You want to equip your employees with Windows 10 or 11 PCs but you do not know if you should choose the Home or Pro version? We detail the differences in this article 👇
A price difference
The first notable difference between Windows Home and Windows Pro concerns the price: indeed, a Home license purchased individually costs 145€. The Pro version comes in at 259€.
When you buy a PC that already has Windows, the price naturally varies according to the version it has.Windows Pro: security first
How is this price difference justified? First of all, Windows Pro has several features that increase the security of your company's PC. These features are not available on Windows Home.
Let's quickly go over each of these features:- BitLocker: for many businesses, this is Windows Pro's major advantage over Windows Home. Bitlocker is a tool that allows you to encrypt files on your hard drive (or even on USB keys). This is a useful feature when you have sensitive data on your computer. A password becomes necessary to access them. Be careful though: your PC must be equipped with a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) in order to run BitLocker. This chip encrypts the data to prevent it from being stolen.
- Assigned Access: Within your organization, you may not want all employees having access to all applications. With Assigned Access, you can limit access to specific software and features.
- Microsoft Update for Business: Keeping your computer up to date is crucial to your company's security. Although a computer on the Home version updates itself over time, Microsoft Update for Business allows IT administrators to centralize the management of updates to your fleet with the latest Windows defense and security features.
Windows Home: fewer features
Other features differentiate the Home version from the Pro version
- Hyper-V: a tool for creating virtual machines. This allows you to run multiple operating systems on a single physical machine. This also gives you the possibility to isolate these systems from each other.
- Remote Desktop: You work from home, on your personal computer, and you need to access your professional computer at the office? Remote Desktop is a tool integrated into the Pro version of Windows that allows you to work from home with access to the files you need. Retrieve all the data you need remotely.