DirectX FAQ:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb219721.aspx
Q: What are the differences between the various editions of Windows Vista?
How do they impact my DirectX application?
A: The Windows Vista family includes five editions:
a.. Windows Vista Home Basic
b.. Windows Vista Home Premium
c.. Windows Vista Business
d.. Windows Vista Enterprise
e.. Windows Vista Ultimate
Home Basic and Home Premium are consumer-focused versions, with features
like Family Safety (formerly known as Parental Controls), and Home Premium
includes Media Center. Business and Enterprise are corporate-focused
editions, with features like Domain join and Remote Desktop/Terminal
Services. The Ultimate edition combines all features of both the consumer
and corporate editions into one version. All editions come in both 32-bit
(x86) and 64-bit (x64) editions, and users are free to use the same product
identifier for both platforms.
The technology underlying the various editions is identical, and they all
have the same version of the DirectX runtime and other components. However,
the editions do have some minor differences with respect to gaming:
a.. Game Explorer exists on all editions, but the Games shortcut on the
Start menu is only in Home Basic, Home Premium, and Ultimate. Game Explorer
can still be found on all editions (by clicking Start, pointing to All
Programs, and then clicking Games), and the IGameExplorer interface
functions on all editions.
b.. The games that are included with Windows are not available by default
on Business and Enterprise, but they can be enabled by the administrator.
c.. Family Safety and game ratings do not display or have any influence on
the behavior of Business or Enterprise, and they are disabled on Ultimate
when a domain is joined.
User Account Control settings have the same defaults on all editions, but
they can be overridden by Group Policy settings for the domain on Business,
Enterprise, and Ultimate. For example, the policy setting User Account
Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for standard users may well be set
to Automatically deny elevation requests in many business settings to
enhance security, and many users in those environments will always be
running as standard users without the ability to even choose to run as
Administrator. Any program (such as an installer) that requires
administrative rights, either due to legacy setup detection or to having a
manifest that specifies the requested execution level as
"requireAdministrator", will always fail to start in such situations. Other
policy settings, such as User Account Control: Only elevate executables that
are signed and validated, can also prevent your installer from functioning
if you do not sign your executable file using Authenticode.
These types of policy changes can be applied to any edition of Windows
Vista, but are more likely on computers that are joined to a domain.
--
Chuck Walbourn
SDE, XNA Developer Connection
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.