W7 Pro Vs. Ultimate Vs. Enterprise?

I just picked up a new Lenovo X120e Netbook and it comes with Windows 7 Professional 64bit, pre-installed. I have a question about the differences between the different versions though.

The company I work for has a pretty big IT department and I'm friends with one of the managers. He had given me a Windows 7 Ultimate OEM package with the little product key etc to upgrade my W7 Home Basic 32bit desktop.

I asked if he had another one I could have and he said maybe, that or he would give me one of there W7 Enterprise keys. He asked if I had gotten another computer with W7 Home Basic or something and is said no, Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. He said well, I don't mind giving you a disc or key but I really don't think you need to upgrade from Professional as Ultimate doesn't really offer you much more.

I looked on Microsoft.com and and it seems that Bitlocker and the language packs are the only difference?

That said, my friend said he used Enterprise on all his computers but I also don't know if I need that.

Any input would be great.

Features of Windows 7 Enterprise not available in Ultimate:

1) License rights to run up to four additional copies of Windows in virtual machines.

2) Ability to activate against a local key server (KMS).

We have one machine at work that has Ultimate on it. Other machines have 7 Pro. The Pro machines do everything we need. IMO it makes more sense to choose a version based on "bitness" (whether the version is 64 bit vs. 32 bit just to make better use of RAM) especially since more and more machines come with at least 4GB RAM already installed.

Bill2 said:

Features of Windows 7 Enterprise not available in Ultimate:

1) License rights to run up to four additional copies of Windows in virtual machines.

2) Ability to activate against a local key server (KMS).

Actually there doesn't seem to be ANY limit on the number of activations for Windows Enterprise if you are a technet suscriber. (Virtual or Real too).

Other than that I think W7 Enterprise is roughly the same as W7 Ultimate -- W7 Ultimate is available through normal Retail channels while W7 Enterprise is only available through an IT partner or Technet.

Cheers
jimbo

Upgrade the desktop, but don`t touch the laptop. You will gain nothing.