Vista Ultimate vs. Home Premium

Hey all,

I just ordered a laptop (Dell XPS M1710) with Windows Vista Home Premium. I was talking to some friends and they said it would have been better to get Vista Ultimate. My question to you all is: Is there any real benefit to the average home user/gamer to choose Vista Ultimate over Home Premium??

Thanks,
~TCLWJaved

 

I don't think so, but I think vista has a fair number of 'extras'

 

Well, if you like Texas Hold'em, pay the extra $100 and it comes for free with Ultimate.

 

Essentially, no. Vista Ultimate basically gives you everything that Business, Home, and Home Premium have. That's why it's called "Ultimate" as it combines all the features that the other versions offer into this one software package. Take a look at THIS link for more information.

Basically, from Home Premium to Ultimate you are getting:

- Windows Complete PC Backup and Restore
- Windows Fax and Scan
- Remote Desktop Connection
- Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption

...all this for about $70 more. Not worth it, in my opinion.

 

I have copies of Windows Vista Home Premium, Business and Ultimate (we went all out during the "free Vista!" upgrade process). There's really no difference in how each of the versions function and operate from the a user standpoint. The biggest difference are some of the backup options and (currently useless) features like BitLocker and Dreamscene.

And you can get a much better version of "Dreamscene" and even more useful options by buying Stardock's Object Desktop package.

 

I dont think there is anything big between Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate for the regular user, but if I was offered Vista Ultimate for free or a cheap price, I would probably buy it.

However if you are a student you will likely have a deal for getting Vista Business.

 

if your just a regular computer user, your better off saving the extra $$ and sticking to Home Premium. There won't be any performance difference for your gaming needs. If anything, Ultimate might be a bit more slower because of the extra services and features that are on by default. of course, you can turn them off.

 

Microsoft called Ultimate "Ultimate" for this very reason. Because they know that peers will say to each other "d00d, joo n3333d to g3t teh ULT1M4T3 v3rz1on!" and they will sell more at the ridiculous price because of it. As others have stated, the differences are not big enough to justify the cost. The extras are a joke.

 

Hi guys,
I am planning to buy a hp dv2600t. it comes with vista Home prem and Biz is 100$ more. I wanna do a work from home, and also want to install Java servers, use IIS for webserver. Does home have these features or shud I stick to Biz.

thanks in advance...
Sid

 

Hey Guys,
some good news abt Home prem, very imp info: MS comes up with fixes at last...
http://www.tabletquestions.com/wind...ista-home-premium-windows-authentication.html
The user at this site says:
"So I took a chance and hoped that I would be able to establish a Remote
Desktop Connection to our Windows Server which I administer as that was the only major concern I had. Well the good news was that Home Premium did allow me to do that. So I thought my decision was a great one..."

Share your thoughts/experiences too please..

 

Guys,
this is an awesome site.
http://www.missingremote.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1220&Itemid=1

hope it solves almost all problems with Home premium

 

i have ultimate..and it is not worth it...i never use dreamscene since..have no need for bitlocker..(what is the point of it anyways?).and i never play texas hold-em...the only think i like is the aero feature and that is it. The remote desktop connection is a pain in the butt.....i just use logmein which is much more user friendly

 

Ultimate also gives you the file versioning feature ("previous versions"). I don't have it but it sounds cool. It's also in Business, but if you got Business instead of Premium you'd give up a few multimedia features, and with Ultimate, you don't.

That said, I still think that Ultimate probably isn't worth it for most people.

 

I had to update to Business from Premium because I don't have the Premium discs, and I am so missing Spider Solitaire right now. I'm not even kidding.

Note to Microsoft: Business people play Solitaire too!

 

I like Ultimate personally, but if I didn't get such a ridiculous deal on it, I wouldn't have even thought about it. Put your money towards more ram or something.

 

what is this file versioning thing? Thanks

 

I think he means this: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060730-7383.html

But that is for all editions of Vista.

 

I've got Utimate in my desktop and Home Premium in my laptop..

Frankly I dun see the need for Ultimate...

I rarely use the Dreamscene feature nor do i care abt Texas Hold 'em ..

Other features such as bitlocker are of no use for me..

You'd cud propobably consider Ultimate if u wanted a variety of languages installed...

As you can see, I have no use for such "extra" features.. I ended up paying 100$ for something completely worthless..

 

I'm using Home Premium because I don't see the value of upgrading to Ultimate. I tried DreamScene videos but I think it's gimmicky at best. Infact, those of us on laptops will know that we've had to sacrifice some of Vista's Aero feature to squeeze more life out of out batteries.

