What versions of Windows 7 should I get?

Mysterae_

Mysterae_

Mysterae_

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15 Sep 2008
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I'm not quite sure what versions of Windows 7 would be best for me. Yes, I said versions ;)

Over the holiday period I want to change all the computers at home over to Windows 7 and build a machine to run Windows Home Server now that it is more compatiable with Win7. I'll put a seprate post regarding WHS as I have further questions for that!

The computers are so:

PC1: My gaming/general use computer. A Q6600 @ 3.6ghz, 4gb ram, ATI 4870, watercooled etc. Currently runs Windows Vista Home Premium retail. The configuration of this pc will change in the future (upgraditis!).

PC2: My girlfriends general use computer (office apps, internet, music etc). An X2 4400+ @ 2.2ghz, 1gb ram, ATI X1900XTX, stock cooling. Currently runs Windows XP Professional retail. I don't think the configuration of this pc will change much unless it's due to a component failure, it's plenty fast for her!

PC3: The lounge internet/media control computer. It's a Motion Computing LE1600, Intel Pentium M 1.6ghz, 1.5gb ram, 60gb hard drive, tablet computer. Currently runs Windows Vista Business (don't know oem or not). Note, this tablet doesn't have an optical drive, nor is the graphics chipset powerful enough to run Aero. The config of this computer will never change.

PC4: Windows Home Server, not yet built. Still deciding spec, base software.

PC5: Home Theatre PC, not yet built, may not be if the Windows 7 setup can do what I hope it can do!

I have always preferred to install an OS from scratch rather than upgrade.

I think that's enough information! Given the above: what do you guys suggest?

PC1: Vista Home Premium --> Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) Full Retail?
PC2: XP Professional --> Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) Full Retail?
PC3: Vista Business --> Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) Full Retail?
PC4: ? + WHS
PC5: ?

Starting with the first 3 pcs, that's £239.97 at OcUK's prices for 3 copies of retail Win7 HP, whereas I can get 3x Win7 upgrades (Family Pack) from elsewhere for £129.95 (that's a £110 saving that I could use to get WHS) but I really dislike upgrade disks!

What to do? Thanks for reading my long post.
 
PC1: Vista Home Premium --> Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) Full Retail? Yes.
PC2: XP Professional --> Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) Full Retail? Yes.
PC3: Vista Business --> Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) Full Retail? Is this a 64 bit CPU?
PC4: ? + WHS Do you need WHS? Have you experiemented with what Windows can do out of the box?
PC5: ?

If you are going to buy them, buy them now before the prices rise. In regards to the upgrade discs you can do a fresh install with them, but license wise you can't go from Pro to Home and Business to Home.
 
Outlook Express

I have Windows 7 Ultimate, anyone know if you can download outlook express on to it or someform of email which i can transfer from my XP laptop?
 
Mysterae_ said:
PC1: Vista Home Premium --> Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) Full Retail?
PC2: XP Professional --> Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) Full Retail?
PC3: Vista Business --> Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) Full Retail?
PC4: ? + WHS
PC5: ?
Click to expand...

Does PC3 have a 64bit CPU? I'm not familiar with the CPU.

PC4. If you're going to run WHS, then it should be as a standalone, untouched box. You don't need the "? +".

Will you need to administer any of these machines remotely, i.e from another box? If so you probably want to consider Win 7 Pro on the boxes you would RDP into - I use this a lot for my HTPCs.
 
theheyes said:
PC1: Vista Home Premium --> Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) Full Retail? Yes.
PC2: XP Professional --> Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) Full Retail? Yes.
PC3: Vista Business --> Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) Full Retail? Is this a 64 bit CPU?
PC4: ? + WHS Do you need WHS? Have you experiemented with what Windows can do out of the box?
PC5: ?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if the Pentium M chip in the tablet is 64bit, need to check that, thanks.

As to why I think I need WHS? I currently use a QNAP TS209 NAS to store my lossless FLAC cd rips, using a Squeezebox 3 to play them. The tablet pc is used to control the SB3, access the playlists etc, and it worked well. However, it's been getting slower the more music I add. Also it's not very intuitive, doesn't do video and the GUI is poor by WMC standards (with various plugins I've seen).

My vision is of all computers on the same network, everyones files backed up automatically, access whatever media (music and dvds) whenever. Using the tablet in the living room to call up whatever would be nice. I'm sure the integration of Win7 and WHS can do this.

