installing winxp home

[jkr48625]

currently i have WinXP Pro but i want to install WinXP Home (http://sg.hardwarezone.com/priceguide/info.php?cid=119&id=4132) over it. anything i should look out for prior installation? and also, i would like to my files intact

[Abbadon]

You'de best do a full reinstall, I don't think it's possible to "downgrade" from pro to home.

That beeing said, why are you going to switch? Home doesn't offer any advantages over pro, on the contrary...

[Variable]

Anything Home can do Pro does better :)

[Bumstedmans]

Just question,

Ive upgraded from home to pro, and I have noticed a signfigant increase in preformance since the switch. But, What really makes pro better, is it just less buggy software, a better designed kernel?

-The Bumstedman

[Variable]

No, as far as I know the kernel is the same. The main differences is how authentication takes place(imo), XP Home does not allow the single sign on, what most users think of as the "Username and Password" but, is really much more than that. XP Pro uses Kerberos to authenticate, this lack of authentication by Home leads us to the next big difference, which is XP Home only uses Simple File Sharing. Since no authentication takes place, File sharing is an all or nothing deal with Home. Group policy, Ipsec, Dynamic disks likewise are not implemented on Home. Another difference is the lack of multiple monitor support. Dual monitors is a really nice feature and is simple to set up.

Much of what is different is based on security, much of the security problem is derived from the authentication problem Home has. Here is a link with other differences.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/choosing2.mspx

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[malcore]

Another difference is the lack of multiple monitor support. Dual monitors is a really nice feature and is simple to set up.

I agree, dual monitors is a nice feature. However, while XP Home will not support Dual View, it does support Dual Monitors if you have a dual monitor graphics card, which most, if not all, of the newer cards are.

[Variable]

Yep, I stand corrected. It looks like there some bad info about the differences online. A side note, I did some digging on this and it looks like Home also supports dual view. Although to be honest I had never heard of dual view before you mentioned it. Now that I think about it, I bet I have set up dual monitors on XP Home on a customers machine. It was a eMachine and I'll bet they come with Home instead of Pro.link (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/using/productdoc/en/default.asp?url=/WINDOWSXP/home/using/productdoc/en/display_multi_monitors_overview.asp)

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