# Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro?



## jononotbono (Sep 15, 2015)

Howdy,

I need to buy a copy of Windows for a new PC build and just wondering whether it's worth the extra money to buy Win 10 Pro instead of Win 10 Home? I don't really know what the benefits are for the Pro version and it's going to be £179 instead of £99.

The PC is going to be for Audio Production and perhaps some Video Editing.

Thanks for any advice and help

Jono


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## ReMoFuMu (Sep 15, 2015)

Hi,
in windows 7 home I could install "only" maximum 16 GB ram. After upgrade to win 7 ultimate I have in the moment 32 Gb ram installed and life is a little bit easier... 
I think, in Win 10 it's the same. That could explain the different price maybe...

Cheers,
Frank


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## Guy Rowland (Sep 15, 2015)

Be warned - with Home, updates are installed automatically, with no warning and no opt out. I'm not sure system restore will get you out of a rogue update either. Personally I'd advocate pro only, even though it looks like the RAM limit has been lifted to 128gb on 64 bit Home editions - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_editions


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## jononotbono (Sep 15, 2015)

I had a feeling Win 10 Pro would be the choice. Not being able to turn off Auto Updates and restarting the PC against my will? God no. What terrible ideas/"Features". Thanks for your help and I hope Win 10 gets officially supported by Steinberg soon!


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## Bunford (Sep 15, 2015)

Isn't Windows 10 a free upgrade? I upgrade my WIndows 8.1 Pro to Windows 10 Pro. Therefore, can't you pick up a cheap Windows 7 Ultimate somewhere and upgrade direct to Windows 10 Pro?


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## ReMoFuMu (Sep 15, 2015)

Bunford said:


> Isn't Windows 10 a free upgrade? I upgrade my WIndows 8.1 Pro to Windows 10 Pro. Therefore, can't you pick up a cheap Windows 7 Ultimate somewhere and upgrade direct to Windows 10 Pro?


That's a good idea! I bought in spring 2015 a windows 7 ultimate license via ebay from an official developer for 30 or 40 € and could activate the key via phone directly by microsoft and all worked fine. After the upgrade I could install more ram on my PC... I personal don't want to change to Win 10. My system runs now without any problems, so "never change a running system"!  The only problems that I had on my PC the last months were update problems from microsoft... My Cubase 8 Pro runs without any problems in the moment.


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## Mystic (Sep 15, 2015)

Bunford said:


> Isn't Windows 10 a free upgrade? I upgrade my WIndows 8.1 Pro to Windows 10 Pro. Therefore, can't you pick up a cheap Windows 7 Ultimate somewhere and upgrade direct to Windows 10 Pro?


Just need to be aware that it's a huge pain in the ass to upgrade hardware in the future if you go that route. I'm in the process of putting together a new system which will end in me swapping out two computers which I'll need to call Microsoft to get my license switched over because rather than providing a serial number for the OS, it creates a hardware profile and attaches your account to it so it will not reactivate automatically if you change out important pieces of hardware. I'm hoping they change this soon, especially with the amount of people upgrading come Christmas season.

The only way around it at the moment is to buy a retail version of Windows 10 which gives you the serial number.


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## Lannister (Sep 15, 2015)

Mystic said:


> Just need to be aware that it's a huge pain in the ass to upgrade hardware in the future if you go that route. I'm in the process of putting together a new system which will end in me swapping out two computers which I'll need to call Microsoft to get my license switched over because rather than providing a serial number for the OS, it creates a hardware profile and attaches your account to it so it will not reactivate automatically if you change out important pieces of hardware. I'm hoping they change this soon, especially with the amount of people upgrading come Christmas season.
> 
> The only way around it at the moment is to buy a retail version of Windows 10 which gives you the serial number.



After upgrading to Windows 10 from whatever prior version, you can get your new Windows 10 activation key using this,

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

I did that and then did a 100% clean install, using the key at install-time as usual. I haven't changed any hardware yet, but I would think if it didn't activate, you'd probably just need to go through the automated phone challenge response routine.

EDIT: I should add that I don't sign in to Windows 10 with a Microsoft account (it's optional) so if you do maybe it ties it to your email account or something.


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## Mystic (Sep 15, 2015)

Lannister said:


> After upgrading to Windows 10 from whatever prior version, you can get your new Windows 10 activation key using this,
> 
> http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html
> 
> ...


The problem with using key tools is that in Windows 10 upgrade, it only sees the generic Windows key. I believe that it will deactivate itself in a matter of time. People who upgraded from a previous OS version don't get a unique key. There is a good thread about this: here


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## Bunford (Sep 15, 2015)

Lannister said:


> After upgrading to Windows 10 from whatever prior version, you can get your new Windows 10 activation key using this,
> 
> http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html
> 
> ...