Don't know if I need a separate pc for the video side of things - WMC GUI, playback of movies etc, I'll post further in separate thread in Server forum?
 
ChileanLlama said:
PC4. If you're going to run WHS, then it should be as a standalone, untouched box. You don't need the "? +".

Will you need to administer any of these machines remotely, i.e from another box? If so you probably want to consider Win 7 Pro on the boxes you would RDP into - I use this a lot for my HTPCs.
Click to expand...

You don't need a base operating system for WHS? Just looked on the wegotserved site (saw link to it in these forums) and see it doesn't need a base OS, good news! I thought I read somewhere it did, my mistake.

I wouldn't need to RDP any of the first 3 pc's listed as they are usually switched off when they aren't being used. However the WHS would be in a cupboard and forgotten about, so remote access to that would be required. The HTPC would be connected to the main telly (distributed across others later) so that could be accessed there, or through the tablet if possible.

Is it possible to VM the WHS on a HTPC or would that be asking to much of it?

Talking of accessing media, I saw on one of the Microsoft adverts where they were running a video from one pc (laptop) to the family telly. This is what I want, to select media from the tablet to run from the server to the HTPC (or bypassing it) to the telly. The telly is DLNA capable. Or am I in dreamland :D.
 
WHS is a full OS in itself. Try the demo of it on a spare machine to see if it does what you want. Also check the add-ins out.

WHS is built on Windows 2003 Server. You can RDP into it, and should be able to from Windows 7 Home Premium. Though it installs it's own connector software on each of your clients and you can access most of the day to day functionality from there.

You could VM WHS, but I wouldn't recommend it. It uses it's own drive extender technology which is like a simple RAID for pooling physical disks and, where you desire it, will duplicate required data on separate physical disks. It's more than possible to do though if you were determined to :)

I've not seen the video you mention, so not sure how they've achieved that :s It sounds interesting though - or was the laptop just outputting it's display direct to the TV?
 
Cheers ChileanLlama.

I have some bits I can scratch up a system to test it on, good advice.

I have been reading up on WHS today, dispelling the preconcieved ideas I had about. As you say, it's own connector software installed in any to be connected pcs is all that is required to RDP to connect to it.

The more I think about RDP, the more I think I may need this on at least one machine to connect to the soon to be built HTPC - if I need one - see the paragraph below.

After reading how WHS deals with any disks it sees, there's no way I'm looking at putting it on a virtual machine!

Here's the UK microsoft advert that I was talking about.

I think it is done with a networked or DLNA capable TV and the movie of dinosaurs streamed wirelessly from the girls laptop or from a home server controlled by the laptop. That's what I want to do with WHS and my tablet pc.
 
Thanks for the link :) Not sure how they're transmitting the signal from the laptop to the TV, I don't know enough about DLNA.

But I think they're clearly referring to the media network sharing capability of media player in Windows 7. Never used this because I use the WHS to store and serve it all up to any of the machines :)

For RDP, a Home Premium machine can RDP into another machine, but unless you have Pro you can't RDP into it. i.e. for your HTPC you would need Pro to allow say your tablet with HP to RDP into it.

I still do some things that I RDP into my WHS's with, but for 99% of day to day stuff I don't need to. In any event HP should be able to RDP into WHS which supports it :)

Just one thing with PC4 if you're looking to build one, make sure it can playback HD/BD content. There's plenty of good motherboards with onboard ATI/nVidia graphics chipsets - but it's something to be aware of :)
 
Thanks ChileanLlama,

The thing is I want to do this in stages, but there are some things I need to think of first so I don't need to make changes later! For example:

1. Change main computers over to Windows 7.
2. Build server and put content on it from my NAS.
3. Build the HTPC.

I'm stuck at stage 1 because I'm not quite sure how I will access and control stuff, i.e. control from tablet to run a movie/music from the server to the HTPC. I don't want a keyboard/mouse in the livingroom as everything IR is control with a Harmony remote. Control must be fluid and simple as the other half has to use it :D.

Thanks reflux, that's one bit sorted!
 
I use a Harmony 1100 to control my lounge HTPC, still needs some tweaking though ;)

I don't have the tablet inbetween which is the bit I'm not sure how it would work, the HTPC just gets all it's movies, music, photos, etc direct from the WHS and I control this and the rest of AV stuff direct with the Harmony.
 
