I’m at the end of an … interesting few weeks, kicked off when my Win10 PC suddenly died (would not turn on or show any sign of hardware life). Fortunately, I had decent backups. I’m now up, running and reasonably happy with a Dell XPS-15.
The new PC has Windows 10 Home installed. I’m wondering whether upgrading to Pro (as used by my previous PC) is worthwhile. Googling produces conflicting views, so I thought I put this to the collective wisdom of SDMB.
Here is a Microsoft webpage that shows the differences between the Pro and Home versions. Do you see anything that you want or need? Bitlocker encryption? Active Directory support?Assigned access? If not, or if none of the additional features mean anything to you, then you probably don’t need it.
As for how, I haven’t done it but my understanding is that it’s a matter of unlocking the additional features. You don’t need to reinstall Windows.
Coincidentally, I just had to make the decision whether or not to upgrade a spare PC to Win 10 Pro. It had just been upgraded from Win 7 Home to Win 10 Home. The only reason I wanted to upgrade it is that Home will not allow a remote desktop connection using Windows. (I keep the unit powered up in a spare room so I can use it for specific tasks.) I know, I know…there are bunches of sites that tell you how to get around this limitation, but none of them have worked for me. Anyway, the cost of upgrading to Pro was not justified by adding that single feature, so Win 10 Home it will stay.
We got a new computer from Dell, and apparently the configuration we got is one that comes with Win 10 Pro. The difference we noticed was it assumed we are a business, which we aren’t.
My XPS 15 came with Windows 10 pro. I can’t tell the difference between its install and that of my Windows 10 home desktop. Clearly I do not use any of the “pro” features.
The main things I can think of that Pro gives you are
Better control over updates.
Easier access to Group Policy settings
Stuff that allows you to control your computer remotely.
Allows you to encrypt your hard drive.
Allows you to use Hyper-V to run virtual OSes.
Thing is, all but the updates have free alternatives that you could use instead. And you already have more control over updates than most people know–you can use the Pause Updates option to delay up to 21 (or 28) days. And, if you must be absolutely sure no updates happen while you’re doing something, there are plenty of programs that can disable Windows Update. And I believe Windows 10 (home) still allows you to change the registry location to tell it not to update to the next Feature Update.
What Windows 10 Pro offers you is the ability defer updates automatically, instead of having to always click the Pause Updates button three (or four) times after each update. And you can choose options that stop updates from downloading until you tell them to. It’s nice, but is it really worth double the price of the OS?
I use Windows 10 Pro only because I got it free with the computer, which was updated from Windows 7 Pro.
FYI I just built a new PC from scratch and I went Windows 10 Pro out of the gate. This doesn’t answer your question BUT I just wanted to let you know I only paid $20 CAN for my license key.
I bought it off Amazon, there were a handful of resellers selling OEM Windows 10 keys for $20. On Amazon.com I’m sure you’d find keys for $15US. At that price why not upgrade?
As for the upgrade process it should be pretty painless, Go to Settings → System → About and change your product key to a Pro key. This should kick off a Windows update that unlocks/downloads your new features.
Windows 10 to 10 Pro isn’t an upgrade, it’s just geared towards enterprise use so you are part of the enterprise network, admins can manage your computer, several other features mentioned above.
It will not give you better performance, no fancy user features that you will use every day, and probably nothing else that you would even notice.