Using Windows XP Professional Instead of Home Edition at Home
Published: November 26, 2001
By Sharon Crawford
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Generally, when someone asks about Windows XP, I tell them that there's no need to buy the more expensive Professional edition for use at home. After all, Home Edition has many of the same cool new features—even the ability to join a home network. So why would a home user want to invest in the Professional edition? Several reasons, and when they apply to you, make the extra money for the Professional edition well spent.
Joining a Network Domain
The most fundamental difference between the Professional edition and Home Edition is that only Professional can join a network domain. A computer running Home Edition can be a member of a workgroup (a home network), but not a domain. This distinction may sound trivial, but it's important if you need the features available to computers that can join a domain.
For example, many people travel as part of their work or need to work from home, whether on a regular basis or as the need arises. If that applies to you, connecting to your computer at the office becomes essential—to check email and work with documents. To make such a link, you can establish a virtual private network (VPN) connection or a regular dial–up connection. However, you'll need Windows XP Professional edition to achieve a secure logon and without a secure logon, you can't be an authenticated user.
What does this mean in real life? It means that with Home Edition, you can definitely connect to the network at your job, but it's a whole lot harder to make that connection actually useful. The network administrator will have to arrange a set of permissions to give you access to what you need. Even then, many little problems can emerge. For example, you may find that you can read your email and even send mail to others in your company, but may find it impossible to respond to email from people outside that network.
 | ...if you have Windows XP Professional edition installed, you can easily set up a VPN or regular dial-up connection to your office, and then log on to your work computer using Remote Desktop. |  | |
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Using Remote Desktop
By way of contrast, if you have Windows XP Professional edition installed, you can easily set up a VPN or regular dial–up connection to your office, and then log on to your work computer using Remote Desktop. This ultra–cool feature lets you use your computer at work just as if you were sitting in front of it. And all that goes back and forth over the connection is the interface. When you run a program, the program is running on the distant computer, and the results appear on your home screen almost instantly. Anything you can do on the computer when you're at work, you can do on your computer at home. Conversely, you can access your home computer while you're traveling or from the office. (Although a firewall on the company network will make that difficult without the cooperation of the network administrator.)
Charlie Russel's column Tuning Remote Desktop describes how to set up a Remote Desktop connection.
Working with Offline Files
Also, let's say that in between connections to the job, you want to work with files that are shared on the work network. With Windows XP Professional, you can use the Offline Files feature to work with shared files and folders even when you're not connected to the network and then synchronize those files to the network when you reconnect. (OK, Home Edition does include Briefcase but if you've ever tried to use it, you know its limitations, which are many and severe.)
In Windows XP Professional, you enable Offline Files by opening My Computer, clicking Tools, and then clicking Folder Options. Then click the Offline Files tab.
In an earlier article, I discuss how to set up and use Offline Files.
Thwarting Hackers with EFS
Another valuable tool contained in the Professional edition is the Encrypting File System (EFS). There was a time when I thought that encryption was major overkill, but not in these times of multitudinous hackers and security breaches. EFS is not available in Home Edition.
To encrypt a file or folder in Windows XP Professional, all you have to do is right–click the item in question, and then click Properties. On the General tab, click the Advanced button, and select the check box for encryption.
The whole process of encryption and decryption is invisible to you—the files and folders look no different, but they are unusable to anyone else. Using EFS is similar to using permissions on files and folders. Both can restrict access to data. But permissions on files and folders are no protection against physical access. For example, someone who gets access to your laptop can do whatever he or she wants with the files on it, no matter what permissions are set. But someone who gains unauthorized physical access to your encrypted files or folders will be prevented from reading them. If the intruder tries to open or copy your encrypted file or folder, he receives an Access Denied message.
Note To be encrypted, files must be on a drive formatted with NTFS. Encrypted files can become decrypted if you copy or move them to a volume that is not an NTFS volume.
Supporting Dual Processors
Another reason to choose Windows XP Professional is if yours is a dual–processor system. Some high–end computers, graphics workstations, and supercharged machines built by gaming or computing enthusiasts have two processors on the motherboard. How can you tell if your computer has two processors? You can be fairly certain that if you aren't sure, then your computer is a single–processor machine. For dual–processor computers, you'll need to purchase Windows XP Professional instead of Home Edition to enable the second processor to work.
Sharon Crawford is a former editor now engaged in writing books and magazine articles. Since 1993, she has written or co–written two dozen books on computer topics. Her books include Windows 2000 Pro: The Missing Manual, Windows 98: No Experience Required, and Windows 2000 Professional for Dummies (with Andy Rathbone).
