satansmurf

There is oft much confusion over the matter, so let us lay it down.

So here we go...

Upgrades/Installs:
- Home can upgrade from 98, 98SE and ME
- Pro can upgrade from 98, 98SE, ME, NT4 Workstation and W2000 Professional
- Home does not have full sysprep support, Pro does (for unattend/setupmgr installs)
What this means: Nothing. Unless you deploy hundereds of systems, test the OS or are an OEM or ODM.

Sharing/Services:
- Home supports five remote connections, Pro supports 10
What this means: If you are sharing (NOT using BitTorrent, etc) using Windows Sharing, this is your limit of concurrent connections. Or FTP connections.
- Home does not have Remote desktop, Pro does
What this means: Remote Desktop (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...moteintro.mspx) allows you to remotely connect to a computer as if you are at the local console. This allows you both far remote connections as well as running computers without a monitor/KB/mouse - you can control the desktops of many computers from a single console.
- Home does not support offline files/folders, Pro does
What this means: For the typical home user.... Nothing. On a network on on a laptop that is connected to various networks, this can be a benefit.
- Home does not support multi-MUI, Pro does
What this means: MUI = Multi-User Interface (also now known as LIP (Language Interface Pack)).. This allows you to have your OS load in different languages on a per user basis. So one user can log in for German, another for English and a third for French. Not useful in the home - unless you are learning a new language - but even then, a single language is fine.
- Home does not have out of box fax, Pro does
What this means: People still fax? :D

Networking:
- Home can not join a domain, Pro can
What this means: Not much unless you have a domain. Typically for corporate/work environments.. Unless you like geekin' like me :D
- Home can not be installed with RIS, Pro can
What this means: Nothing. Unless you have a RIS server or corporate environment that supports RIS. (RIS = Remote Installation Service, which basically allows you to boot to a NIC using PXE (PreBoot Execution Environment) to install an OS - no CDs, no mess, no fuss. Handy for large companies.)
- Home does not have group policy, Pro does
What this means: Well, no domain, no group policy. Group Policy is way of applying security/method policies to users or computers using Active Directory. For example, you can enforce "strong passwords" or whether or not a usr can change their desktop.
- Home does not have IPSEC ability, Pro does
What this means: Not much, again, unless you are in a corporate environment. However, trying to hook a Home machine into a network with domains that enforce IPSEC (via group policy) is pointless. (You can always set up exception lists.. but very painful.) IPSEC (Internet Protocol Security) is basically a way to enforce security on the network/packet layer of the network.
- Home does not have IIS, Pro does (limitted)
What this means: If you want to run a "web server" - for fun or to learn - you will need Pro. However, Pro does have limitations. Remember that 10 user concurrent connection limit that Pro has? It applies here as well. No more than 10 users can be connected.
- Home can't (obviously) have roaming profiles, Pro can
What this means: Again, without domain, not interesting. Used to allow a user to log into multiple workstations and inherit their profile (desktop, background, ec.)
- Home does not have SNMP, NetMon or CS for Netware, Pro does
What this means: If you don't know or care about the acronyms listed above, you don't need pro (although you may need it for other reasons.)

Management:
- Home does not support scheduled tasks, Pro does
What this means: The ability to schedule tasks is great. However, there are 3rd party tools as well. But scheduled tasks allow you to perform applications or batch files or whatever at schduled points in time (day, week, month, year.) Useful for backups, defrags, etc.

Security:
- Home has limited support for ACLing, since Pro can join domain, much more granual security (allows specific security on file level)
What this means: Home and Pro in workgroup mode have very limitted abilities to control access to files for sharing, etc. Since Pro can join a domain, this ACLing is much more granular. For example, with Home or Pro (in workgroup) you can only set three possible ACLs (self, other locals, external) - but when in a domain, you can specify a specifc user to have/not have access by name or by group.
- Home does not have EFS support, Pro does (encrypting file system)
What this means: Might matter if you are a laptop user or get your computer stolen regularly. But then again, lots of 3rd party tools for this.
- Home does not get default install of ASR
What this means: Nothing really. Both can get it (Automated System Recovery)

Hardware:
- Home does not support multi-proc systems (will support multi-core), Pro does
What this means: First, a multi-core proc is considered a single proc. If you are going to build a dual proc (or even dual dual-core system) you will need Pro.
- Home does not support Dynamic Disks, Pro does
What this means: With the advent of SATA RAID controllers, not much. Basically, you can use dynamic disks to simulate (in software) the behavior of RAID - span, mirror, stripe, etc. Not a great performance choice. Use hardware for this. There are other aspects of this, but if you aren't aware of them, you don't need to know them :D
- Home will not seem to have 64bit for XP (maybe Vista??), Pro does
What this means: No 64bit OS for Home.

Anyone think of anything else? Should we elaborate on what these differences actually mean?

funkycasey

Looks good. Possibly elaborate to what some of the features mean (not that I don't understand them, but some new to OS's might not understand what some features are). Otherwise, very good :) Rep+

Chipp

Very complete, you covered almost every aspect one would want to know, and taught me a few things, too.

Much deserved rep coming your way.

evolutionx

Good FAQ for info on XP. Good Job. REP+

satansmurf

Added some info.. useful?

funkycasey

Yup, explains everything :) Good job!

C-bro

Fantastic. My dad was on the fence between Pro and Home and it helped him out. Rep+

Bdog

Very helpful, thanks.

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SoBe8503

One thing you may elaborate on is the remote desktop feature. Home does support the client side, you just can't control a home machine. Other than that, great!

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