Windows 7 editions


, a major release of the Microsoft Windows operating system, has been released in several editions since its original release in 2009. Only Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate were widely available at retailers. The other editions focus on other markets such as the software development world. All editions support 32-bit IA-32 CPUs and all editions except Starter support 64-bit x64 CPUs. 64-bit installation media are not included in Home-Basic edition packages, but can be obtained separately from Microsoft.
According to Microsoft, the features for all editions of Windows 7 are stored on the machine, regardless of which edition is in use. Users who wish to upgrade to an edition of Windows 7 with more features were able to use Windows Anytime Upgrade to purchase the upgrade and to unlock the features of those editions, until it was discontinued in 2015. Microsoft announced Windows 7 pricing information for some editions on June 25, 2009, and Windows Anytime Upgrade and Family Pack pricing on July 31, 2009.
Mainstream support for all Windows 7 editions ended on January 13, 2015, and extended support ended on January 14, 2020. After that, the operating system ceased receiving further support. Professional and Enterprise volume licensed editions had paid Extended Security Updates available until at most January 10, 2023. Since October 31, 2013, Windows 7 is no longer available in retail, except for remaining stocks of the preinstalled Professional edition, which was officially discontinued on October 31, 2016.

Main editions

;
;
;
;
;
;

Special-purpose editions

The main editions also can take the form of one of the following special editions:
;
;E edition
;Signature Edition

Upgrade editions

In-place upgrade from Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 to Windows 7 is supported if the processor architecture and the language are the same and their editions match. In-place upgrade is not supported for earlier versions of Windows; moving to Windows 7 on these machines requires a clean installation, i.e. removal of the old operating system, installing Windows 7 and reinstalling all previously installed programs. Windows Easy Transfer can assist in this process.
Microsoft made upgrade SKUs of Windows 7 for selected editions of Windows XP and Windows Vista. The difference between these SKUs and full SKUs of Windows 7 is their lower price and proof of license ownership of a qualifying previous version of Windows. Same restrictions on in-place upgrading applies to these SKUs as well. In addition, Windows 7 is available as a Family Pack upgrade edition in certain markets, to upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium only. It gives licenses to upgrade three machines from Vista or Windows XP to the Windows 7 Home Premium edition. These are not full versions, so each machine to be upgraded must have one of these qualifying previous versions of Windows for them to work. In the United States, this offer expired in early December 2009. In October 2010, to commemorate the anniversary of Windows 7, Microsoft once again made Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack available for a limited time, while supplies lasted.

Upgrade compatibility

There are two possible ways to upgrade to Windows 7 from an earlier version of Windows:
  • In-place install : Constitutes an in-place upgrade from an older version of Windows, where settings and programs are preserved from the existing installation. This option is only sometimes available depending on the editions of Windows being used, and is not available at all unless upgrading from Windows Vista.
  • Clean install : Constitutes replacing a previous installation of Windows with a new one, where the current operating system is erased entirely and is replaced with Windows 7. All settings, including but not limited to user accounts, applications, user settings, music, photos and programs, are moved to the Windows.old and Users.old folders, and previously installed programs will need to be reinstalled. This option is always available and is required for all versions of Windows XP as well as previous versions of Windows prior to XP, which are not eligible for upgrading to Windows 7.
The table below lists which upgrade paths allow for an in-place install. Note that in-place upgrades can only be performed when the previous version of Windows is of the same architecture. If upgrading from a 32-bit installation to a 64-bit installation or downgrading from 64-bit installation to 32-bit installation, a clean install is mandatory regardless of the editions being used.

Anytime Upgrade editions

Microsoft supports in-place upgrades from a lower edition of Windows 7 to a higher one, using the Windows Anytime Upgrade tool. There are currently three retail options available, however there are no family pack versions of the Anytime Upgrade editions. It was possible to use the Product Key from a Standard upgrade edition to accomplish an in-place upgrade.
  • Starter to Home Premium
  • Starter to Professional1
  • Starter to Ultimate1
  • Home Premium to Professional
  • Home Premium to Ultimate
  • Professional to Ultimate1
1 Available in retail, and at the Microsoft Store

Derivatives

; : On February 9, 2011, Microsoft announced Windows Thin PC, a branded derivative of Windows Embedded Standard 7 with Service Pack 1, designed as a lightweight version of Windows 7 for installation on low performance PCs as an alternative to using a dedicated thin client device. It succeeded Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs, which was based on Windows XP Embedded. Windows Thin PC was released on June 6, 2011.
;: Windows 7 is also available in two distinct forms of Windows Embedded, named as Windows Embedded Standard 7 and Windows Embedded POSReady 7. Both versions are eligible for Extended Security Updates for up to 3 years after their end of extended support dates. In addition, binary identical for Embedded Systems variants of Professional and Ultimate editions are also available, differing only in licensing, and with their support periods also matching their non-FES variants.

Comparison chart