Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
by Microsoft Software
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Category: Software
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Software Summary
Manufacturer: Microsoft SoftwareBrand: Microsoft
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: DVD-ROM
Release Date: 2009-10-22
Platform: Windows 7
Model: GLC-00182
Product 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
- Easily create a home network and connect your PCs to a printer with HomeGroup;
- Help protect data on your PC and portable storage devices against loss or theft with BitLocker
- Microsoft Office Home & Business 2010 - 2PC/1User (Disc Version)
- Microsoft LifeCam Cinema 720p HD Webcam - Black
- Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 6000 - Black
- Microsoft Wireless Comfort Desktop 5000
- Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 3000 - Black
Software Reviews of Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Customer Review: Not perfect, but still outstanding. Best OS I've ever used.
Summary: 4 Stars
A lot of users have been slow to migrate from Windows XP. And after the Windows Vista debacle, who could really blame them? Any hint of promise and OS improvement was hidden behind a largely buggy, bloated and unpleasant code base. The general consensus among PC users seemed to be, "We waited six years for THIS?!" I certainly didn't think much of it, and if I am being honest I was so irritated by Vista it took nearly a year after release for me to even consider 7.
As XP became more dated I was seriously considering the move to one of the more intuitive Linux distributions like Ubuntu (a version of it powers BackTrack 4, an excellent set of network security testing tools I use) but 7 has proved so good I really don't need to use anything else as a main OS.
Let's be clear though; it certainly isn't perfect. Out of the box it's bloody irritating. But with some time spent tweaking "under the hood" (gpedit.msc and services.msc are among the things you can run to change your setup without using third party software) it can be made into something great which is almost always a pleasure to use. I'll get the negatives out of the way first so we can concentrate on the positives, which are numerous. For those who don't want technical jargon and long descriptions, skip these two lists and move right on to the summary.
* Far too much visual gimmickry. I know, everyone loves Apple (well I don't - go see my iPad review) so now it's all about silly wipes, transparencies and sliding objects into view. It wastes time and computing power doing these things, and in my opinion makes the computer feel like a toy. Switching this nonsense off is easy enough though, as is making the new SuperBar (what a 1980s name) a little more classic in operation and look without going back to the dated Win '98 style that Windows 7 offers.
* Over-protective "nag screens". I understand why the Action Centre and User Account Control are there. Not everyone is technically savvy enough to know about computing architecture nor should they be. But when some of Windows own components aren't already whitelisted it seems silly, and if you're an old hand with PCs you don't need to be handheld through anything. Off they go.
* The new sharing scheme seems to suggest that anyone accessing shares not on another machine running Windows 7 have a user/pass account. This can be modified by playing with the options and selecting Everyone in the sharing/security tabs so you can share easily across platforms. There's a lot of good tutorials online and I recommend this if you share across multiple types of device as I do. Make sure you use a good firewall though, maybe some kind of third party one like ZoneAlarm.
* Bootup time is definately sluggish. It seems hugely dependent on the quality of your boot device: faster, newer harddrives will shave off half a minute or more as compared to say older, low RPM drives with plenty of wear on them. I think it's part of the reason so many people are switching to SSDs, although I refuse to because the standards aren't tightened up enough yet. No matter though; get your sleep mode running right and it'll boot back up within five seconds.
* Driver support for older or lesser known newer hardware can be patchy, although if you know what you're doing using older XP/Vista versions can work just as well.
* Troubleshooting/Help Centre are still a joke. I saw "Troubleshooter couldn't identify the problem" about a dozen times in the first week so I just stopped using it. The Help Centre seems so simplistic that I'm sure it won't help anyone, regardless of their computing experience.
* Loss of the "Repair Connection" and "Open Network Adapters" right click shortcuts in the network adapter notification icon for ease of use is a shame, although if you need those you can just make a shortcut to the CPL and place it on the taskbar or start menu.
* Sleep/Hibernation modes can cause the odd problem on some laptops. In my case I needed to disable USB Selective Suspend and Power Management on my third-party wireless N mini PCI card otherwise the laptop would lock up in a couple of different ways.
Generally speaking, these aren't the sorts of things that most users will notice or even care about, just bear them in mind if you have logged a lot of hours in other versions of Windows and are wary of making the jump. Hang in there though, and consider what you can gain:
* With some time and effort (once again, remember gpedit.msc and especially services.msc), even older hardware will do a respectable job of running it. I know this because my old Dell laptop had 512MB RAM and an underpowered AC adapter that was locking the Pentium M processor down to a mere 800MHz without my knowledge. Amazingly enough despite a heavier reliance on page files and being a way below the recommended minimum spec performance was not bad, even before tuning the OS for speed. Even some PCs with integrated graphics cards will run nicely, sometimes with Aero effects too. The main thing you seem to lose with older machines is good video playback in browsers, some of which is a Flash issue because it's such a resource hog.
* Almost everything seems designed to fit with everything else. Remember how some parts of XP looked like they'd been tagging along since Windows 3.11 - namely Solitaire, Calculator, Wordpad and Paint? Well that's been fixed here. About the only time you'll find a bundled application that looks a little primitive and lacks functionality is if you start digging around in maintenance programs like the Device Manager, where you appreciate simplicity anyway. Overall, a huge improvement.
