Sunday, January 13, 2008

Windows Vista Home Premium vs. Windows Vista Ultimate

I ran my machine (2.93GHz Intel, FX 5500 256MB, 1GB RAM) under Vista Home Premium for about 6 months and it was pretty cool, the reason why I didn't install the Ultimate version right away is because I didn't need the extra features that come with Ultimate (Fax, Ultimate Extras, BitLocker Encryption etc.). I pretty much striped the Home Premium version disabling all services and processes that I don't use (Tablet PC, Dial-up Modem service and others), in order to make it as fast as possible, but stil using the Windows Aero and 3D Flip features. Like this when no programs were runing (except Task Manager) I had 40 processes and the memory consumption was 55-60%.
Three days ago I upgraded to Windows Vista Ultimate, and I thought all I was getting was a new game, the Dreamscene feature, and Fax and Bitlocker which I don't use. Well guess what? I got a lot more!
In performance. Again I disabled all services I don't use and now I have 39 processes running and the memory consumption is always 38-40%.
So, my advice is if your spending money on Vista, don't spend it on anything else but Ultimate.

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