 

Volume Shadow Copy is the service that keeps track of previous versions, and it keeps previous version on all versions of Vista. However, if you want to actually *restore* something from it, you need business or ultimate.

Backup = everyone
Restore = Business, Ultimate

 

Here's some more info:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/shadowcopy.mspx

 

the shadow copies are wonderful. I had to use it twice already. its comparable to the time machine in leopard. however, I wish there was a better interface for it like in leopard showing snapshots

 

Guys,
I got a Biz 32 with 4 gigs of Ram on Intel t7500, but i dont see the total memory on it? When i remove 2 gigs, it shows the full 2 gigs (a tad less), but with 4 gigs it just shows random amount 2.75 gigs. I have nvidia 64 MB graphics card on it.

Please suggest, whats wrong with the system.

 

Nothing is wrong with your system. You cannot use all 4GB with a 32bit system. The limit is 3.2GB. If you want to get all 4GB, you need the 64bit version of Vista.

 

If you're a regular j6p gamer, Home Premium is all you need. I use my canon's scan program, and efax for fax....don't use bitlocker or dreamscene either...I had ultimate on my old lappy, and HP on this one. Just couldn't see the need for ultimate in my case.

 

Thanks guys,
is there anyway to acces all the 4 gigs from Biz32. any hack pls let know...

 

You can turn on Physical Address Extension. I'm not sure what kind of performance difference you'lll see though. Few people, if anyone, will see a difference. Keep in mind PAE does add overhead to your CPU, so the extra bit of memory may be a hinderance. That's really the only solution short of an x64 operating system. BTW, if you have Ultimate, you have BOTH x86 and x64 versions of Vista.

 

I'm using Ultimate too... but like others have said its not worth it.

There was supposed to be the promise that Ultimate would carry added features. Hold em, dreamscene, and bitlocker don't cut it in my opinion. We'll see how 2008 turns out, they really should do something Ultimate for the people that shelled out the extra $$ for.

 

MS has addressed this issue many months ago, but I agree with you. I've had ultimate since Jan '07 and open it in a dual boot every now and again, but still work mostly in xp. I think ultimate is a great OS though. Combines the business and premium package into one solid package.

I do wish MS would go back to the home and pro way of doing business though. Having 100 versions of a OS makes things rather confusing and difficult, even for experienced users, when recommending for others. At this point though, I normally boil it down to either Pre or Ult... most should go with pre, although there are additional benefits with the ult package.

 

When Steve Jobs introduced Leopard....He indirectly ridiculed this "Having 100 versions of a OS" thingy.... U should check out the video on youtube.

Leopard has one version & it has everything u ll need.

 

It's pretty easy:

1. If you have a crappy computer (<1 GB RAM): Home Basic
2. If you are a home user: Home Premium
3. If you are a business user: Business
4. If you are a teenage kid who has too much money and want to be "cool": Ultimate

5. If you have a Mac: Leopard

 

that youtube video of the leopard intro was pretty funny, i must admit

 

hey everyone - sorry to bring up this old thread - but ive been thinking about something - if i want to have 4 gigs of ram - my only option is a 64-bit os - i was under the impression that when i got my laptop with home premium, i would be getting a 64-bit os

now i see that there are two versions of vista home premium? a 32-bit and a 64-bit? is that correct? or is there some way i can "convert" my version into a 64-bit version?

im not even sure if im making any sense...

EDIT - and fwiw, my computer does have a 64-bit chipset - so im assuming ill have no problem with a 64-bit os...

 

Yes, you are making sense, and Microsoft hasn't really helped this confusion. In Vista, there are 2 architectures, 32bit and 64bit. Each of those architectures have versions of basic, premium, business, and ultimate. Most companies are shipping systems with 32bit, to avoid potential software compatibility problems.

Yes, you can install the 64bit version, but you cannot "convert". Because they are 2 completely different architectures, they are not compatible. You can order a 64bit disc that will allow you to install that version for less than $10, unless you can obtain it elsewhere. You'll have to do a full reinstall, and then also reinstall all of your programs. See the clean install guide in my sig for information on clean installing and where to order the disc.

 

^ excellent - thanks for the tips - i actually dont have much on the computer so i have no qualms about doing another clean install

i see i can get the "upgrade" discs from the windows market-place - ill have to order those up and see how things go

thanks again!

 

Goto "Turn Windows Features On or Off" in Control Panel and check the Games folder.