* The little touches. As I noted most of the visual bells and whistles are junk, but not all of them. Having realtime motion thumbnails on the Alt-Tab, Windows-Tab and Taskbar Hover menus is appreciated, especially if you crack open the registry and increase the size of those thumbnails to suit your screen resolution. The improved directory structuring and library system on the left pane of Explorer windows really speeds up navigation and the ability to organise open programs and notification icons on the taskbar was long overdue, too. Things like this are really missed when going back to an XP machine because without your knowledge they subliminally improve the user experience and allow you to get things done more efficiently.
* Autoupdate/Compatibility features much improved. Remember what a joke the latter one was in XP? It actually has a use now! In fact, good Compatibility modes have allowed me to install various OEM drivers for older devices that wouldn't have worked at all on 7, aided by the much-improved Autoupdate unit which can also grab drivers this time around, and usually good ones that match with your hardware. Takes a lot of the guesswork and frustration out of a setup, which can save time and money, something to bear in mind if performing clean installs for clients is one of your jobs . I have only one old program from two dozen which will not run, which is an excellent result.
* Very, very stable. I have made it bluescreen or "serious error" several times I will admit, but to be honest this has happened because I was doing complex hardware tweaks that Microsoft recommends you stay away from (examples: CPU undervolting on laptops, trying to run a 7 build from a USB drive, overclocking on my desktop to speed up video encoding) and under normal usage conditions crash resistance is noteworthy. I would wager that most of the times crashes are dealt with so swiftly the average user wouldn't even notice, if they happen at all.
* Installing USB devices is now almost seamless. I've actually bragged about this several times... get your internet connection, plug in the new device, wait two seconds then use it. Every time I've tried it, it has found the perfect driver or at least one good enough to do what I need straight away. Unfamiliar printer, data stick or whatever else, it's taken care of in a few seconds. This IS the plug and play we were promised over a decade ago, and far more fun than hours of dredging in some Linux builds I've tried.
* Although I complained about slow bootups, when you've turned off a bunch of background processes you really don't need (Scheduled Defrag is one I'd recommend you jettison) when Windows has been running for a couple of minutes you can breeze through. I'm attributing this to a much more robust registry, for one. Considering the amount of things I've installed and removed on my main machines, even before a good clean I didn't notice the typical "bogging down" I'd get with almost all builds of XP after a couple of months heavy use. Less time spent doing clean installs means more productivity.
* The backup function is useful, finally! I don't care to use the scheduler but making a system image every week or two after I've verified everything is running like clockwork works a treat. Also the restore tools on the installation DVD are much more usable this time around, with less emphasis on carefully entered command line instructions. Chances are it'll fix your build without needing a full restore.
* With careful pruning (i.e. tidying up after having various things installed and removing or emptying cache/temp folders now and then) I've been able to get my laptop's boot partition down to 14GB - yes, this includes all of my most commonly used programs. Considering how powerful Windows 7 is, and the fact it has a "DLL Hell" avoidance feature which keeps multiple copies of key files, that doesn't seem bloated to me.
* Maybe I'm alone, but with XP I long had the problem where even with regular spyware/virus checks and a good firewall my build would start doing some very strange things, eventually resulting in the need to start from scratch or go to a backup every few months. Now, even though the backup tools are excellent I don't need to use them much because the build itself runs great for months at a time. One perfect install and you could be set for years.
* Core functionality in the Ultimate edition allows you a lot of flexibility and security before adding third-party apps. The obvious improvements to Paint and Wordpad are just two. Having a decent chess game installed (yes, I know Vista had this and a few other things I've mentioned) is also a nice touch.
* No silly little animated dog in the search function. A small point, but worth throwing in.
SUMMARY
Simply put, the major benefits easily outweigh the minor drawbacks. There's plenty more left to praise, but the lists speak for themselves.
Every time I think I've spent too long having to adjust things to my liking, I remember that I had a similar rigmarole with XP to make it more modern which took longer, and never quite got me where I wanted to be. In fact I've actually enjoyed the challenges of personalising the OS and now it really is a joy to use, fast and generally very efficient.
Microsoft's latest offering is a step up, a return to form. If you consider Windows 7 - well, Windows NT 6 when you use CMD - the result of an obvious beta (Vista), you can see the numerous improvements that were made which have removed all the bloat. In the process, Microsoft have turned an industry joke which cost them a lot of money into a viable, powerful OS which is going to be the best out there for the next few years.
OS X and the various Linux distros have a LOT of catching up to do...
Description of Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Offers everything Home Premium and Professional offers plus added security features and the flexibility to work in multiple languagesSoftware Sub Type: ClientHelp prevent theft or loss of data Use BitLocker and BitLocker To Go to better protect your valuable files even on removable drives such as USB devicesGet remote services with DirectAccess Access corporate resources seamlessly when you?re on the Inter without having to initiate a VPN connectionWork in the language of your choice Switch between any of 35 languages as easily as logging off and back on againPlatform Support: PCRequires 1GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processorRequires 16GB (32-bit) or 20GB (64-bit) hard driveRequires 1GB RAM (32-bit) or 2GB RAM (64-bit)Requires DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM 1.0 or later driverRequires DVD/CD driveDepending on resolution video playback may require additional memory and advanced graphics hardwareMusic and sound require audio outputInter access required to use some featuresWindows 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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