Comparing Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional Feature Differences

Because Windows XP Professional is targeted to businesses, it contains several features that are not included with Windows XP Home Edition. These features can be categorized into two groups:

• Functionality that is important for business use but typically not for home use

• Complexity that adds value for business use, but typically not for home use

Although Windows XP Professional is targeted to businesses, home users might also require or gain advantage from using Windows XP Professional features that are not included in Windows XP Home Edition.

Features not included in Windows XP Home Edition are mostly in the following categories:

• Corporate management

• Corporate security

• Networking

• File system

• User Interface

• Advanced and power-user

  Warning 

  Computers running Windows XP Home Edition cannot join corporate domains. For this reason, features that require machine accounts within a domain, such as Group Policy, are not available in Windows XP Home Edition.

Corporate Management

IntelliMirror allows organizations to manage desktop computers by using Active Directory to reduce maintenance and support costs. The features that make up IntelliMirror including Group Policy, Group Policy Editor (Gpedit.msc), roaming user profiles, and folder redirection require computers to have accounts in a domain that uses Active Directory. Those features are not included in Windows XP Home Edition. Also, you cannot deploy applications to computers running Windows XP Home Edition by publishing them using Active Directory.

For more information about IntelliMirror features, see Managing Desktops in this book.

Because they cannot be joined to a domain, you cannot manage computers running Windows XP Home Edition by using login scripts.

The following corporate management features are not included with Windows XP Home Edition:

• Folder Redirection

• Group Policy settings

• Local Policy settings

• System Policy settings (Poledit.exe)

• Roaming User Profiles

• Offline Files and Folders

• Software Installation and Maintenance

• Remote Installation Services (RIS)

Corporate Security

Features such as Encrypting File System (EFS) and computer domain account support add complexity that is primarily for business use and therefore is not supported in Windows XP Home Edition. Windows XP Home Edition offers security features that are important for home users, especially those using cable modems or other Internet connection methods that do not require dialing into an ISP to browse the Web or read e-mail. Security features such as Personal Firewall are enabled by default in Windows XP Home Edition.

Users of Windows XP Home Edition might need to remotely access resources on corporate local-area networks (LANs). Stored User Names and Passwords allow users to authenticate to remote networks and to access shares on domains. Domain-based credentials cannot be stored on a computer running Windows XP Home Edition. However, when connecting to a domain by using Remote Access or virtual private networking (VPN), the user s remote access credentials are stored during that session to allow user access to domain resources.

In addition, you cannot control access to local shares on a computer running Windows XP Home Edition from the domain s user-level security. For more information about using Stored User Names and Passwords, see Authorization and Access Control and Logon and Authentication in this book.

Windows XP Home Edition uses a slightly different scheme from Windows XP Professional to identify security groups. Backup Operators, Power Users, and Replicator groups are removed from Windows XP Home Edition. Instead, Restricted Users are added as a group to Windows XP Home Edition, and the Administrators group is replaced by the Owners group. By default, all interactive users are logged on as members of the Owners local group and have rights to install software and modify the system. Network logons are allowed only for the Guest account, which is enabled by default. In addition, in Windows XP Home Edition, users can log on to the Owners account only by using Safe Mode.

The following security features are not included with Windows XP Home Edition:

• Encrypting File System (EFS)

• Computer domain account support

• Access Control List (ACL) Editor

• Administrative shares (available only when joined to a domain)

• Log on using dial-up connection option in Log On to Windows dialog box

• Security-related Group Policy settings

Because it is not intended for corporate network use, Windows XP Home Edition will not be submitted for Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation (CCITSE) certification.

For more information about user rights in Windows XP Professional, see User Rights in this book. For more information about security groups in Windows XP Home Edition, see Windows XP Home Edition Help and Support Center.