Worth it to buy w7 ultimate for $50?

wanted a copy for myself for my alienware just because the words home premium make me want to barf. with 8 on the horizon, $50 for a retail sealed ultimate worth it?

Im still using xp on my desktop :/ my main concern is will w7 be worthless once 8 is out?

 

Windows 7 will continue to get mainstream support until early 2015. That point is sort of the beginning of the end. Doesn't really matter what version of windows you are using as long as it has mainstream support.

Vista's mainstream support ends in about 2 months, XP is well into the "extended support" phase, where no updates or patches are made aside from basic monthly security updates.

 

Question to ponder about yourself. Are you going to use any of the features Ultimate provide which Home Premium doesn't have?

If the answer is no, then you don't need it. If yes, grab the deal if you want to.

 

What do you need from W7 Ultimate that W7 HP doesn't offer? If it's just for the name, then I do feel like it's not a good use of your money.

As with most of the past Windows operating systems, the price of a license falls quite a bit after the latest version is released.

 

One reason is just for the name yeah lol. I just hate the fact that I have an awesome looking system blinged out hardware-wise and it says HOME PREMIUM when loading. it just looks so so cheap. its like a driver of a ferrari putting on a veilside kit on it. I also DID need another os to upgrade my desktop from xp so i figured why not just use ult for my laptop and use the key on the laptop for my desktop.

I believe ultimate does have xp mode? i do tune my car using an xp based program so i would actually benefit from it.

Is $50 a relatively good deal for a sealed retail version of Ultimate?

 

The XP mode is a virtual programme. Why not wait for Windows 8, purchase a retail license to upgrade 3 computers at one shot?

 

1 - The Home Premium branding can easily be removed from the boot screen.
2 - If your laptop key is an OEM COA key then you can't use it on your desktop.
3 - $50 is great.

 

Well, if you really feel that way... here's a solution.

 

Emm3 fell for M$ marketing tricks, sadly.

 

$50 is a good buy for a retail licence. "home premium" gives you less headache in updates

cheers ...

 

What do you mean?

 

I Use Ultimate, but I still change my Win 7 login screen to something else.

 

Very cool thanks!! I also found out I can't use the Oem version on my home CPU so I would need 2 copies ugh. I'll just get copies from my brother he said he can get them and theyll work fine (he's the pc wiz of the fam I don't think Ed vet paid for software).

I do preview some w8 reviews and ugh.. Tablet style look is really gross. Least from what I see. I mainly wanted 7 on the desktop just so I can run dx11 in wow and other games.

 

Use (google) Windows 7 login background changer, and you can make the login screen whatever image you want. Thats what I do.

Windows 7 Logon Background Changer

 

Black is perfect as a login background color, it matches the background color of the start splash screen, and it makes sense when not logged in.

Just remember that the login background changes back to default if you change theme in Personalization, that's why you should save your theme when you have set it up like you want it.

Make window borders thinner:
1 - Control Panel > Personalization > Window Color > Open Classic Apperarance...
2 - Set Active Title Bar = 18, and Border Padding = 0.

 

I have been "borrowing" the OEM backgrounds from an HP dv6 laptop for a while now, it's a pleasant black/grey with wavy lines. No OEM logos, and they conveniently include portrait and landscape images for a wide variety of resolutions.

Note that no special app is needed for the OEM backgrounds.

I like border padding 2. 0 looks awkwardly thin, the title bar seems heavy perched on 0 width borders. The title bar size can go to 17 but for when I do that it makes the taskbar icons distort. (this setting does affect the taskbar)

I'm a fan of Ease of Access > Make it easier to focus on tasks > Turn off all unnecessary animation. Oh and kill the dumb "start navigation" click sound.