What are the differences between the various editions of Windows Vista? How do they impact my DirectX application?
The Windows Vista family includes five editions: • Windows Vista Home Basic • Windows Vista Home Premium • Windows Vista Business • Windows Vista Enterprise • Windows Vista Ultimate Home Basic and Home Premium are consumer-focused versions, with features like Family Safety (formerly known as Parental Controls), and Home Premium includes Media Center. Business and Enterprise are corporate-focused editions, with features like Domain join and Remote Desktop/Terminal Services. The Ultimate edition combines all features of both the consumer and corporate editions into one version. All editions come in both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) editions, and users are free to use the same product identifier for both platforms. The technology underlying the various editions is identical, and they all have the same version of the DirectX runtime and other components. However, the editions do have some minor differences with respect to gaming: • Games Explorer exists on all editions, but the Games shor
