W7 Versions

[Sardonicus]

For those who use it, which version of the many do you use, and why?

I need to do an emergency upgrade on Mrs. S's PC and am considering which to use.

[Jedi]

What others use isn't going to help you much. Better off looking at the feature comparison and deciding what features you actually need.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... ts/compare

In other words, if you don't need XP Mode (Oracle VBox is better anyway), you have your own backup software and don't need microsoft's and you have no need to switch the OS language, then Home Premium should be fine.

[Sardonicus]

Thanks Jedi. I was specifically wondering if the Encrypting File System (EFS) feature in starting at the Professional level was worth it just for that.

Well, that, and Remote Desktop / Remote Desktop Host feature, which if she or I could RDP into her PC from abroad might be handy. I don't know the difference between these two, have not researched this yet.

Neither of these two features are available in Home Premium. Otherwise Home Premium looks good.

[Jedi]

Can't comment on the EFS as i've never used it. Personally i wouldn't even consider using it given the potential headaches. Also if you need to encrypt files there's zillions of other options out there.

As for RDP, also there's other options, but if you think you may use it then go for professional. Note that you'll need to do quite a bit of technical setup to get it to work, DDNS to handle your IP address changes, port forwarding to forward the RDP port and open ports on your firewall. I use it for my main home PC and it does work well.

[Sardonicus]

Thanks Jedi, will consider the RDP option.

[Fat Bob]

I use Team Viewer for Remote Desktop, which is free for home use with only one or two annoying pop-ups (and not ad pop-ups, just reminders not to use it for work).

The current view on many tech sites is to upgrade to Win8 if you are doing any re-install of your pc.