Previously, we covered the differences between the various editions and architectures of Windows 10 available. But even after understanding the differences, it can be hard to decide which edition is best for you and your needs. Admittedly, it can be a bit confusing. Microsoft does distribute a plethora of SKUs (and the company has rightly been made fun of for it). At the end of the day, your decision will boil down to just Home or Pro.

I just bought a Dell All-in-One computer with Windows 10 Home Single Language in Mexico (I live in Mexico).needless to say, the computer language is in Spanish and was not advertised as 'single language'. Someone told me that if I upgraded to Windows 10 Pro (for $99 USD), I would be able to change the language to English or many other languages.

Which Edition of Windows 10 Should You Choose?

For many home PCs, Windows 10 Home can be a satisfactory edition that meets the needs of most users. Unlike previous Windows Home editions, Windows 10 Home includes most of the flagship features that you’ll recognize from Microsoft advertisements such as Windows Hello, Cortana digital assistant, and Universal Apps like Edge, Groove, Photos, Mail, Action Center. But the big disadvantage with Windows 10 Home is the lack of control, particularly when it comes to the Windows Update service (more on this later). The upcoming Windows 10 Creators Update is starting to make the Home edition less desirable for several reasons we will discuss in this article. Plus, large organizations deploying Windows 10 in bulk will choose what you use on your computer at work, which can be either Pro or Enterprise. That decision in itself can also factor into what you use at home.

What’s the Difference Between Home and Pro Versions?

Windows 10 Homeis also known as the Core edition and is the upgrade path from Windows 8/8.1 or Windows 8/8.1 Single Language. This edition does not include certain premium business features such as Domain Join, Hyper-V, Group Policy Editor, Remote Desktop, Language Packs or BitLocker Drive Encryption.

Windows 10 Prois the premium business edition which supports advanced capabilities such as multi-processor support, up to 2 Tbs of RAM, Domain Join, Network Backup, Group Policy, Remote Desktop and Hyper-V. It is the logical successor to Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 8/8.1 Pro.

Windows Update Customization

Windows 10 Home embraces Microsoft’s service-oriented architecture. Updates and fixes are mandatory, and you have little choice over installing them. The release of the Anniversary Update in 2016 made installing updates more convenient with features such as Active Hours and Restart Options. Beyond that, there is not much else you can do when Microsoft needs to install updates and restart your machine.

Windows 10 Pro, on the other hand, is a toolbox of options. Even though the defaults are similar to Windows 10 Home, Pro offers more control over your Windows Updates. The Windows 10 Pro Creators Update, for instance, lets you pause updates for up to 35 days. In current and previous releases, you could configure these options through the Group Policy editor; a feature that has always been exclusive to the Pro SKU. For users such as myself, the pause option is a welcome addition. I live in the sticks, and I have to work with a limited 3G metered connection. Windows 10 sometimes doesn’t care even when I adjust my connection as Metered and still slips through with those large updates the operating system is notorious for.

BitLocker Driver Encryption

Another feature still lacking in Windows 10 Home is BitLocker Drive Encryption. One of the justifications for not including BitLocker in Home is its complexity, which I consider to be a weak argument. Many years ago, operating systems never came built in with a Firewall because they were thought to be too complex and intrusive. In fact, Windows XP Home initially came with the Windows Firewall turned off. The release of Windows XP SP2 enabled it, while bidirectional support arrived in Windows Vista Home editions.

So, I find the argument that including BitLocker in Windows 10 Home would prove too difficult for users to deal with lacking. If you purchase a Microsoft Surface Pro or Surface Book, these devices come with the Pro edition of Windows 10 installed and BitLocker is enabled by default. I am sure Microsoft is not targeting either device as solely for business, developers or large organizations. In fact, many of the testimonials on Microsoft’s Surface Facebook page are from prosumers who use these devices at home. One could say the ideas of a Windows 10 Home and Pro user are blurring.

Hyper-V

There are also advanced features that power users in home environments might find they need. A built-in virtualization solution such as Hyper-V can be the ultimate solution for compatibility issues with older apps. With each revision of Windows 10, the real risk of compatibility issues arise, and for many home users running that one legacy app that gets broken by an update, an out of the box solution such as Hyper-V might smooth things over. Even the new Quick Create feature in Hyper-V seems targeted at novice users not accustomed to such features.

Language Packs

It’s not strange these days to visit a home where families speak a mix of tongues. Windows 10 Home does support language packs, but the confusion around country-specific distributions and single-language editions makes it hard to know if it officially does or not. Windows 10 Pro comes out of the box ready to download and install different language interfaces.

Other Windows 10 Pro Features

The rise of BYOD – bring your own device – has changed the dynamic of how we compute. It’s not strange for you to use the same Android or iOS device at work to access resources on your Exchange, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint or OneDrive for Business. Yet you use these same devices at home or at work to catch up on the latest tweets, listen to your Spotify or manage your home spy cam.

The same is probably true of your laptop, which you use at home and work. Features like Domain Join, Network Backup, and File Encryption are primarily used in business environments; not all should be considered as necessarily business targeted. Again, File Encryption and Network Backup might actually be useful for protecting sensitive files or backing up precious family memories to a NAS. Remote Desktop is another feature included in Pro; Home offers Quick Assist, but Remote Desktop is a lot more flexible and could actually be a better support tool for remote family members or friends.

