Upgrade to Windows Ultimate: Turn Vista Home Premium to Ultimate Free
Unlocking Vista Ultimate Features on Home Premium
Today marks the beginning of a series dedicated to acquiring the advanced functionalities of Windows Vista Ultimate without incurring the substantial cost of $399. Our approach will require no monetary expenditure, only an investment of your time.
The intention is to minimize the time commitment required through clear, step-by-step tutorials.
Feature Comparison: Ultimate vs. Home Premium
Let's first examine the distinctions between Vista Ultimate and Home Premium. The following chart details the features included in Ultimate that are absent from the Home Premium edition, as of the pre-SP1 release.
- Windows Vista Ultimate
- Windows Home Premium
- BitLocker Drive Encryption
- Not Included
- Multilingual User Interface
- Not Included
- Virtual PC
- Not Included
- Remote Desktop
- Not Included
- Complete Backup / Restore
- Not Included
- Shadow Copy Backup
- Not Included
- Offline Files and Folders
- Not Included
- Encrypting File System
- Not Included
This chart represents Microsoft’s original guide for consumers selecting the appropriate Vista version. It’s noteworthy that even greater variations exist between Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, and Business editions.
The rationale behind omitting features from lower-priced editions is questionable, especially considering the significant price differences.
Achieving Ultimate Functionality with Free Alternatives
This series will demonstrate how to enhance Home Premium to match, or even surpass, Vista Ultimate’s capabilities. The following is a preliminary list of enhancements.
- Vista Ultimate Feature
- Free Solution
- Complete Backup / Restore
- Seagate's DiscWizard
- Bitlocker Drive Encryption
- TrueCrypt
- Virtual PC
- Virtual PC 2007 (free download)
Furthermore, work is underway to establish a reliable method for enabling Vista Home Premium to join a domain. While this feature may not be essential for typical home users, it presents an interesting technical challenge.
Expect a continuous stream of informative content in the coming days and weeks!
Disk Imaging with DriveImage XML
A crucial aspect of system maintenance is disk imaging. We will explore utilizing DriveImage XML for this purpose.