Back to school is here. In order to be able to perform at our best in the studio, and do the jobs that are not requested, we all must prepare our computers or buy a new laptop in case we do not have one, or this one has already been behind us for a few years. The most normal thing is that we all bet on Windows as the main operating system, but, when installing it, we will find different editions. Which one should I choose? Let’s see it.
Although the operating system is the same, each of the Windows editions has its own functions and characteristics according to the needs it will meet. The Home edition is the one designed for most home users, the Pro for those who use Windows for professional matters, and we can also find other editions such as the Enterprise, for companies, or the Education, for educational centers.
To avoid confusion, the first thing we must make clear is that the Education edition is not designed to do homework at home , although its name may lead us to that conclusion. This edition is designed to be installed in educational centers, in schools, and to work on these PCs, controlled under the command of an administrator or technician. But not for home. What’s more, we can’t even buy a license as such for this Windows.
So, the two editions that we have left are the Home and the Pro, of which we can buy licenses and those that we will find pre-installed on new computers. And the best is…
Windows Home, enough for most
Windows Home is the simplest and most basic edition of the operating system. But it is also the cheapest. Therefore, either because we buy a computer with this edition, or we look for an individual license, we will save money by opting for a Windows 10 or Windows 11 Home with this operating system.
The Pro edition is much more complete than the Home in terms of features included by default. But none of these functions is going to be useful to us when using the PC for school. And, in addition, all of them can be incorporated through third-party software. The main functions that we will not find in Windows 10/11 Home, but in the Pro edition, are:
- Disk encryption with Bitlocker.
- Virtualization with Hyper-V.
- Group Policy Editor.
- Dynamic provisioning.
- Windows Sandbox.
- Mobile Device Management (MDM).
- Microsoft Store for Business.
- Active Directory and Azure Active Directory support.
The price difference between the Home and the Pro, due to these characteristics, is more than 100 euros, from 145 euros for the Home edition to 259 for the Pro edition. An overprice that, for back to school, is not worth it.
In the case of the University, things change
If what we are looking for is a computer for the University, then things can change. Depending on the type of career we are studying, some of the features that we can find in the Pro edition can be useful to us. For example, the use of Hyper-V for Windows Subsystem for Linux, or for Windows Sandbox. Disk encryption with Bitlocker can also be useful to prevent anyone from accessing our notes or work, even if our computer is stolen.