This is fab. Thanks for this! Extracted, stuck in a .txt file and shoved on my Dropbox and OneDrive for future use should i need it


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## Lannister (Sep 15, 2015)

Mystic said:


> The problem with using key tools is that in Windows 10 upgrade, it only sees the generic Windows key. I believe that it will deactivate itself in a matter of time. People who upgraded from a previous OS version don't get a unique key. There is a good thread about this: here



Now that's interesting. It seems some people said that the key wasn't accepted for a clean install, but it was for me, strange. Using the .vbs script in that discussion gave me a different key lol. 

Oh well, I suppose we'll see what happens when a big hardware change is needed. Hopefully just the generic challenge-response phone number is required. It would be dumb of Microsoft to tighten the rules on activating Windows. It's not _really_ a free upgrade if you can't reactivate it on new hardware like you could with your previous version keys.

Although, I suppose on new hardware you just have to go through the pain-in-the-arse procedure of installing Windows 7/8/8.1 and upgrading for free again... until the free year is up.

It'll be interesting to see if the Windows 7/8/8.1 install-base starts to creep up again in a years time when people change hardware and can't upgrade to 10 for free.


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## FredrikJonasson (Sep 15, 2015)

Guy Rowland said:


> Be warned - with Home, updates are installed automatically, with no warning and no opt out. I'm not sure system restore will get you out of a rogue update either. Personally I'd advocate pro only, even though it looks like the RAM limit has been lifted to 128gb on 64 bit Home editions - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_editions



You don't get forced updates with Pro? Thank goodness for that.


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## creativeforge (Sep 15, 2015)

1- Anyone found that considering the fine prints for the future of this new OS from Microsoft encouraged them to move to a different or open source OS? 
- Forced updates, 
- Susbcription-base, 
- Non-transferable licence to a second computer at home, etc.

2- Is Win7 Ultimate the way to use more than 16GB RAM if we stick with 7? Understanding that the motherboard also bottle-necks the RAM used.

Thanks!


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## EvilDragon (Sep 15, 2015)

W7 Pro x64 can use up to 192 GB of RAM. You don't need Ultimate.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/li...778(v=vs.85).aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396


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## creativeforge (Sep 15, 2015)

Ah! So not being a Win 8.1 or Win 10 user, how do they compare to Win 7 Pro? Does any make better use of memory?


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## jononotbono (Sep 15, 2015)

I've gone with Windows 10 Pro. Having forced Updates and having Windows restart against my will is a huge factor of why Win 10 Home is no good for me. Ridiculous.

Now cleanly installing everything I own. Yawn!


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## kitekrazy (Sep 15, 2015)

W7 Pro OEM. BTW did you research if there are any conflicts with your hardware. It seems there are problems with W10 and Focusrite FW devices.


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## alanb (Sep 15, 2015)

One possible reason to go Pro is Bitlocker (since Truecrypt doesn't support UEFI), for those who want to encrypt their entire OS drive. This is great for ensuring that no one will get any personal data, sample libs or program access from a lost or stolen laptop.


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## JohnG (Sep 15, 2015)

alan, doesn't that slow things down?


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## alanb (Sep 15, 2015)

JohnG said:


> alan, doesn't that slow things down?



I've never used Bitlocker, so I can't say anything about it.

I've used TrueCrypt — using only a single encryption algorithm, specifically to minimize performance impact — on an old laptop (i5, 6GB of RAM), and I had no noticeable problems running Cubase and streaming samples off an external USB3 drive. 

I have also streamed HD video off of an encrypted external (USB3) 7,200RPM hard drive, with no issues.

I'm pretty sure that most recent Intel CPUs have hardware acceleration for AES, which should help offset any performance hit using that encryption algo.

There will be _some_ impact but, the faster your system, the less noticeable it will be. For me, it has been negligible, even on older systems.

I wanted to encrypt the internal drive on my current laptop, but can't because TC doesn't support UEFI (and, in light of the mysterious disappearance of the TC devs, that won't be remedied any time soon).

