Windows has always had different versions (in this case, however, we speak of "editions"), which with Windows 10 have been reduced, speaking of the consumer market, to two: Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Home which is often pre-installed on new PCs
For those who are curious to know if it is better to use the Pro instead of the Home and, therefore, the differences between Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Home, let's see briefly and without getting lost in technical details what has one more of the other and who would have more need to use a Pro version instead of the more classic Home edition.
First of all it must be taken into account that all the main basic functions of Windows 10, such as the Edge Browser, the application store, the Start menu and the voice assistant, are present in both the Pro and Home versions.
In a nutshell, there are two basic fundamental differences between Windows 10 Pro and Home: the price and the amount of RAM supported by the operating systems.
To begin with, as already seen in the article on Editions and prices of Windows 10 for PC Home and Pro, if you buy a new PC and there is already installed Windows 10 on it, this is definitely Windows Home.
The full price of the Home edition is 145 Euros, while Windows 10 Pro costs a good 260 Euros.
As seen, it is still possible to buy a Windows 10 Pro and Home license for a few Euros on Amazon by looking for the Retail licenses (even at the moment you can buy Windows 10 Pro for 4 Euros on Amazon).
As for the amount of RAM supported, however, the difference is that Windows 10 Home supports up to 128 GB of RAM, which is a lot (a home PC will hardly have more than 16 GB of RAM), while Windows 10 Pro supports up to at 2TB of RAM, practically infinite.
As for the differences in functions between Pro and Home included in the system, these are rather limited.
Windows 10 Pro has, in addition to Windows 10 Home, some useful tools in the business environment, which are more difficult to use on a home computer, but which could still be useful on laptops.
The most important Windows 10 Pro functions that are not present in Windows 10 Home are therefore:
1) BitLocker, Microsoft's encryption software integrated into Windows 10 to protect disk drives inside the computer and also USB sticks or external disks.
BitLocker is particularly useful for frequent travelers, so that you can protect your personal files in case of theft or loss of a Microsoft account password.
2) Remote Desktop
Windows 10 has two features with similar names in it: Remote Desktop Connection and Remote Assistance.
On Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro PCs it is possible to start remote desktop connections, so that the "master" machine controls the slave machine and all its resources.
Only Windows 10 Pro computers, however, can be controlled remotely by a separate user remotely (in practice the PC can be used with another user remotely without seeing on the screen what it does and also while it is being used by someone in first person) while Windows 10 Home computers cannot.
What you can do in Windows 10 Home is to ask for remote assistance that I have already talked about, which is rather an educational and technical support tool.
Within a company or even a small office, the remote desktop of Windows 10 Pro is certainly useful for accessing PCs even from home.
3) Hyper-V is the tool to create and manage virtual machines on the computer.
Having another virtualized PC inside your computer is something technical that is done in the company or at home by those who have fun, for study or hobby, to test on a virtual PC without having to worry about doing damage on the real PC .
Virtualization creates a safe operating environment inside the PC that allows you to run different operating systems, which can be Linux, future versions of Windows 10 or even earlier versions of Windows.
Once Windows 10 Professional is installed, you will still need to install Hyper-V manually from the additional features of Windows 10.
4) Windows Update for companies
The process of updating the Windows 10 system via Windows Update is different in Windows 10 Pro and Home.
Windows 10 Home immediately downloads the patches, allowing you to postpone the installation for a few hours, but not more.
Windows 10 Professional, on the other hand, has an option to pause Windows 10 updates and postpone them to a later date.
So those who use their PC to work every day may want to decide when to install updates and not let the system do it and find themselves waiting for an update to be installed during a presentation or meeting.
Furthermore, since updates to Windows 10 can sometimes cause problems, those who do not want to risk anything may prefer to delay them for a few weeks and be more relaxed.
5) Application Guard in Microsoft Edge, which I mentioned in another article is a function that will protect the Edge browser by loading the sites in a sort of sandbox.
6) The Windows Sandbox
Merntre Application Guard is only on Edge, the Sandbox is instead a way to test programs without affecting the system.
The Sandbox is a simplified way to start an autonomous virtual environment, so that even if you install malware, your PC would still remain immune from its effects.
This Sandbox feature has not yet been released at this time and should arrive with the April 2019 update.
Windows 10 Home also lacks some system tools such as the Group Policy Editor, missing assigned access and lacking support to join the PC to a domain.
You can read the comparison page on the Microsoft website for more details.
