Download the Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit or Windows 7 Professional 32-Bit (or both, if you're like me ) and then use the ei.cfg Removal Utility to create a "universal" DVD which has almost all versions of Windows 7 available for installation (Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate. Enterprise is not available in Retail DVDs such as these.)

Windows 7 Home Premium 32-Bit (x86)
Digital River


Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit (x64)
Digital River

Windows 7 Professional 32-Bit (x86)
Digital River


Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit (x64)
Digital River

Windows 7 Ultimate 32-Bit (x86)
Download a 32-Bit ISO above and use the ei.cfg Removal Utility or the Windows 7 ISO Image Edition Switcher tool from here:


Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit (x64)
Download a 64-Bit ISO above and use the ei.cfg Removal Utility or the Windows 7 ISO Image Edition Switcher tool from here:

Windows 7 comes in Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise. The feature comparisons can be found here. (Windows 7 Editions Comparison Chart on Wikipedia) Ultimate and Enterprise are basically the same, but Ultimate is available for Retail and OEM licenses, and Enterprise is only available for businesses in volume licenses. In other words, if the FBI finds Enterprise on your BestBuy-purchased HP laptop, you're busted. In addition, Starter can only be licensed via OEM and is 32-bit only. Home Basic and Home Premium have their RAM limited to 8GB and 16GB (respectively). Other differences can be seen on the Wikipedia chart.

This is Microsoft's newer version of Workgroups, but with a media and resource sharing orientation directed at home/non-tech-savvy consumers in mind, or where multiple households/families are on the same network but don't want to be joined together. A Home Premium or higher computer can create a Home Group, and upon entering a generated password on all computers in the Home Group, they can communicate securely on the same network and share media, printers, files, etc. much easier than before.

Yes. A Windows 7 32-Bit key will work just fine on a 64-Bit copy of the same version (ie, Ultimate 32-Bit and Ultimate 64-Bit).

OEM: Pre-installed by the computer manufacturer. You can use an OEM key to fresh-install (upgrade might be possible, I have not been able to test this), but require a certain BIOS version to do so. For example, a well-known OEM Windows 7 Ultimate key exists but can only be used if your BIOS has what's called SLIC 2.1 in it, and certain other requirements. More information is available here:

Full (Retail): These keys can be used for fresh-installs or upgrade-installs. They are normally purchased by the consumer.

System-Builder: These keys are basically OEM keys for consumers to use if they build and/or retail their own computers. The main difference is that these keys do not include any support from Microsoft. More details available here:

Upgrade: These keys will only allow you to Activate Windows if the key is entered during installation and the installation was started while running a previous version of Windows (a lesser version of Windows 7, any version of Windows Vista, or any version of Windows XP) that was Activated. These keys cannot do an all-out clean install, however, it is possible to do the equivalent of a clean-install by selecting an Advanced Install, which will move your hard drive's contents to C:\Windows.old and install a clean version of Windows 7.

Anytime Upgrade: These keys I do not have much experience with. What I can tell you is this: They only allow you to upgrade from one version to another (Starter to Home Premium, Home Premium to Professional, Home Premium to Ultimate), and require that the version you are upgrading from already be Activated.

Windows XP Mode is basically running Windows XP within a special version of Microsoft VirtualPC. It is only available on Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise, and requires that your CPU have Virtualization Support. For those who are familiar with VMware Workstation, it is similar to Unity mode, except it is able to access programs and files directly on your Windows 7 installation's hard drive and partition, and save to the partition as well. Note that VMware Unity Mode does not require Virtualization support on the CPU.

Just like with The Ultimate Steal, Digital River is offering Windows 7 for sale, at a large discount, to those who have .edu email addresses, or email addresses on well-known higher-education facilities' .com email addresses. For $30, you can receive an Upgrade version of Home Premium or Professional. Obviously, if you have a .edu email address and have to choose between the two, GET PROFESSIONAL as you do not miss any features that Home Premium has. While it doesn't say directly on the page that Professional is available, once you verify your email address and login, there is a link in the middle of the page that says "Need to connect to your school's network domain? You can get Win 7 Pro for $29.99 Click here". Click on that to be taken to the page about Professional.

