Windows 7 Professional Vs. Ultimate
Microsoft has released seven editions of its Windows 7 operating system, and three of these are widely available for consumer and business use--Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate. Broadly speaking, these editions are aimed at home users, business users and advanced users respectively. The Professional edition offers some features and tools not found in the Home Premium edition, while the Ultimate edition includes everything in the Professional edition as well as extra utilities and functionality.
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Professional Features
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Windows 7 Professional is aimed at business users and includes a number of features that aren't found in the Home Premium edition. These include dynamic disk support (more advanced partition and volume management), file encryption tools, Windows XP Mode (for emulating an XP system) and Group Policy (for managing user accounts and installations from one central interface). All of these features, as well as all of the features of Home Premium, are included in the Ultimate version of Windows 7 as well.
AppLocker
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Windows 7 Ultimate brings with it a number of tools and advanced features that don't appear in the Professional edition. In the case of the AppLocker utility (which enables an adminstrator to control which software applications run on which machines in a network), there is a subtle difference--Professional users can create policies but not enforce them, while Ultimate users can do both. It is an additional element of Group Policy.
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BitLocker Drive Encryption
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Windows 7 Ultimate includes BitLocker Drive Encryption, which isn't included in Windows 7 Professional. BitLocker encrypts entire drives to protect them from unauthorized access, and can be run using a combination of hardware and software measures. In USB Key Mode, for example, BitLocker Drive Encryption will prevent Windows from loading unless an authorized USB flash drive is detected.
Multilingual User Interface
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Another feature unavailable in the Professional edition but found in the Ultimate edition of Windows 7 is the multilingual user interface. This enables the user to change the language and localization options of the operating system without having to install a different version of Windows. What's more, the third-party applications installed on the Windows system can also be changed automatically based on the operating system settings.
Other Features
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Other features found in the Ultimate edition and not in the Professional edition include more advanced remote desktop connection features (such as Media Player redirects), extra tools for Terminal Services, the DirectAccess tool (providing seamless secure intranet connectivity) and Virtual Hard Disk booting. Full details of each version are available on the Microsoft website.
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