Windows XP
Home Edition vs. Professional Edition: What's the
difference?
Updated for
the RTM release of Windows XP
With the inclusion of a new
consumer-oriented version of Windows XP, there has been
some confusion surrounding the differences between this
product, Windows XP Home Edition, and its more upscale
sibling, Windows XP Professional Edition. During a visit
to Redmond in February where Windows XP Beta 2 and the new
Whistler ("Luna") user interface was first unveiled, and
in various meetings since then, I've been able to discuss
this new Windows version with Microsoft executives and
product managers. Beyond the obvious--Microsoft is
targeting Home Edition at consumers and Professional at
business users and power users--Group Vice President Jim
Allchin said that the company was working hard to further
differentiate the products. "With XP, the home version is
what it is," Allchin said. "But where we're going, we've
named them appropriately. In the future, this will make
more sense. We will do more value add in Pro in the
future."
"Divide
them into managed and unmanaged environments," added John
Frederiksen, the General Manager of the PC Experience
Solution Group, noting that some smaller businesses would
probably install Home Edition regardless of the target
marketing. "Some small businesses have administrators,
some don’t. Home Edition is not a managed OS. It's
optimized for that consumer market. A lot of the OEM PCs
marketed to consumers are bought by small businesses. In
terms of naming, we wanted to continue the Professional
name. For the consumer product, we tested the name Windows
Me again, the year names, like Windows 2002, and a lot of
other stuff. But Home Edition tested the best. The
feedback said that Home Edition suggested it was
customized for the home, which it was. We feel like the
name reflects its purpose."
Windows XP Home Edition Overview
Windows XP Home Edition includes a number of enhancements
over Windows 2000 Professional. These include:
- Improved software (application) and hardware
compatibility
- Simplified security
- Simplified log-on featuring new "welcome" screen
- Fast user switching
- A new user interface featuring context-sensitive,
task-oriented Web views
- Enhanced support for digital media (movies,
pictures, music)
- DirectX 8.1 multimedia libraries for gaming
Professional Edition: Superset of Home Edition
At its most basic level, XP Professional is a business-
and power-user oriented superset of Home Edition. Because
this orientation, it includes features that wouldn't be
appropriate, or would be too complex, for the typical home
user. The most obvious difference is security, which is
vastly simplified in Home Edition. Each interactive user
in XP Home is assumed to be a member of the Owners local
group, which is the Windows XP equivalent of the Windows
2000 Administrator account: This means that anyone who
logs on to a Home Edition machine has full control.
Likewise, the Backup Operators, Power Users, and
Replicator groups from Windows 2000/XP Pro are missing
from Home Edition, and a new group, called Restricted
Users, is added. Hidden administrative shares (C$, etc.)
are also unavailable in Home Edition.
"Professional Edition is a strict superset of Home
Edition," confirmed Chris Jones, Vice President of the
Windows Client Group. "Everything you can do in Home
Edition, you can do in Pro. So we do think there are home
users who will buy Pro." Jones' distinction is a good one:
With Windows XP, the Professional Edition is finally a
superset of all the desktop clients that came before
(Windows Me and Windows 2000 Professional) as well as of
its new sibling. So when discussing the differences
between the editions, it's best to simply describe those
features in Pro that you can't get in Home Edition.
Pro
features that aren't in Home Edition
The following features are not present in Windows XP Home
Edition.
Power user
- Remote Desktop - All versions of Windows
XP--including Home Edition--support Remote Assistance,
which is an assisted support technology that allows a
help desk or system administrator to remotely connect to
a client desktop for troubleshooting purposes. But Only
Pro supports the new Remote Desktop feature, which is a
single-session version of Terminal Services with two
obvious uses: Mobile professionals who need to remotely
access their corporate desktop, and remote
administration of clients on a network. You can access a
Windows XP Remote Desktop from any OS that supports a
Terminal Services client (such as Windows 98 and,
interestingly XP Home). XP Home can act as the client in
a Remote Desktop session; only Pro can be the server.
- Multi-processor support - Windows XP Pro supports up
to two microprocessors, while Home Edition supports only
one.
- Automated System Recovery (ASR) - In a somewhat
controversial move, Microsoft has removed the Backup
utility from the default Windows XP Home Edition, though
it is available as an optional installation if you can
find it on the CD-ROM (hint: it's in the /valueadd
folder). The reason for this the integration of
Microsoft's new Automated System Recovery (ASR) tool
into Backup. In Pro, ASR will help recover a system from
a catastrophic error, such as one that renders the
system unbootable. ASR-enabled backups are triggerable
from XP Setup, allowing you to return your system to its
previous state, even if the hard drive dies and has to
be replaced. Unlike consumer-oriented features such as
System Restore, ASR is not automatic: It must manually
be enabled from within the Backup utility in Windows XP
Pro. In any event, while there is a Backup utility
available for Home Edition, you cannot use ASR, even
though mentions of this feature still exist in the UI.
