October 22, 2009, Windows 7 was released from Microsoft as the new long awaited replacement to Windows Vista and Windows XP. There are 3 versions of Windows 7; Home, Pro, and Ultimate. The easiest way to decide which version to get, is when in doubt, go with “Pro”. Why? I knew you were going to ask this. There are some significant features that Windows 7 Home or Home Premium do not have. The most significant is Remote Desktop. Without Win7 Pro, you will not be able to remotely access you Windows 7 Home PC using the free and built-in remote desktop application. That doesn’t mean you can’t use Logmein or Gotomypc, but why pay monthly for something you can do for FREE with Windows 7 Pro and Ultimate.

It has been 17 months since the introduction of Windows 7 and Windows XP has almost been completely removed from the marketplace. So what if you have an older application that is critical to your business and you are not sure if it will run correctly on Windows 7. Well that brings me to the second compelling reason to buy your next PC with Windows 7 Pro. Windows 7 Pro and Ultimate have a feature called XP mode. XP Mode also requires a decent processor with VT capability.

XP Mode will run the older operating system (Windows XP Pro) in a virtual environment inside of Win7 for maximum compatibility with older applications. In fact, Microsoft is claiming that XP Mode provides near perfect Windows XP compatibility within Windows 7. A minimum of 2 GB RAM is needed for XP Mode. XP Mode will utilize and require virtualization technologies in recent processors such as Intel VT. Often hardware virtualization will need to be enabled in the system BIOS too. Now the confusion surfaces for many owners of recent Intel CPUs. Even if you have a Core 2 Duo or Quad , that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have what it takes to run XP Mode in Windows 7.

Micro Doctor supplies only VT enabled PCs to its customers. Some of the value with dealing with us versus Dell is "we got your back". Other companies will sell you a $299.00 pc with Windows 7 Home that will not run XP Mode. WE WON’T DO THAT!

Here is the latest list I could find of VT supported processors.

Intel Processors with have VT-x

EXTREME: i7-980x, i7-975, i7-965,
DESKTOP: i7-970, i7-960, i7-950, i7-940, i7-930, i7-920, i7-880, i7-875K, i7-870S, i7-870, i7-860S, i7-860,
DESKTOP: i5-760, i5-750S, i5-750, i5-680, i5-670, i5-661, i5-660, i5-655K, i5-650,
DESKTOP: i3-560, i3-550, i3-540, i3-530,
CORE 2 EXTREME: X6800, QX9775, QX9770, QX9650, QX6850, QX6800, QX6700,
DESKTOP CORE 2 QUAD: Q9650, Q9550S, Q9550, Q9505S, Q9505, Q9500, Q9450, Q9400S, Q9400, Q9300, Q8400S, Q8400, Q6700, Q6600
DESKTOP CORE 2 DUO: E8600, E8500, E8400, E8300, E8200, E7600, E6850, E6750, E6700, E6600, E6550, E6540, E6420, E6400, E6320, E6300,
DESKTOP: Pentium 4 HT 672, Pentium 4 HT 662,
DESKTOP: Celeron E3500, Celeron E3400, Celeron E3300, Celeron E3200, Celeron 1.83GHz 1M cache 667MHz FSB, Celeron 1.66GHz 1M cache 667MHz FSB,
ATOM: D525, D510, D425, D410,

it appears that all the currently shipping processors have virtualization except for some lower-end models. so don’t buy cheap.

Windows 7 Home would be OK for a college student or home user who never brings their computer to the workplace.

Windows 7 Pro is the business standard and with features like Bitlocker (encryption), Remote Desktop and XP Mode. This is our pick.

Windows 7 Ultimate is Windows 7 Pro with Media Center functions like recording TV and controlling home media centers.

We have released our latest Platform for Business Level PC’s using Windows 7 Pro

Here is our new MDI Intel I5 PC offering.

Copyright 2011 – Mark Richmond, MCSE at Micro Doctor Inc.

Posted via email from Micro Doctor's Blog Central