OS OEM? Home or Professional?

[techtrainee]

I'm going to be building a custom mini-tower computer in the near future. I have all the parts picked out except for one important thing: The Operating System. I'm trying to get Windows 7, and I keep seeing OEM next to their names. I'm not entirely sure what an OEM is, and I'd like to know what exactly it is. I'd also like to know the difference between Windows 7 Home and Windows 7 Premium, other than the price.

Greatly Appreciated,
Techtrainee

 

[DelJo63]

I just rebuild a system for a friend where the HD went south.
The OEM is just fine and installs easily, although you need to get the partitioning correct for Win/7 (get to that later).

This user had naive expectations, so I installed Win/7 Home Premium, 32bit, but it I were doing this for myself or a heavy hitter, I would opt for 64bit Pro. The PRO version allows you to install 32bit software and run it in compatibility mode.

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

OEM versions mean they're tied to one computer, unlike retail which can be moved from one PC to another. In reality the difference is a bit more blurred.

Windows 7 editions feature comparison

 

[DelJo63]

The instructions that come with the OEM install states that the installer is required to provide support:

1) creating a Recovery Environment​

or​

2) providing Restore CDs​

to get Win/7 to install on a fresh HD, three partitions are necessary

1) 100 mb for the recovery boot​

2) 15 GB for the restore image​

3) whatever's left for the normal Windows Install and day-to-day use.​

That's it.

 

[techtrainee]

Thank you!

 

[St1ckM4n]

Home edition is perfectly fine for most users. Pro gives you: ability to join domain, WinXp mode. Thats.. pretty much it from a day-to-day perspective.

 

[tipstir]

Home Premium 64-bit max RAM is 16GB
8GB good for average users if you need more get 16GB.
I ran 32GB for a few months even the Ultimate OS version of Windows doesn't really seems to take advantage of have that much. Well not yet.