wayne21

I'm about to do a rebuild and want top know how these are different? The price is about twice for the pro as the home version. Any help would be very welcome and I thank you for your time. TFP ROCKS
Wayne 21

shakran

If you're going to have the computer on a network, go XP pro.

If not, XP home is fine.

You should, btw, be able to find OEM copies of XP pro for around 80 bucks.

cyrnel

I'd expand on "network" a bit. Home is fine for most everything, including internet use, and the two are the same under the skin, but Pro has additional features enabled that help with management and configuration. These extras can be hacked/coaxed out of Home, but it's simpler to install the real thing, especially if you're likely to worry about a FrankenWindows being responsible for problems.

Ditto on the OEM/Teacher/Student discount versions. I've bought legit copies for as low as $50, though MS has clamped down on many of the resellers.

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Dilbert1234567

here is a small list of the differences that pro has that home does not:

Remote Desktop
Multi-processor support
Automated System Recovery
Dynamic Disk Support
Internet Information Services/Personal Web Server
Encrypting File System
File-level access control
Domain membership
Group Policy

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billege

Don't forget that google's your best friend.

If you had popped your thread title "XP HOME VS XP PRO" in and hit search you'd have found this gem:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/h...choosing2.mspx which has even a handy chart for comparison.

However, I bet you're more asking the question "I want to understand how the differences in these software will affect how I use the PC?" which is more complicated and less easily answered by charts.

As Dilbert1234567 said, you won't have remote desktop with Home. I can count the times I've remoted to my home PC on one hand. Not likely to be a problem.

You can't join a domain or use the group policies set by a domain. Not applicable either, unless you're some kind of nutty home user who's going to build his own domain controller and home domain.

There's precious few reasons to pay extra for Pro, assuming you're going to do home office/surfing/homework. If you're an aspiring geek, which is possible, and given Pro is so cheap these days, then blowing an extra few bucks gives you more to play with.

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Cynthetiq

ugh.. i hate working on the networking stuff on the home version... its laid out completely differently and works completely differently. that alone is worth the difference for me. especially since i work on multiple computers at home.

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billege

I've never used the home version to any extent. It never occured to me that the menus and such would be different.

That'd piss me off.

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I can sum up the clash of religion in one sentence:
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cyrnel

The menus are really very similar, with slight tendencies toward home/business that can be changed. The main networking drawback is that it only provides simple file sharing. That's abominable if you're in an office, but stand-alone users rarely notice. It doesn't affect internet activities one whit. Really, most home users never use the additional features. It's the support people who come along and gripe when sharing is broken and gpedit et al aren't available.

And, if you have more time than money, Home can be turned into Pro.

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There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

MikeSty

Apparently you can even take several versions of XP (pro, home, corporate, media center etc) and actually pack it all onto one CD with careful structuring, since the majority of the content is exactly the same. Not like I would have any dealings with that sort of stuff.

Lasereth

Ugh please buy Pro unless the PC will be used for home use exclusively, not on a network at all. Home is like driving a V8 with 4 cylinders misfiring. Or a geo metro with all cylinders firing because it only has 3.

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