Get XP Home and live happily ever after. If you're buying comp components order an OEM copy - it's about half the price of the retail version.

you say you will never network - if you realy *really* mean never than home is fine.

I’m using XP Home on my main desktop PC and my secondary desktop PC with no regrets. I have XP pro on my laptop and all three are networked. You only need Pro if you need to authenticate on a large network. Home is fine for running on a small private network. I got the OEM version for $91 at newegg.com.

~jr

I got XP pro at my school for $25, but if you know somone at Microsoft they can get it for you for only about $35 or so. that's the best way to do it

You only need Pro if you need to authenticate on a large network.

Well, there's a little more to it than that. The few extra dollars that Pro costs over Home are well worth it, if for no other reason than the System Restore function. You only need it once for it to more than pay for itself!

J--

Ummm... I don't know how to tell you this, but sytem restore has ALWAYS been alive and well in XP home. There is no reason to get Pro over home for a single user, non-networked machine.

ANd, BTW, system restore is not always the ever life-saving tool it's cracked up to be. Furtermore, System Restore is actually geared more toward the home user that knows little about computers.

Anyone purchasing and using XP Pro, should be alittle more saavy about good computing habits (backups, etc.), otherwise the extra money for XP Pro is well wasted.

Bottom line, XP Pro offers NOTHING substantial to the average, even above average, PC user that is not interested in full networking. There are no magical formulas lurking beneath the surface that will enhance software performance for most applications.

I don't understand why people keep reccommending Pro over home for home users.

There IS a good reason for XP Pro.... dual monitor support. If you are only using one monitor then Home should be fine.
Barry

Barry,

Help me out here. This is the first time I've heard that dual monitor capability is dependent on the OS. I'm going to be using a Radeon 9600 dual head video card to take advantage of Vegas' dual monitor mode.

Are you certain that dual monitor use is limited to XP Pro?

Jan

Hm? XP Home Edition has support for multiple monitors, too. I don't know if it's as good, but it's there.

Rob

Dual monitors work great on XP Home.
I think you need XP Pro if you're using dual processors

>>I got XP pro at my school for $25...

I got it for $5. (My wife was a student at Purdue; fully legit, educational copy, just not eligible for upgrades...got Office XP for $5 too...plus many others.)

As per Microsoft:

(Quote)

Ask yourself these five questions to find out which one is right for you:

*Do you want to remotely access your computer so you can work with all your data and applications while away from your desk?

Remote Desktop, a feature found only in Windows XP Professional, lets you set up your computer for connection from any other Windows-based computer. Leave a file at home? Don't want to lug a laptop around? Remote Desktop gives you access to your computer from virtually anywhere. More about Remote Desktop.

*Do you connect to a large network?

Windows XP Professional is best for people who connect to large networks, such as a school or office network, since it allows you to join and be managed by a Windows domain. More about joining networks.

*Do you need to protect sensitive data in files and folders that are stored on your computer?

The Encrypting File System (EFS), found in Windows XP Professional but not Windows XP Home Edition, allows you to encrypt your files and folders for added security of sensitive data against theft or hackers. Restricted File Access, also found only in Professional, allows you to restrict access to selected files, applications, and other resources. More about EFS.

*Do you need the ability to completely restore your system in the event of a catastrophic failure?

Windows XP Professional provides more robust options for backing up and restoring data than Home Edition. More about System Restore and other restore options.

*Would you consider yourself a "power user"?

Windows XP Professional contains a number of incremental features too numerous to list here. Suffice it to say, users who demand the most from their computers will want to "go Pro." Some additional features found only in Windows XP Professional are:

Advanced networking for multiple PC environments
Internet Information Services (IIS), a Windows XP Professional feature that lets you host and manage personal Web sites
Support for multiple-processor systems
Support for multiple languages

(End Quote)

...and that's straight from the horse's mouth.

See: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/whichxp.asp

I don't understand why people keep reccommending Pro over home for home users.

Because it's better, more robust.

I'd suggest you go to Microsoft's site, read the specs for both and choose whichever one you think best suits your needs. Try this too.

J--

> Because it's better, more robust

I’m not sure what you mean by "more robust" but the kernels are the same so at the core they are the same OS. Both are just as stable as a platform. If by "more robust" you mean Pro has more features, then yes it is more robust. However, if you don’t need any of the extra features you can save yourself $100 by getting XP Home. Like I said, I have both and I can’t tell the difference because I don’t use any of the pro features at home (so why pay for them). It just isn’t worth the extra money to me. I think the chart you pointed to is a great way for people to see what features they each have and decide for themselves.

~jr

It just isn’t worth the extra money to me.

Therein lies the true bottom line in this and similar discussions--personal prefrences!

Just this past week I built a computer for my daughter and the difference between Home and Pro was about $50. Well worth the difference to me. To each his own!

J--

Thanks to everyone.

So far, the only function in XP Pro that appears to be useful to a non-networked user is the Group Policy Editor. This function appears to allow the user a means to tailor the OS without directly editing the Registry.

Does anyone have any experience with the Group Policy Editor? Is it a useful tool?

Jan

If you ever want to build websites that are tied into databases (MS Access or MS SQL) you need IIS which comes with XP Pro only.

XP Home is basically a lite version. I got my OEM version of XP Pro from compuplus.com and I think I just bought a hard drive with it. It was $120.00 for the full OEM Version of XP Pro. I may get XP home for my kids PC but frankly I would rather keep them all the same so I can maintain them all properly. My vote is XP Pro -- I hate lite versions of anything. Makes me feel shortchanged

TomE

I went with pro for a few reaosns - one is the network support, you can network up to a Windows 95 OS if you wanted to. I think home only allows XP to XP networking. On the issue of Dual Monitors - I believe Pro allows for dual *cards* as opposed to a single graphics card. However single cardw with dual heads are more common (and inexpensive) now so it probably is not that big of an issue anymore.

No, XP Home allows you to network to 98, ME and 2000.

I have 2 XP machines networked using XP Home on both PCs. Also had a Win98 PC on the net for print spooling and backup. No problem. Unless you have many PCs on a net that you need to manage in a corporate environment, the added networking support in Pro is not the reason to go Pro.

The real question is: What do you want to do with your PC? Then compare that to the many suggestions on this thread.

TomE wrote:

If you ever want to build websites that are tied into databases (MS Access or MS SQL) you need IIS which comes with XP Pro only.

There's always ASP.NET Web Matrix.

My vote is XP Pro -- I hate lite versions of anything. Makes me feel shortchanged

That's an odd way to feel. If you pay less money for less features, you're not short changed -- you just got what you paid for. Do you use the XP Pro-only features?

For the record, I have XP Home on my notebook and XP Pro on one of my desktops. Both were OEM, so I've no idea if / how much more I paid for Pro.

Rob

>>... I hate lite versions of anything. Makes me feel shortchanged...

I have to say that I feel exactly the same way; may not be logical, but that is the perception.

That is why some years ago, I believe, Microsoft simply stopped making "Microsoft Home" something or another; because people didn't like the "light" sounding "home" name.

I was very surprised that they actually revived the "home" name for their XP OS.

Personally i'd love an extremely-lite version of Windows. One with about 95% of the features removed would be nice. I'd like an operating system that lets me use my computer. I don't want one that tries to run my life too. ;) I really wish Microsoft would offer a stripped down core version of the OS that did nothing more than support the hardware and let other programs run on it. Just think how much more streamlined and stable it would be, as well as using so much less drive space and memory. Ahhhhhh.