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Which Windows® 7 is best for you?

The simplified SKU lineup for the Windows® 7 operating system makes it easier for you to recommend the best solution for your customers. Each edition builds on the one before, making it easy to recommend features that best fit your customers’ needs. As shown in the table below, the right SKU for most of your small- and midsize-business customers will be Windows® 7 Professional.

Feature
HomeGroup: Easily share media, files, printers, and devices across multiple PCs.
Action Center: Fix problems yourself, on your own schedule, with powerful diagnostics and troubleshooting tools.
Remote Media Streaming: Send video and audio output from one PC to a network-enabled media player, home stereo, and even other PCs on the network.
Bluetooth Support: Wirelessly synchronize files and folders between your Bluetooth-enabled phone and your computer.
Live Taskbar Thumbnails: Mouse over the taskbar or an application icon, and see a visual list of recently used items.
Fast User Switching: Switch between users without having to log in, log out, or close any programs.
Computer-to-Computer Networking: Connect to nearby PCs without a network access device via ad hoc wireless networking.
Location and Other Sensors: Enables PCs and applications to adapt to their current environment.
*Windows Mobility Center (with Presentation Mode)**: Put your most frequently used mobile PC settings in a single, easy-to-find location.
Aero® Glass: See behind application windows with translucent glass-like menu bars.
Aero Background: View the contents of the windows that are currently open with taskbar thumbnails.
Windows Touch: Control a touch-enabled computer by touching the screen, with visual feedback for tap and doubletap gestures.
Windows XP Mode: Run many older productivity and business programs for Windows XP on Windows 7.**
Domain Join and Group Policy: Connect to company networks easily and more securely. Group Policy controls allow businesses to better manage the security and costs of multiple PCs.
Backup and Restore: Schedule a periodic backup to save your data or entire system image to a network location or a local drive.
Location-Aware Printing: Send your documents to the right printer, whether you are at work or at home.
Remote Desktop Host: Access documents and programs on a computer remotely from another computer.
Advanced Backup and Restore (Network and Group Policy): Back up your data to a network location, and have the ability to recover and restore your documents.
Encrypting File System: Provides user-level file and folder encryption, ensuring strong data protection and control.
Offline Folders: Work offline with the ability to automatically synchronize between your PC and the network content.
BitLocker™ and BitLocker To Go™ drive encryption: Help protect confidential information and stay compliant with business and regulatory policies.
AppLocker™: Specify which applications are available to which end users, reducing the need to modify settings.
DirectAccess: Seamlessly connect mobile workers more securely to their network without a virtual private network.
BranchCache™: Replicate and synchronize files between a central store and branch locations, enabling more productivity for workers in remote offices.
Multilingual User Interface Packs: Switch the user interface from one language to another via a language pack add-on to the English version.

* Windows Mobility Center is visible only on notebook computers.

** Windows XP Mode requires either original equipment manufacturer (OEM)
preinstallation or postpurchase installation of Windows XP Mode (which runs on Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Ultimate) or a virtualization technology such as Windows Virtual PC. Windows XP Mode requires a PC with 2 gigabytes (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 3 GB RAM (64-bit), 15 GB available disk space, and a processor capable of hardware virtualization, with Intel VT or AMD-V turned on. Both Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc. For more information on system requirements, go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc.

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