What editions of Windows 11 are available
Windows 11 has different editions: Professional, Home, Enterprise, etc. Many users want to install Windows 11 but are not sure which edition to choose. It is obvious that Enterprise Edition is suitable for business users and Education Edition is suitable for schools or educational institutions, but what if you are just using it at home? Should you choose Home or Professional Edition? Let's take a look at the comparison.
Generally, brand-name computers and laptops are factory pre-installed with genuine Windows systems, but they are generally Windows Home Edition, not Professional Edition. This is partly due to the cost control of computer manufacturers, on the other hand, the home version of the system has been enough for most users. Users of Windows 10 Home Edition will still have the Home Edition after upgrading to Windows 11, and other versions such as Professional Edition will be the same.
Comparison between Professional and Home editions
The differences between windows 11 home and pro versions are mainly reflected in the following features.
1. Local accounts
Windows 11 Home Edition does not support offline when first configured for installation, it requires an Internet connection and a Microsoft account login. Therefore, Windows 11 Home Edition does not support traditional local accounts. Instead, local accounts are available in Windows Professional Edition.
2. Hyper-V
The Home Edition of Windows 11 does not support Hyper-V, which is generally used to build a virtual machine system for testing, that is, to run another system inside the system. However, many professional users may choose the more powerful VMware Workstation than the built-in Hyper-V.
3. Remote desktop
Windows 11 Home Edition is not completely unsupported by Remote Desktop, but rather Home Edition can only be "remotely controlled" by other computers to provide system assistance, while Windows 11 Professional Edition can only remotely control other computers. As with Hyper-V, there are very few users who use the remote desktop that comes with Windows, and more people use third-party software.
4. BitLocker
BitLocker's data encryption is a killer application, and the lack of this feature in the Home Edition has led many gamers to upgrade to the Professional Edition or other versions. If you forget your password and lose the recovery key, there is no effective way to unlock the encrypted data.
5. Group policy
If you want to change the settings of your computer, most users will first choose to open the control panel and then find what they need to change in one of the switches, but what if the settings cannot be changed? Some users with more technical skills will open and modify the registry. If the registry also cannot get, then what to do? At this point, you need to adjust the Group Policy, and this feature is not available in the Home Edition system, the feature allows you to make your Windows system highly customizable.
6. Hardware support
The Home Edition supports up to 128G of memory, while the Professional Edition supports up to 2TB. for the CPU, the Home Edition supports only single processors, while the Professional Edition supports dual processors. The Home Edition supports up to 64 core processors, while the Professional Edition supports up to 128 core processors. In fact, this is not a limitation at all for most gamers, as there are basically no motherboards on the consumer market that support more than 128GB of memory, dual-way processors, and even less than 64 core processors.
These are the most significant differences between the Home and Professional editions of Windows 11. You can see a more complete comparison here and make your choice based on your personal needs.