Windows 7: Windows 7 Enterprise Edition

I installed Windows 7 Enterprise x64 yesterday on a 400gb Sata HD in a removable HD mobile rack on one of my computers. Install went pretty normal as most of my Windows 7 installs. Enterprise looks basically like Prof & Ultimate. During install it did not ask for the Key Code at all, just went right through completing the install. Then when I checked system in Control Panel it said 3 days to activate. So I tried to activate online, but got failed. Then I clicked on the box change product key, then the blank
line popped up to type in my TechNet Key Code. Did that & it activated
Use Enterprise for about 7 hours without any problems

Here are some snips:

That looks like the Background I now have and I am using Win 7 RTM 64 bit... I thought each one had a different background?

The reason that the activate online failed, was that the Enterprise version of Windows 7 is expecting to find a KMS (key management server) on your network to activate against. So, when you try to activate, it queries DNS looking for the KMS records and fails when it cannot find them.

The other way to activate Windows 7 enterprise is with a MAK (multi-activation key). You use the Change Product key feature when you choose to activate this way. That is what you got with Technet and that is why it worked for you

The features in Enterprise that are not in Professional are

• Direct Access
• BitLocker and BitLocker to go
• BranchCache
• Enterprise Search Scopes
• AppLocker
• Multi-Lingual User Interface (MUI)
• VDI Optimzation
• Subsystem for Unix-based apps

I've been working my way through a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement renewal and the licensing guys went over the features in the enterprise version of the software that we would be missing out on if we decide to not renew our EA. (which it looks like we won't be renewing...it saves us a ton of money and we don't use the above features).

Thanks for that info, as I don't think many will have Enterprise as a normal user.

That is correct. Enterprise is not even available to retail consumers and is only available to businesses who maintain a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement. Through an OEM vendor, your only purchase options are Professional or Ultimate.

The Enterprise versions are available with Technet or MSDN....however you cannot use the Technet version as your work desktop. I think you could use the MSDN version as long as you had a valid MSDN subscription for that person...since the MDSN license allows for production use.