Ed,

The ultimate or pro versions of these operating systems are a lot more robust than the Home editions. It costs to update, but I have always thought it worth the expense. When I bought the computer I'm using now it came with the Home version, and I upgraded. Typically in the past that would have wiped the other little programs the computer company bundled into the computer, but Win7 parks all of that stuff in an Old Version file and you can play with the freebies the company pre-loaded if you're interested.

SRS