Making IT Work

Vista Business

For Home use only there is Home Basic and Home Premium. The general consensus seems to be that Home Basic is to be avoided which leaves Home Premium. The difference is mainly down to which version has the whizzy Aero interface. The other main difference between the two is Windwos Media Center which is included with Home Premium but not Home Basic.

If you are ever likely to need any of the business features such as using within a Microsoft domain environment then you need to be looking at either Business or Ultimate editions. The choice between the two will boil down to what you need in terms of either the Bitlocker hardware linked encryption (better suited to laptop users who carry around sensitive data) and if you also need the Media Centre features. Both these are included with Ultimate and not with Business.

In terms of pricing it seems that in the UK we will see US$ converting at rates of $1 equaling £1 which means we will be paying more for our copies of Vista than our American cousins. Microsoft claims that the issue of price is down to the resellers however the price is governed by the wholesale price which is in turn governed by Microsoft.

Follow the link for the difference in pricing and features.