Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4 in Software
• Brand: Microsoft
• Model: GFC-00026
• Released on: 2009-10-22
• Platform: Windows 7
• Format: DVD-ROM
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.10 pounds

Features

• Simplify your PC with new navigation features li
• Customize Windows to look and feel the way you l
• Setting up a home network and connecting to prin
• Windows 7 Home Premium supports the latest hardw
• Designed to make your PC sleep and resume quicker

Manufacturer's Description
Windows 7 Home Premium makes it easy to create a home network and share all of your favourite photos, videos and music. You can even watch, pause, rewind and record TV. Get the best entertainment experience with Windows 7 Home Premium.

32-bit or 64-bit? For your convenience, every copy of Windows 7 Home Premium includes both 32-bit and 64-bit discs.

For more information on installing Windows 7, browsing the internet with Windows 7 and more, take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions or join Microsoft help on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MicrosoftHelps.

Is Home Premium right for you? Make sure with our Windows 7 comparison chart.

More work, more play and more of everything in between. Click to enlarge.

Manage lots of open programs, documents and browser windows easily with thumbnail and full-screen previews of open windows. Click to enlarge.

With Snap you can arrange two windows side-by-side just by dragging them to opposite sides of your screen. Click to enlarge.

Open files you use regularly in just two clicks with Jump Lists on the improved taskbar.

The best entertainment experience on your PC

Easiest Windows to use ever

• Simplify your PC with new navigation features like Aero Shake, Jump Lists and Snap
• Customise Windows to look and feel the way you like by changing themes and taskbar programs
• Setting up a home network and connecting to printers and devices is easier than ever
• Windows 7 Home Premium supports the latest hardware and software

It's faster

• Designed to make your PC sleep and resume quicker
• Takes full advantage of 64-bit PC hardware and memory
• Connecting to wireless networks is fast and easy

Best PC entertainment experience

• Watch, pause, rewind and record TV with Windows Media Center
• Blu-ray read/write support for data files
• Includes integrated video and Dolby audio codecs
• Offers large screen support

Simplifies Everyday Tasks

Simple to use

Preview
Manage lots of open programs, documents and browser windows easily with thumbnail and full-screen previews of open windows.

Pin
Open files and get around your PC faster with the improved taskbar. You can easily pin programs you use often to the taskbar and launch them in just one click.

Windows 7 lets you peek behind open windows to get a quick look at your desktop. Click to enlarge.

Instantly locate and open virtually any file on your PC right from the Start menu with Windows Search. Click to enlarge.

Jump Lists
Open files you use regularly in just two clicks with Jump Lists on the improved taskbar.

Snap
Windows 7 has simple new ways to manage open windows. For example, with Snap you can arrange two windows side-by-side just by dragging them to opposite sides of your screen.

Peek and Shake
Windows 7 lets you peek behind open windows to get a quick look at your desktop.

Windows Search
Instantly locate and open virtually any file on your PC, from documents to emails to songs, right from the Start menu, with Windows Search.

Easy to connect

Setting up wireless connections is easier with consistent, one-click connections to available networks. Click to enlarge.

Windows Touch makes PCs with touch screens easier and more intuitive to use. Click to enlarge.

Turn your PC into a TV with Windows Media Center, and enjoy your favorite videos and music with Windows Media Player. Click to enlarge.

Wireless setup
With Windows 7, setting up wireless connections is easier with consistent, one-click connections to available networks, whether those networks are based on Wi-Fi, mobile broadband, dial-up or corporate VPN.

HomeGroup
Connect Windows 7 PCs on a home network in just four clicks and easily get to the photos, music and files on each one--even shared printers--with HomeGroup.

Easy to browse the web

Internet Explorer 8
Visual search helps you quickly find the information you want by adding visual cues and previews to search results from top search providers including Live Search, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Amazon, and others.

Use Web slices to conveniently keep up with changes on frequently updated websites, like eBay auctions or traffic sites, directly from the IE8 toolbar.

Easy to communicate and share

Windows Live Photo Gallery
Windows Live Photo Gallery makes share your photos to your favourite photo site easy.

Windows Live Mail
Windows Live Mail makes managing multiple email accounts easy.

Windows Live Family Safety
Keep your child safe by managing what sites they can visit and who they can send/receive emails and IM communications from.

Works The Way You Want

Faster and More Reliable

Resume from sleep
Windows 7 is designed to help PCs sleep and resume more quickly by improving the way Windows 7 manages drivers, programs and power.