Nice remote, I'm still using the previous model the 1000, even after the dog chewed the aluminium off it :eek:.

The tablet idea is to do away with the need to turn the plasma on or switching it from a program just to listen to music, or pointing a remote at the screen. I thought about using the tablet as the HTPC but it's not really powerful enough and is in sleep mode when not being used.

I'm not sure what I want to do is entirely possible...

I think RDP from the tablet to the HTPC is one avenue though.
 
Window's own RDP is not the only way to remotely control a PC. You can use programs such as WinVNC to remotely control any PC. I know it works on Windows XP, surley it can work on Vista or Win 7?

I have a system running WHS and a mix of Vista Home Premium and Win 7 (RC presently), but I've just bought the family pack to upgrade HTPC and home PC's to Win 7. I do have to have the TV on to play music, but that doesn't worry me. I use the Microsoft Media Centre Keyboard and Remote to Control the HTPC which works OK on Vista, hopefullly Win 7 will be the same!

I find the backup feature of WHS a great feature. The media sharing and shared folders is very easy to use and simple to set-up, especially on Windows 7.

I would expect that Home Premium will be enough for all your needs. My 'problem' is that one of my systems has 2 Xeons in it, so I need Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate to use both CPU's in that one, which is a little annoying.
 
Thanks Malcom, another person inspiring me with confidence in that WHS is what I need/want.

I will look into other RDP type programs. I imagine I will RDP in to the HTPC with the tablet when I want to keep the TV off or not disturb anybody watching it (in the future the output of the HTPC will be distributed to more than one TV).

The back up and centralisation of the household's data is one of my main drives for WHS. At the moment data is everywhere - FLACs on the NAS, mp3 on the g/f's pc, other stuff on an external usb drive etc.

How did you get on with the family upgrade version of Windows 7? Did you install it on top of the previous OS or where you able to clean install it? This seems to be a concern for many.

I can imagine how annoying it is to need Pro or ultimate for the 2 cpu's. I guess they think if you can afford that, you can stump up the extra to use it! I will only use a dual or quad for the WHS or HTPC, not quite decided yet.
 
I don't think the family pack is the correct choice for you as to my knowledge you can't go from Pro/Business to a Home product (incorrect licensing).

And the reason why only one physical CPU is permitted for Home Premium is to differentiate between home and business computers. If you have more than one physical CPU it's highly likely to be used as a server or workstation which is why they "encourage" you to go with Pro or Windows Server.
 
Mysterae_ said:
Thanks Malcom, another person inspiring me with confidence in that WHS is what I need/want.

I will look into other RDP type programs. I imagine I will RDP in to the HTPC with the tablet when I want to keep the TV off or not disturb anybody watching it (in the future the output of the HTPC will be distributed to more than one TV).

The back up and centralisation of the household's data is one of my main drives for WHS. At the moment data is everywhere - FLACs on the NAS, mp3 on the g/f's pc, other stuff on an external usb drive etc.

How did you get on with the family upgrade version of Windows 7? Did you install it on top of the previous OS or where you able to clean install it? This seems to be a concern for many.

I can imagine how annoying it is to need Pro or ultimate for the 2 cpu's. I guess they think if you can afford that, you can stump up the extra to use it! I will only use a dual or quad for the WHS or HTPC, not quite decided yet.
Click to expand...

WHS will do all that for you, very seamlessly. It sounds like you'll have a similar setup to me when it's all in place, excluding the tablet.

Looking at your current setup you probably won't be able to do in place upgrades.

The Vista Home Premium is probably the exception, providing you don't move from 32bit to 64bit which I'd recommend if you're not on 64bit. The XP will be a clean install, though you can use Windows Easy Transfer to help move data and settings. The Vista business machine can only be upgraded in place to Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate. This link sets out what can be upgraded in place or needs a clean install. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/upgrade-considerations.aspx

As theheyes says, if you want to mix and match the versions of Windows 7 then family pack is probably not your best option.

You shouldn't need a lot of CPU power for a WHS, I've a couple running on Core 2 Pentium E5200's and one on an old P4 3.06HT - same with HTPCs but for HD playback they have nVidia 9400 based onboard graphics. They are rarely taxed - but it will depend on whether you want to do more with them, i.e. run additional services on the WHS or perhaps play games on the HTPC.

:)
 
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