Windows XP: Pro vs. Home

Factual Questions
1

I read the sticky and did not see this question in there. I also did not find anything about this in a search.

What is the real differences between Windows XP Professional and Windows XP Home Edition.

The reason I ask is because I was planning to upgrade mine and my wife’s PCs but can get a better deal through Dell than buying the parts seperately. (I know about propritary parts but I am not worried about that right now).

I need to know this because I need to understand the differences in order to decide if I I want to pay the extra 79 bucks for the Pro. I have no intention of going to linux because my programming skills stopped at BASIC and command line skills at MS-DOS.

I will need to have AOL installed on these PCs, if that makes a difference in my decsion. I also have them connected to a 4 port router in order to share a DSL connection.

Thank you all in advance.
FYI It is one in the morning here and I have been up 20 hours straight so please excuse spelling and grammer.

2

Microsoft compares —> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/choosing2.mspx

Another view —> http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_home_pro.asp

If this were IMHO, I would go for XP Pro.

Why AOL? If all you require is an ISP, there are better ones out there.

3

You won’t have a problem using AOL with either XP Home or XP Pro. For most applications they are essentially the same. The differences Duckster listed can be very important to consider for a technical person, but for the average user Home Edition is fine.

My wife’s computer runs XP Home Edition and she has never had a need for anything more. She mainly uses word processing, web, and email.

My computer runs XP Professional because I need IIS for web development.

If this were IMHO, I’d say “Get a Mac”

4

For most people, Home will be just fine. The main difference between Pro and Home are some advanced networking features, most useful in a corporate enviroment. Other than that, they are pretty much the same.

5

If this were IMHO, I’d say, too, to get a Mac. But… I also do keep and maintain a Windows machine. I’m not sure what for yet – maybe just for Punch! Pro and a DVD subtitle tool that I like. :slight_smile: Anyhow, my next Windows machine will be dual-core or dual-processor, in which case, XP Home is out of the game by default. Just keep that in mind if you decide not to get the Dell, dude.