Faster and more reliable
We reduced the amount of memory your PC needs for open windows and to execute commands to help it be more responsive to commands.

Fewer clicks and less interruptions

Makes New Things Possible

Media on your terms

Windows Media Center
Turn your PC into a TV with Windows Media Center.

Windows Media Center
Watch shows for free when and where you want with Internet TV.

DirectX 11
DirectX 11 technology delivers breathtaking game graphics so real, it's unreal.

New ways to engage

Windows Touch
Windows Touch makes PCs with touch screens easier and more intuitive to use.

Media on your terms

Windows Media Player
More and more consumer electronics, from TVs to digital photo frames, can be connected to home networks. With Play To in Windows 7, you'll be able to easily send music, photos and videos from your PC to a networked device throughout your home.

You can enjoy the photos, music and videos on your home PC when you're away from home with remote media streaming.

Work anywhere

Location Aware Printing
Windows 7 will automatically pick the right printer for you when you move from home to work networks.

Customer Reviews

Upgrading from Vista
Having reached the point of almost tearing my hair out due to the sheer inadequacy of Vista, I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade to the 32-bit version of Windows 7.

The whole process ran very smoothly and only took around three hours from start to finish. However, but the really amazing thing now is that I've yet to find an app that worked with Vista but doesn't work with W7. For my money, I now have a fast and stable box which no longer freezes at the drop of a hat and actually shuts down when asked.

So, on the one hand I'm left wondering why Microsoft didn't release a service pack for Vista which addressed all the faults that W7 seems to have fixed, whilst on the other, I'm thrilled to bits with Windows 7. Shame on you, Microsoft, for not supporting your Vista users.

Whilst certain differences in the new interface such as 'Libraries' may take some getting used to, if you're thinking of upgrading from the loathesome Vista, simply do not hesitate.

A Working Version Of Vista
If I had upgraded from XP, I would have given this product 5 stars, it really is a very good OS - easy to install, easy to use, every program seems to run on it first time (so far!) and there's some very nice new features.

So, it's perhaps a little harsh that I have only given it 3 stars, but that is purely because, in my mind, I already bought this product 2 years ago when I bought a new desktop with Vista installed. There is very little to differentiate it from Vista, apart from one big thing - it works!

My experience with Vista wasn't all that bad, but I have had constant explorer freezes over recent months and since August, Windows Update hasn't worked at all and therefore upgrading (or re-installing XP) was my only option (I'd tried to fix the problems without any luck). I therefore justified the cost, especially as I thought I might be getting something new as well.

£80 (or £65 through Amazon) is a lot of money to have to spend because the previous product didn't work. I'm not sure any other company would get away with this - if you'd bought a brand new car and it constantly didn't work and repairs didn't help, would you just buy a newer version!?!

Anyway, I did, and I'm happy that it works, happy I got a good price through Amazon, but not happy with Microsoft for not just releasing a further service pack - for this is all this product really is.

As previously mentioned, there are some nice new features (especially if you are coming from XP). The Aero interface is nice to look at, they've added the Snap, Peek and Shake features since Vista, which are all ok, but nothing groundbreaking. The taskbar thumbnails are better than before, especially when you can actually interact with them when using Windows Media Player or iTunes

Windows Media Center is better than before, as is for the most part Windows Media Player - a couple of items have been removed at my annoyance, and the gadgets are a bit better, as they don't have to be on the sidebar (which has been removed) so can be anywhere on the desktop.

But all in all, the biggest improvement is that it works - no freezes, no crashes, no blue screens of death. Hopefully, with future service packs (the first due in December) this will continue to be the case.

So if you want a version of Vista that works, get Windows 7

faster than XP
Upgraded from XP to Windows 7 in an afternoon as from XP you have to do a clean install. Windows PC transfer and upgrade advisor not really that useful. Upgrade advisor said the only issue was my network card. The reality was the network card works perfectly but my Zoom ADSL modem won't work as the software is incompatible. Windows PC transfer is a waste of time, you might just as well copy your files to a USB disc manually and export your browser settings. Photoshop Elements' catalogue didn't work as the file locations were different so this had to be imported from my backup. Windows Live Mail is different to Outlook Express so manually copying the emails, contacts and accounts was required.
Once everythings installed, Windows 7 works just great. It boots a little faster than XP but shuts down much faster. Takes about 650MB RAM with just the operating system and AVG anti virus running. Jump lists and the way the task bar works really speeds up everyday tasks and snapping windows side by side is very handy.
Well worth £65 and an afternoon's effort in upgrading.