Windows 7 is available in six different editions, of which the Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate editions are available for retail sale to consumers in most countries. The other editions are not available in retail. The Starter edition is only available preinstalled by OEMs on new PCs, the Enterprise edition only by volume licensing, and Home Basic only to certain developing countries' markets.
Each edition of Windows 7 includes all of the capabilities and features of the edition below it. All editions support the IA-32 processor architecture and all editions except Starter support (x86-64) processor architecture. The installation media is the same for all the consumer editions of Windows 7 that have the same processor architecture, with the license determining the features that are activated, and license upgrades permitting the subsequent unlocking of features without re-installation of the operating system.
This is the first time Microsoft has distributed 2 DVDs (1 DVD for IA-32 processor architecture, the other DVD for x86-64 processor architecture) for each edition of Windows 7 (Except for Starter and Home Basic; some OEM copies have only DVD for IA-32 architecture; the installation DVD of Windows 7 Home Basic 64-bit edition is not included but can be obtained from Microsoft.).
Users who wish to upgrade to an edition of Windows 7 with more features can then use Windows Anytime Upgrade to purchase the upgrade, and unlock the features of those editions. Some copies of Windows 7 have restrictions, in which it must be distributed, sold, or bought and activated in the geographical region specified in its front cover box.
Windows 7 is also currently available as an embedded version to developers (previously Windows Embedded 2011).
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