The first big difference between Windows 11 Home and Pro is how it's set up on first use. Windows 11 Home requires users to sign in to a Microsoft account and to have a network connection. Meanwhile, Windows 11 Pro only requires a local account.
Although in the latest build of Windows 11, Microsoft has described it as setting up Windows 11 Pro or downloading the next updates of Windows 11 Pro, users are required to have a Microsoft account and an Internet connection, but This change is not yet available in the official version.
The next big difference between Windows 11 Home and Windows 11 Pro is the ability to support virtualization and remote control features.
Windows 11 Home does not support Hyper-V and Windows Sandbox, only supports Microsoft Remote Desktop as a client. Therefore, to control the PC remotely, users will need to use 3rd party tools like TeamViewer.
Meanwhile, Windows 11 Pro supports all three of the aforementioned features. With Hyper-V, users can create a standalone virtual machine for purposes such as testing an operating system. Or with Windows Sandbox, users will be able to install and test potentially risky software to see if it's dangerous through a virtual machine before actually installing it. The remaining feature of Microsoft Remote Desktop allows remote control and access to PCs without the support of 3rd party software.
Since security is one of the most important requirements of business users, Windows 11 Pro is equipped with a lot of extra security features. First, Windows 11 Pro supports BitLocker encryption which encrypts data stored on the hard drive; so that even if the computer is stolen, important files are protected and can only be accessed by the owner. Second, Windows 11 Pro comes with Windows Information Protection which is responsible for preventing internal data from being leaked to the outside.
Meanwhile, Windows 11 Home has simpler security capabilities that only support common security features like Windows Hello and Windows Defender Antivirus.
Windows 11 Home and Windows 11 Pro share the same minimum system requirements, so both operating systems are almost always compatible with the same PC. However, the maximum limit of CPU and RAM on Windows 11 Home is different from Windows 11 Pro.
Specifically, Windows 11 Home is only available with PCs with up to 64 cores, while Windows 11 Pro is compatible with PCs with up to 128 cores. Similarly, Windows 11 Home is also limited to PCs with up to 128GB of RAM, while Windows 11 Pro can support machines with up to 2TB of RAM.
General users may find the maximum and minimum system requirements of Windows 11 Home to be overkill, but for businesses, PCs with such configurations are not uncommon. Therefore, the system requirements of Windows 11 Pro will generally be more open and accessible.
The next landmark difference when comparing Windows 11 Home and Windows 11 Pro is the business features. Windows 11 Pro has many features for business use that Windows 11 Home does not have, including:
The selling price of Windows 11 Home and Windows 11 Pro (at Microsoft) is different, but not too big. If you buy a copyrighted Windows, Windows 11 Home and Windows 11 Pro cost $139.99 and $199 respectively; or if you want to upgrade from Windows 11 Home to Windows 11 Pro, users will have to pay $99.99
Overall, Windows 11 Pro is an operating system version that includes all the features found on Windows 11 Home and comes with many other additional features. Therefore, without worrying about the cost, Windows 11 Pro will give users a more complete user experience. In particular, if users need to use a specific feature that is only available on the Pro version, such as BitLocker, buying a Windows 11 Pro license is also necessary.
On the other hand, if users have simple use needs or are not interested in any of