In case you are interested, we have seen in another article the guide to move from Windows 10 Home to Pro .
For those who are curious to know if it is better to use the Pro instead of the Home and, therefore, the differences between Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Home, let's see briefly and without getting lost in technical details what has one more of the other and who would have more need to use a Pro version instead of the more classic Home edition.
First of all it must be taken into account that all the main basic functions of Windows 10, such as the Edge Browser, the application store, the Start menu and the voice assistant, are present in both the Pro and Home versions.
In a nutshell, there are two basic fundamental differences between Windows 10 Pro and Home: the price and the amount of RAM supported by the operating systems.
To begin with, as already seen in the article on Editions and prices of Windows 10 for PC Home and Pro, if you buy a new PC and there is already installed Windows 10 on it, this is definitely Windows Home.
The full price of the Home edition is 145 Euros, while Windows 10 Pro costs a good 260 Euros.
As seen, it is still possible to buy a Windows 10 Pro and Home license for a few Euros on Amazon by looking for the Retail licenses (even at the moment you can buy Windows 10 Pro for 4 Euros on Amazon).
As for the amount of RAM supported, however, the difference is that Windows 10 Home supports up to 128 GB of RAM, which is a lot (a home PC will hardly have more than 16 GB of RAM), while Windows 10 Pro supports up to at 2TB of RAM, practically infinite.
As for the differences in functions between Pro and Home included in the system, these are rather limited.
Windows 10 Pro has, in addition to Windows 10 Home, some useful tools in the business environment, which are more difficult to use on a home computer, but which could still be useful on laptops.
The most important Windows 10 Pro functions that are not present in Windows 10 Home are therefore:
1) BitLocker, Microsoft's encryption software integrated into Windows 10 to protect disk drives inside the computer and also USB sticks or external disks.
BitLocker is particularly useful for frequent travelers, so that you can protect your personal files in case of theft or loss of a Microsoft account password.
2) Remote Desktop
Windows 10 has two features with similar names in it: Remote Desktop Connection and Remote Assistance.
On Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro PCs it is possible to start remote desktop connections, so that the "master" machine controls the slave machine and all its resources.
Only Windows 10 Pro computers, however, can be controlled remotely by a separate user remotely (in practice the PC can be used with another user remotely without seeing on the screen what it does and also while it is being used by someone in first person) while Windows 10 Home computers cannot.
What you can do in Windows 10 Home is to ask for remote assistance that I have already talked about, which is rather an educational and technical support tool.
Within a company or even a small office, the remote desktop of Windows 10 Pro is certainly useful for accessing PCs even from home.
3) Hyper-V is the tool to create and manage virtual machines on the computer.
Having another virtualized PC inside your computer is something technical that is done in the company or at home by those who have fun, for study or hobby, to test on a virtual PC without having to worry about doing damage on the real PC .
Virtualization creates a safe operating environment inside the PC that allows you to run different operating systems, which can be Linux, future versions of Windows 10 or even earlier versions of Windows.
Once Windows 10 Professional is installed, you will still need to install Hyper-V manually from the additional features of Windows 10.
4) Windows Update for companies
The process of updating the Windows 10 system via Windows Update is different in Windows 10 Pro and Home.
Windows 10 Home immediately downloads the patches, allowing you to postpone the installation for a few hours, but not more.
Windows 10 Professional, on the other hand, has an option to pause Windows 10 updates and postpone them to a later date.
So those who use their PC to work every day may want to decide when to install updates and not let the system do it and find themselves waiting for an update to be installed during a presentation or meeting.
Furthermore, since updates to Windows 10 can sometimes cause problems, those who do not want to risk anything may prefer to delay them for a few weeks and be more relaxed.
5) Application Guard in Microsoft Edge, which I mentioned in another article is a function that will protect the Edge browser by loading the sites in a sort of sandbox.
6) The Windows Sandbox
Merntre Application Guard is only on Edge, the Sandbox is instead a way to test programs without affecting the system.
The Sandbox is a simplified way to start an autonomous virtual environment, so that even if you install malware, your PC would still remain immune from its effects.
This Sandbox feature has not yet been released at this time and should arrive with the April 2019 update.
Windows 10 Home also lacks some system tools such as the Group Policy Editor, missing assigned access and lacking support to join the PC to a domain.
You can read the comparison page on the Microsoft website for more details.
In case you are interested, we have seen in another article the guide to move from Windows 10 Home to Pro .