Price, Support, Privacy, and Security

Is there a reason not to get Windows 10 Pro, though? Well, the cost is a factor—it’s $100 extra, and there are issues regarding security too. Because Windows 10 Pro includes more features, this makes the attack surface much broader. A feature not included in Home could be easily targeted in Pro. To be honest, that’s becoming a weaker excuse over the years; maybe a decade ago when you ran Windows 2000 Professional, XP Professional or NT 4 Workstation it would have been reasonable excuse to avoid it.

These days, Microsoft develops Windows 10 across the board with security in mind, and even then, if you do feel paranoid, you can disable and remove features you believe could make your system a target. Windows 10 Pro does not use any more or less disk space or memory than Windows 10 Home. Since Windows 8 Core, Microsoft has added support for low-level features such as a higher memory limit; Windows 10 Home now supports 128 GB of RAM, while Pro tops out at 2 Tbs. These are primarily niche features, but they do add to the list of reasons why Pro can be a desirable choice.

Support is another area users should consider when deciding. Microsoft expects home users to upgrade to every revision of Windows 10 Home that becomes available. Meanwhile, Pro users are given greater grace periods, allowing them to skip revisions of the operating for up to a year. The support rights are better too; you can download updates for up to 6 months after Microsoft retires a revision.

Privacy is another area that might be a selling point for Windows 10 Pro in the future. Microsoft needs to monetize Windows 10 in some way to earn revenue. It’s understandable if the company needs to pay software engineers to keep developing new releases. Users running Windows 10 Home will sometimes notice that the Start menu will advertise apps you can download from the Store. Additions like this are hard to get rid of and might even become mandatory in future releases.

Conclusion

Windows 10 Pro just seems like the best edition to get—its a jack of all trades; and even features that would seem worthy in a home environment are becoming exclusives in Pro with each revision. So, if you can, just default your choice to Pro or take advantage of the Pro Pack upgrade. Yes, it costs a bit more, but with the new free upgrade benefits, your investment in Windows 10 Pro only gets richer with each update.

For many consumers now on Windows 10 your version of the OS – Home versus Pro – depends directly on the previous upgraded OS. More specifically, if your computer had a license for Windows 7 Home Premium you upgraded to Windows 10 Home. Likewise, if you were on Windows 8 Pro your version of the OS should be Windows 10 Pro.

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What's the difference between Home and Pro? As it turns out, the differences do not mean much for regular consumers. The versions here truly reflect a consumer edition versus one better suited for business users or professionals.

Windows 10 Pro offers the following features over Windows 10 Home:

• Join a Domain or Azure Active Directory: Easy connect to your business or school network
• BitLocker: Help protects your data with enhanced encryption and security management
• Remote desktop: Sign in and use your Pro PC while at home or on the road
• Hyper-V: Create and run virtual machines
• Private Catalog: Access your company's apps through your own section in the Windows Store

As you can see, many users do not need these functionalities but for others they are a must-have for their jobs e.g. developers, business users, some students, and those in IT and related fields.

Additionally, Windows 10 Pro (and some versions of Windows 10 Home Single Language) can defer automatic updates to Windows 10. You can read how to do that in our tutorial:

Many of Microsoft's own devices like the Surface series, including the Surface Pro 3, come with a Pro version of the OS, so they all get Windows 10 Pro during the update. The same goes for many Lenovo's and even my HP x360 Spectre.

However, the newer Surface 3 only comes with Home and, therefore, does not get Windows 10 Pro unless you upgrade to it.

To verify what version of the OS you have

Windows 8.1

[Win + C] > Settings > Change PC Settings > PC and devices > PC Info

Windows 10

Settings > System > About and look under Edition.

How to Upgrade Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro

For whatever reason, let's just say you want to upgrade your version of Windows 10 Home to the Pro version to grab those features mentioned earlier. Microsoft has made it incredibly simple although it is not a free update. Here is how it works.

1. Right-click on the Action Center

2. Choose All Settings

You are now brought to the Store listing for Windows 10 Pro. Here you can buy the upgrade for a one-time cost of $99. The purchase is made through the Store just like buying a new, game, movie or music.

Once you complete the purchase, the OS simply unlocks those Pro features once the bits have been downloaded. Your Windows 10 license key is also automatically converted to a Windows 10 Pro one. Since your hardware ID is linked to your license in the Store clean installs should also be okay.

Note that it is more expensive to buy a Windows 10 Home license ($119.99) and upgrade to Pro ($99.99) for $218 total instead of just initially purchasing a $199.99 Pro key. However, this only applies if you are building a new computer, not for upgrades.

Users should also note that you cannot upgrade a 32-bit version of the OS to a 64-bit one due to architectural differences.

Wrap-up

Overall, the process for upgrading your Windows 10 Home license to a Pro one is just as simple as activating in the first place. Of course, whether you need to do so is another matter. Most consumers should be okay with Windows 10 Home but if you find that you need a Pro version now you know how to make that happen.

If you think this guide is helpful, we have many more posts like this in our Windows 10 help, tips, and tricks page. Or try our massive Windows 10 Forums at Windows Central for more help!

Benchmarking the new Surface Book 3 15 with GTX 1660 Ti and 10th Gen i7

Although it's too early for a review, here are some initial benchmarks from the new Surface Book 3 15-inch with a Core i7 and NVIDIA GeForce 1660 Ti (Max-Q) and how it compares to Surface Book 2 and other premium laptops. Spoiler: While the CPU is just OK, that 1660 Ti definitely bumps up the Book 3's potential.