Win10 Pro – install fresh or upgrade from Home?

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Just purchased a Dell XPS 15 with W10 Home installed.  When it arrives I want to install W10 Pro.  Should I upgrade from Home, or just install a new copy of W10 Pro?  Sorry — I know I’ve seen this addressed in an earlier newsletter, but I can’t figure out how to search the newsletter contents, and didn’t find help in the lounge posts.  Also, I’m assuming it’s better to purchase a disc than just a key or download?

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In some regions, an “easy upgrade” from 10 home to 10 pro can be done in the Microsoft Store following this page at a cost of $99.  https://www.groovypost.com/howto/upgrade-windows-10-using-easy-upgrade-feature/

From most places, buying full Windows 10 Pro will cost more than that.  $150 for OEM version from Newegg for example.

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I did that upgrade a while ago, following the Microsoft Store route (see link above), and it worked perfectly.  The whole process took only a few minutes (including, of course, entering credit card numbers).   Apparently most of Pro is actually present in Home, it just has to be activated/turned on, so there’s not much to download.   If your Home is working OK there is no reason to reinstall Windows.

Windows 10 Pro 64 bit 20H2

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cmptrgy, RVAUser, joep517

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If you like the Dell customizations and bloatware that is preinstalled, the upgrade takes a reboot. If you like a fresh clean install, it takes however long your full diskpart/clean and reinstall takes.

An easy compromise is update in place, then download a full OS image from Microsoft and do a clean install later. After you update and register, the thumb print of your install will be activated with Microsoft and doing a clean install will be cake.

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KirkJayW6p, RVAUser

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However, I’m not sure what advantages Pro has over Home at the present time (unless you need Bitlocker).

Zig

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I thought you needed Pro to defer updates for 30 days – ?

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Both Home and Pro can Pause updates for 35 days through the GUI.
Only Pro can Defer updates (Quality and Feature) through Group Policy.
There is a difference in the actions between Pause and Defer.
For an explanation see AKB2000016.

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Elly, RVAUser

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Zig wrote:

unless you need Bitlocker

Or install Veracrypt (it’s free).

cheers, Paul

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If you hurry, this month PcWorld magazine is offering Windows 10 Pro for $40. https://www.pcworld.com/article/3400840/how-to-get-windows-10-cheap-or-even-for-free.html

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wavy

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I found Pro for $15. The install was smooth and I’ve had no OS problems. If it was not so cheap, I would not have bought it. Home has all I need.

For operational issues, I use Windows Powershell with an elevated prompt (AS an Administrator) and run SFC or use DISM and have always had success with System repairs. Between these two Power Tools, all of my operational problems are solved. Who needs a technician?

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Two improvements w/Pro for a small business operation.

1. You can have roaming profiles in AD.  This means the desktop experience remains the same no matter which office computer you login to.
2. RDP works so you can remote into your office desktop from home as long as your office has a VPN and your desktop has a static IP address from the internal pool (unless your office supports workstation registration in AD so you can just work from the name — I guess that would be advantage 3 as workstation registration is not supported in AD for Home version either).

Wistfully, business can’t afford it so we work with home alone…. <grin>

Ken Massey

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KirkJayW6p

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[BigBadSteve]

A Pro upgrade is worth it in my opinion if only for the Group Policy editor (which is a feature for advanced users, I guess).

There’s a third party addon program for Win10 Home called Policy Plus (it’s mentioned in the latest AskWoody Plus newsletter). I haven’t tried it, but I wouldn’t bet money on it containing all settings available in the Win10 Pro Group Policy editor, and always being updated promptly for new settings for each new Win10 release, and being available for the entire lifecycle of Windows 10.

Asus N53SM & N53SN 64-bit laptops (Win7 Pro & Win10 Pro 64-bit multiboots), venerable HP Pavilion t760 32-bit desktop (XP & Win7 Pro multiboot), Oracle VirtualBox VM's: XP & Win7 32-bit, XP Mode, aged Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Galaxy Tab A 2019s (8" & 10.1"), Blu-ray burners, digital cameras, ext. HDDs (latest 5TB!), AnyDVD, Easeus ToDo Backup Home, Waterfox, more. Me: Aussie card-carrying Windows geek.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 11 months ago by BigBadSteve.

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wavy

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