---------------------------------------------------

Here are two articles that address the performance impact of earlier versions of TC:

http://www.7tutorials.com/what-performance-impact-system-encryption-truecrypt

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/truecrypt-security-hdd,2125.html


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## Øivind (Sep 16, 2015)

Guy Rowland said:


> Be warned - with Home, updates are installed automatically, with no warning and no opt out. I'm not sure system restore will get you out of a rogue update either. Personally I'd advocate pro only, even though it looks like the RAM limit has been lifted to 128gb on 64 bit Home editions - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_editions



This is no longer the case, after the last Windows 10 update (last week?), Home users get the same options for updates as the Pro users 

Ops, i read that wrong, it was the forced store apps updates that is now optional. Sorry 

That being said, i use Win10 Home on my slave, no problems regarding unwanted reboots or nagging update screens. I usually turn the computer off when i go to bed. Some times it updates when i power off, other times not.


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## Darthmorphling (Sep 17, 2015)

Mystic said:


> Just need to be aware that it's a huge pain in the ass to upgrade hardware in the future if you go that route. I'm in the process of putting together a new system which will end in me swapping out two computers which I'll need to call Microsoft to get my license switched over because rather than providing a serial number for the OS, it creates a hardware profile and attaches your account to it so it will not reactivate automatically if you change out important pieces of hardware. I'm hoping they change this soon, especially with the amount of people upgrading come Christmas season.
> 
> The only way around it at the moment is to buy a retail version of Windows 10 which gives you the serial number.





Mystic said:


> Just need to be aware that it's a huge pain in the ass to upgrade hardware in the future if you go that route. I'm in the process of putting together a new system which will end in me swapping out two computers which I'll need to call Microsoft to get my license switched over because rather than providing a serial number for the OS, it creates a hardware profile and attaches your account to it so it will not reactivate automatically if you change out important pieces of hardware. I'm hoping they change this soon, especially with the amount of people upgrading come Christmas season.
> 
> The only way around it at the moment is to buy a retail version of Windows 10 which gives you the serial number.



I can attest to this. I had upgraded this summer and everything was activated. I just added more ram and an additional SSD drive. The MBR somehow became corrupted during the hardware upgrade and I was forced to reinstall Windows 10. It wouldn't let me activate it. There was also no option to do the phone call activation like in earlier versions of Windows. I ended up having to reinstall, and activate, Win 7, then do an upgrade to Win 10. I'm all activated now.

Big hassle.


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## Øivind (Sep 17, 2015)

Darthmorphling said:


> I can attest to this. I had upgraded this summer and everything was activated. I just added more ram and an additional SSD drive. The MBR somehow became corrupted during the hardware upgrade and I was forced to reinstall Windows 10. It wouldn't let me activate it. There was also no option to do the phone call activation like in earlier versions of Windows. I ended up having to reinstall, and activate, Win 7, then do an upgrade to Win 10. I'm all activated now.
> 
> Big hassle.


I got the same thing after my mainboard had to be repaired, after 3 weeks they just sent me a new one. So when i started Win10, it was no longer activated. So i contacted Microsoft on chat from their website, and got a nice lady to activate it for me and she gave me a serial to use later. Took about 10 minutes.

Before, one could usually call the automated hotline and get some codes to reactivate, pitty it is gone, but the chat function works pretty well.


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## alanb (Oct 2, 2015)

oivind_rosvold said:


> Before, one could usually call the automated hotline and get some codes to reactivate, pitty it is gone, but the chat function works pretty well.




Just used the phone/code system to reactivate Win7, a few days ago!!


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## JohnG (Oct 8, 2015)

Guy Rowland said:


> Be warned - with Home, updates are installed automatically, with no warning and no opt out. I'm not sure system restore will get you out of a rogue update either.



[EDIT: You _can_ defer updates in Pro, which is good. You don't seem to be able to shut them all down (security updates apparently are exempt) but that's not bad. You can't fully opt out but the deferral is very helpful.


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## Guy Rowland (Oct 8, 2015)

JohnG said:


> Unfortunately, this appears wrong. You can't opt out of updates on Windows 10 Pro either.



Try this - http://www.howtogeek.com/224471/how-to-prevent-windows-10-from-automatically-downloading-updates/ - Group Policy half way down. There are a few other tricks you can do too by the looks of things, but the Group Policy looks (relatively) simple and sanitary - Pro users and up only.


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## kdm (Oct 8, 2015)

JohnG said:


> Unfortunately, this appears wrong. You can't opt out of updates on Windows 10 Pro either.



You can defer feature updates in Pro, but not security updates (and by "defer" it appears to mean they are put off for "several months" according to what I've found on MS's site). You can however, schedule restarts to only occur when you allow them. Apparently you can't defer in Home, only schedule restarts. This hasn't been an issue on my Surface because it isn't used as heavily, but I will be finding out how it affects the main DAW system soon.


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## JohnG (Oct 8, 2015)

I edited my post, above. You can defer, even if you can't shut them down 100%; security updates get through.


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