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Windows Vista - Home Basic or Business?

iskim86

iskim86

Banned
I'm running Windows XP Pro 32b right now, and would like to upgrade to Vista to take advantage of DirectX 10. I'm considering either Home Basic or Business. I've read that Business is basically the "Professional" of the Vista line. I've seen the comparison chart of all the editions, and it looks like Home Basic does not come with any of the bells whistles (read: bloat), but I still want a "Professional" version of it. what should I do? I know Business comes with all the bells and whistles, but I don't really need it. but I kinda want Business, I don't know why.

so I'm asking you folks, what I should settle with, since I can't make up my mind.

thanks
 
Well, the bells and whistles aren't really bloat. Some of the features are pretty useful.

But, Business is the Vista Equiv to XP Pro. It has everything that Vista home basic has plus more options. Most notably it has Previous Versions which is well worth it imho.

You will still have Direct X 10, Aero, etc.. You won't have the Media Center application, but if you don't use your PC as a media center, it's not a big deal.

 
If you happen to want to do an in-place upgrade (versus a clean install), you't can go from XP Professional to Vista Home Basic.

As noted by Griffinhart, the choice of Vista Home versus Vista Business depends on what features are important to you. I suggest going through Microsoft's feature comparison chart and seeing if there are features in Vista Business that you'll use.

If you actually HAVE a business, then I strongly recommend either Business or Ultimate.
 
oh crap yeah I want to do an upgrade... i have no much stuff on my computer to do a clean install - i'll do that when I see a significant slowdown or other errors.
 
Oooh, I can't overstate this at all. I really don't recommend an in place upgrade. I've done it on my desktop(XP pro to Ultimate), laptop(XP home to home premium) and media center (MCE 2005 to Ultimate) and on all three machines I was unhappy with the performance of Vista until I did a clean install. That makes three in place upgrades and three re-installs.

Do yourself a favor. Bite the bullet now and do a clean install. Your Vista experience will be much more favorable.

 
Well Home Basic is about the same as XP Home dumbed down a notch or two.

Business is nice if you like:
FAXing support, etc.
Ability of File sharing without crippled permissions.
Ability to run an RDP server so you can remote login to your system.
Ability to join a LAN domain (as opposed to a workgroup)
Ability to use Disk Image based backup tool option.
Ability to use group policy to adjust system security.
Ability to support more than a few "client" connections from other PCs at the same time for file sharing etc.
NO intrinsic ability to PLAY DVDs/HD-DVDs without 3rd party software.
NO built in "media center" functions.

Otherwise than the "Ability" capabilities, you might as well be running Home Basic, because other than those aspects they're effectively similar.

Business has a higher maximum RAM capability, but I think even Home Basic 64 can use something like 8GB, so it's not too limiting if I'm recalling correctly.

Hmm maybe Business supports Encrypting File system and Home doesn't? That might be the case.

 
I'd recommend home premium because Aero is a bit more pleasant than the Vista basic theme and MCE being thrown in is a nice bonus. This also means you get DVD decoding built in and don't need to wrangle with some third party DVD player app read:bloat.
 
Vista Home basic is just windows. No Aero, no DVD decoder, no media center app... But, I understand that you can do some sort of registry hack to enable Aero, but it's definately not supported.

Vista Home Premium adds the Media Center application, which is really nice if you throw in a TV tuner card in the PC. It also has Aero and the DVD decoder.

Business doesn't come with a DVD decoder (but you can get a 3rd party decoder from nVidia for $20 to $50), nor does it have the media center app, but it does have Aero, all the business conectivity and advanced networking, Remote Desktop, a better backup system, shadow copy, and Previous Versions. Previous versions allows you to revert files to earlier revisions just by right clicking on them. Great for recovering files that you accidently saved over.

Ultimate is a combination of Home Premium and Business, containing all the features of both plus a few extras like Dremescene (Animated desktop) and Bit Blocker and the retail version comes with both 32 and 64 bit disks.

All retail versions of Vista can be installed as 32 or 64 bit flavors with the same CD key, but you must obtain the 64bit media from MS(for shipping and handling only), or elsewhere on all version but Ultimate.

Retail upgrade versions for all are (from newegg):
Vista Home Basic. $97
Home Premium $145
Business $150
Ultimate $250

I have 4 PC's in my house hold so I went
My primare desktop/gaming rig: Ultimate
My Media Center: Ultimate
My Laptop is running home premium
The PC I gave my Dad is running home premium

That said, I have just purchased a copy of Vista Business for $99 from the CompUSA that is closing near me for my laptop.
 
Other places have been running sales on Vista Premium upgraded too. I bought an upgrade home premium at BestBuy recently for $99. Don't even know if I'll ever use it.
 
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