Here's the simple truth folks, and it doesn't hurt: Despite what you might have heard, there aren't very many driver or software incompatibility issues with 64-bit. Any programs that are created for 32-bit will be run in a compatibility mode and work just fine. What you need to do before going for 64-bit is check that your hardware can support it and has drivers for 64-bit (CPU, motherboard, video card, etc.). If you are using a computer that is less than two years old, you can safely bet that you're 64-bit compatible.
Reasons to use 64-bit:

• Faster
• Able to use more RAM (more than 4GB, up to 8, 16, or 192GB of RAM depending on your version of Windows 7)
• More secure (the foundation that most malware uses to run, is 32-bit only)
• Able to use both/all cores of your CPU(s) simultaneously and naturally
• Future-ready
• If you have a program which requires a 32-bit OS, you can use Windows XP Mode (mentioned above) or use a VM program such as VirtualPC, Sun VirtualBox, or VMware Workstation.

Reasons not to use 64-bit:

• An essential hardware item (CPU, motherboard, videocard, hard drive controller) does not have 64-bit drivers because it's manufacturer is retarded, and you're too dumb and/or cheap to upgrade that part.
• You believe everything you hear on rumor sites from 10 years ago and believe that you won't be able to run 32-bit programs on a 64-bit OS.

I have used only 64-bit OS's on my computers for the better part of two years now, and have not had any problems. The only things I know of that aren't compatible with 64-bit, either aren't compatible with anything newer than Windows XP (and this is where VMware comes in), or their manufacturer is dumb and hasn't created new drivers in 10 years (HP is infamous for this with some of their printers), or the software is made by a company which cannot afford to get their 64-bit driver virtually signed (such as Sandboxie) but once again, VMware comes in and fixes that.

Really, unless you cannot upgrade your parts, there's no real reason not to use 64-bit. It is the way all computers will be soon. For Microsoft's spin on this question (and their wonderful propoganda to make as much money as possible), see here:

Go to Start, right-click on Computer, and go to Properties (Or go to your Control Panel). Now open "Performance Information and Tools". Click on "View and print detailed performance and system information" and a window will open after a moment. Scroll down to under System and then look at "System type" (or if I remember right, there might be a "64-bit Capable" listing) and under System Type it will tell you if your computer is capable of running 64-bit.

Use ISO Recorder v3.1 (Or v2 if using XP SP2/3, v1 for XP SP0/1). ISO Recorder is freeware and extremely simple to use and can be downloaded here:

If you already have Windows 7, you can just right-click a .ISO file and select Open With>Windows Disc Image Burner to burn any .ISO file (this feature is built into Windows 7)

For the love of God, YES! Most malware is still designed to run on 32-bit copies of Windows XP and now Vista. By running Windows 7 64-bit, you already eliminate a good portion of the malware that can affect you. That doesn't mean you're completely safe though! You still need a good antivirus and firewall program such as ESET Smart Security. In addition, Windows 7 is FAR faster. With Vista Ultimate, I made it to my login screen in about two minutes, and was fully logged in about 90 seconds after that. With Windows 7, from when I push on the power button to when I'm fully logged-in (including the time it takes for me to enter my password) is under two minutes. It takes less than 30 seconds for me to reach the login screen, and most of the time is taken up waiting for my crappy router to give me my DHCP settings, and then for all of my programs to connect to their websites (ie, Google Calendar gadget, TweetDeck, Trillian, mIRC, etc.). Even with Windows 7 Ultimate, it's far faster than even Windows XP Professional.

Windows 7 allows you to use it on a trial basis for 30 days, after which it imposes strict measures that prevent you from effectively using it. You can extend the trial to up to 120 days if you know the commands to do so: