFS) enables transparent encryption of files and/or folders, directly from within Windows Explorer, adding a layer of security to sensitive files or folders and preventing access to these files or folders by unauthorised users or programs not in possession of the appropriate cryptographic key. Any files placed in an encrypted folder will automatically be encrypted. Encrypted folders and files will be displayed in green in windows explorer.
Location Aware Printing
Home Premium:
Professional:
This feature is particularly useful for laptops, netbooks or other portable devices which move between different networks. Windows will automatically keep track of the different networks and remember which printers are available on each of them. This saves you the trouble of having to reassign the default printer you wish to use, every time you connect to a different network, as windows will switch to the last default printer you used on any particular network. You even have the option of manually presetting which printer you would like to use on each network.