Confusing? Yes. But it's better than no Backup at all,
which was the original plan.
- Dynamic Disk Support - Windows XP Professional (like
its Windows 2000 equivalent) supports dynamic disks, but
Home Edition does not (instead, HE supports only the
standard Simple Disk type). Dynamic disks are not usable
with any OS other than Windows 2000 or Windows XP Pro,
and they cannot be used on portable computers. Likewise,
Home Edition does not include the Logical Disk Manager.
- Fax - Home Edition has no integrated fax
functionality out of the box, though it is an option you
can install from the XP Home CD.
- Internet Information Services/Personal Web Server -
Home Edition does not include the IIS Web server 5.1
software found in Pro.
Security
- Encrypting File System - Windows XP Professional
supports the Encrypting File System (EFS), which allows
you encrypt individual files or folders for local
security (EFS is not enabled over a network). EFS-protected
files and folders allows users to protect sensitive
documents from other users.
- File-level access control - Any user with
Administrator privileges can limit access to certain
network resources, such as servers, directories, and
files, using access control lists. Only Windows XP
Professional supports file-level access control, mostly
because this feature is typically implemented through
Group Policy Objects, which are also not available in
Home Edition.
- "C2" certification - Microsoft will attempt to have
Windows XP Professional certified with the "C2" security
designation, a largely irrelevant status, but one which
will not be afforded to Home Edition.
Management
- Domain membership - Home Edition cannot be used to
logon to an Active Directory domain. For obvious
reasons, the Domain Wizard is also missing in Home
Edition.
- Group Policy - Since Home Edition cannot be used to
logon to an Active Directory domain, Group
Policy--whereby applications, network resources, and
operating systems are administered for domain users--is
not supported either.
- IntelliMirror - Microsoft lumps a wide range of
semi-related change and configuration management
technologies under the IntelliMirror umbrella, and none
of these features are supported in the consumer oriented
Home Edition. IntelliMirror capabilities include user
data management; centrally-managed software
installation, repair, updating, and removal; user
settings management; and Remote Installation Services (RIS),
which allows administrators to remotely install the OS
on client systems.
- Roaming profiles - This feature allows users to
logon to any computer in an Active Directory network and
automatically receive their customized settings. It is
not available in Home Edition, which cannot logon to an
Active Directory domain.
Corporate deployment
- Multi-language support - Only Windows XP
Professional will ship in a Multi-Language version or
support multiple languages in a single install.
- Sysprep support - Windows XP Pro will support the
System Preparation (Sysprep) utility, while Home Edition
will not.
- RIS support - See the IntelliMirror heading in the
previous section; Home Edition does not support RIS
deployments.
64-bit Edition
- Microsoft is shipping a 64-bit version of Windows XP
for Intel Itanium systems that mirrors the Professional
Edition feature-set.
Networking features
The following networking features are not included in Home
Edition:
- The user interface for IPSecurity (IPSec)
- SNMP
- Simple TCP/IP services
- SAP Agent
- Client Service for NetWare
- Network Monitor
- Multiple Roaming feature
User interface features
Windows XP Home Edition has some different default
settings that affect the user interface. For example,
Guest logon is on by default in Home, but off in Pro. The
Address bar in Explorer windows is on in Pro by default,
but off in Home. During the beta period, Microsoft had
intended to use a business-oriented shell theme
("Professional") by default in Pro and the "Luna" consumer
theme in Home Edition. But feedback from corporate users
suggested that everyone liked the consumer-oriented Luna
theme better, and development of the Professional theme
was cancelled. Other user interface features that are
present in Pro but not Home include:
- Client-side caching
- Administrative Tools option on the Start menu (a
subset of the Admin tools are still present in Home,
however).
It's also
worth mentioning that Home Edition will support upgrades
from Windows 98, 98 SE, and Millennium Edition (Me), but
not from Windows 95, NT 4.0 Workstation, or Windows 2000
Professional. You can upgrade from Windows 98, 98 SE,
Millennium Edition (Me), Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, or
Windows 2000 Professional to Windows XP Professional. See
my article on
What to Expect from Windows XP for more information.
Deciding
which edition to buy is simple: Peruse the above list and
decide whether you can live without any of these features.
If you can't, then you're going to want to get
Professional. Otherwise, save $100 and get Home Edition.
Note that Microsoft is offering a less-expensive
Professional "Step-Up" upgrade for Home users that wish to
move to XP Pro.
--Paul
Thurrott
February 8, 2001
Updated February 20, 2001, June 15, 2001, August 24, 2001,
September 4-5, 2001, November 26, 2001 |