carver gusset: Windows 8 registry shows nine separate flavors to choose from

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Windows 8 registry shows nine separate flavors to choose from

Windows 8 registry confirms Professional Plus version, nine retail flavors to choose from

With each subsequent release of Windows we're left bracing for what will surely be another overwhelming assortment of retail packaging options. With Windows 7 there was a dizzying 6 SKUs to choose from, and we're sorry to say that, at least for now, there are even more coming with Windows 8. As noted by windows 8 beta the registry contains the keys for all current versions of the OS and, with a quick trip to Regedit we were able to verify with the screenshot above. That boils down to the following list:

Windows 8 Starter
Windows 8 Home Basic
Windows 8 Home Premium
Windows 8 Professional
Windows 8 Professional Plus
Windows 8 Enterprise
Windows 8 Enterprise Eval
Windows 8 Ultimate
Windows 8 ARM edition

We will of course point out that this is from the Consumer Preview, so not necessarily a final tally, and the Enterprise Eval version is of course just for trials, but it's interesting to note the addition of Professional Plus. Office 2010 Pro Plus adds in extra integration with Sharepoint and Office Communications Server, leaving us to wonder if this flavor of Windows 8 won't offer some similar collaborative tools. And then there's just that one, lonely ARM edition, which could leave non-x86 hardware buyers out of the cross-shopping fun altogether.

[Thanks, Sagar]

Windows 8 registry shows nine separate flavors to choose from originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Mar 2012 07:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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