What should you do if it turns out that you aim too low? For example, what if you choose Windows 7 Home Basic and find out later that you need to have Windows 7 Ultimate? Be of good cheer. Switching Windows 7 edition isn’t as hard as you think.  Microsoft chooses the features and capabilities on each Windows 7 edition with only one specific goal in mind: Get Maximum Profits! That is why you’ll find many upgrade routes and many ways to spend more cash using the Windows Anytime Upgrade.  All it takes is a Windows Live ID and a credit card to upgrade from Home Basic to Windows 7 Ultimate. No, there is no way to downgrade and you won’t get a refund. Upgrading is cheap and easy, but not as efficient as buying your first Windows 7 edition. That is why it is important financially to get the right edition from the get-go.

For many people, Windows Anytime Upgrades feature count as pure gravy for Microsoft: You only need to follow the upgrade instructions and Windows asks you to connect to the Internet, type in your credit card number, and immediately upgrade on the spot. Surely, you don’t get a DVD or a box. All you get is a serial number and a walkthrough to upgrade your Windows 7. It is pure profit for those smart people in Redmond. No production and distribution costs, just pure profit.

You may dismiss these Windows 7 editions out of hand:

• Windows 7 SE (Starter Edition): it is offered to low-end home PCs and also netbooks. If the store selling the netbook offers the Home Premium edition, at a slightly higher price, then you should take it instead of Starter. Why? Home Premium does not place much greater requirements on the hardware, and it is packed with features you often need – including, especially, Media Center. The seller should know if its netbook and low-end notebooks can handle Home Premium. In most cases, it can.
• Windows 7 Home Basic: although it’s available in your favorite store, you shouldn’t buy it. With no Media Center and no Aero Glass, it isn’t worth the investment.  Besides, Windows 7 Professional and lower are destined to be replaced with pirated copies of Windows 7 Ultimate anyway.

You minimum choice should be Windows 7 Home Premium, unless there is a crying need to have one of these:

• Remote Desktop interaction. If you are stuck with Remote Desktop, you should buy Windows 7 Ultimate or at least, Professional. However, many people find that LogMeIn, a free substitute to Remote Desktop, can do everything they need or want, while Remote Desktop amounts to overkill. It allows adequate control and access on your office or home computer from any location that has a reliable Internet connection.
• Connect the corporate network. If your IT department doesn’t give you a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate, you should spend some extra bucks and at least upgrade to Windows 7 Professional to use corporate network effectively.
• Have more data protection from prying eyes and keep your laptop’s data safe even if it is stolen or lost. Start by deciding whether you need BitLocker or Encrypting File System (EFS) or both. Ultimate has both BitLocker and EFS, while Windows 7 Professional only has EFS

• Change languages. In any edition of Windows 7, you can change the keyboard language – you can quickly type Cyrillic characters, for instance, on a standard US English version of Windows 7. However if you prefer to have all the prompts, all the Help files, and all the menus in Russian or other languages, you need to buy Ultimate.