Windows XP Information
Windows XP Professional vs. Home Edition
When you purchase Microsoft Windows XP, you have a choice between Windows XP Professional and Windows XP Home Edition. Windows XP Professional is a more expensive "superset" of Windows XP Home Edition meaning that all the features of Home Edition are included in Professional, plus Professional includes some additional features.
Different Target Audiences
Windows XP Home Edition is targeted at the general consumer. Windows XP Professional is targeted at businesses. Many students will assume that the "consumer" edition best describes their needs, but in fact Professional has networking features that may be preferable for use at BU.
In particular the School of Management (SMG) strongly recommends Windows XP Professional, because Professional is more compatible with the SMG network. However, both editions of XP are supported by the PCSC and the decision is ultimately yours.
The information below should help you make the best choice for your situation.
Networking Differences
XP Professional is designed for computers that will be connecting to large, managed networks, whereas Home Edition is targeted at computers that will be connecting to smaller networks. Learn which network features are unavailable with XP Home. A few departments at BU do use large managed networks and for those departments, such as SMG, Professional is the better choice. Either edition should work for individuals who simply want to make Internet connections from a residence hall or office.
Security Concerns with File Sharing
Some people like to use Windows File Sharing
to share information stored on their computers. In XP Professional,
you have many options for password protecting shared files and
for protecting your files against changes or viruses. In Windows
XP Home Edition, by contrast, an option called "Simple File Sharing" is
turned on by default, and many of the file sharing defaults are
set as if you were working with a very small group of trusted
computers (generally not the case in a university situation).
With these defaults you may inadvertently open your computer
to viruses.
If you do use File Sharing, you should be very cautious about
how your file sharing permissions are set, and in Home Edition
be sure to turn off the option "Allow network users to change
my files." Learn
more about File Sharing permissions in XP.
Information from Microsoft
There are some other differences between XP Home Edition and XP Professional, including better backup and restore features in the Professional edition. Microsoft has some very readable pages that will help you to learn about all the differences; we recommend taking a look via the link below.
