I'm going to be getting a new computer soon and in the process going from Win98SE to WinXP. Someone told me that "XP Home" was faster with computer games than "XP Pro". Is this true? Is there any advantage to using "XP Pro"?Thanks

If it is, I doubt you would notice the difference. I have several computers running WinXP Pro/Home. The differences between Pro/Home are Pro has additional Administration functions for controlling LANs and Workspaces. If you are not going to establish a controlled LAN environment, say your bucks and get Home version.Another problem with the Pro version is some program installers don't recognize the Pro version installation where you have Administrator's and Users and the program will not operate on a user account. Lastly, you have to be in an Administrator account or Load as an Administrator from the User account to load programs.For this reason, I recommend home users use the Home version.W. Sieffert

I agree, I have 3 PCs networked at my place with both versions, and the pro made it much easier to set up, but there are a lot of features home users don't need.Regards, MichaelKDFWhttp://mysite.verizon.net/res052cd/mybannercva1.jpgCalVirAir International VAwww.calvirair.comCougar Mountain Helicopters & Aviationwww.cgrmtnhelos.com

I agree with what has been saud already. Unless you are trying to set up a network, just get Home. I love how stable XP is. Be sure to get at least 512MB of memory in your new PC. XP will run much better with that.Ron

I also agree with all said before(including the excellent stability of XP)- just changed from XP Pro to XP Home on here.No difference in performance- less complex in many ways.As far as networks are concerned ,if you need them,I have two PCs in the house- mine and my wife's.Both are ,at the moment,dual boot WinME/WinXP.No problems at all connecting via LAN between either OS on both,in addition ,this PC connects to a laptop.All in all ,save the money and get XPHome(here in the UK the price diff is about

HmmmI have read this thread with interest, it seems the majority say stay with XP Home. I've never used XP Home but my understanding is that XP pro is more of a business suite such as NT4 before it. Here in Cardiff County council where we have several thousand PC's running on our WAN XP is the favoured OS. Now the reason for this is that like NT it's very stable for the business environment, very rarely do we get system crashes or blue screens of death.On this basis I got it for my PC at home. It is an extremely stable OS and I have never had one system crash since I installed it. The statements about it being slightly more complicated is a little bizarre but if that what some of users think then that myst be correct for you.In my humble opinion I would steer you towards the pro version if only for its stability issues, don't forget that simmers are notorious fiddlers and tweakers and stability is whats required.Wycliffe

WycliffeI think there is little to choose between Home and Pro as far as stabilty is concerned- they are both certainly very stable when compared with ME or 98.Regards complexity-only to say that with Pro,the business of having to log on as Administrator for some things can be a nuisance in some cases for the home user.Dave

There is NO difference in regards to stability, or the system core. They are absolutely the SAME.As mentioned above, the ONLY difference is the additional admin tools available to XP Pro.Here at home I have networked 1 WinXP-Pro PC, one WinXP-Home PC, and one WinXP-Home notebook. Works great, and wouldnt matter one bit if the Pro eqiupped was Home equipped as well.

// function to decide on what version of XP to getbool DecideOnXPPro(float money_to_spend){ if (money_to_spend <= 100.00) return false; else return true;}:-)http://saltydogfly2.avsim.net/images/avsim_sig.jpg"Oh, my bologna has a first name, it's H-O-M-E-R,My bologna has a second name, it's H-O-M-E-R..." - Homer Simpson

KenThat has to be the most sensible answer I've seen.Wycliffe

Everybody,Thanks for the help! It was much needed.Marshall

XP Pro

XP Pro

This may or may not be the case, but worth looking into before making a decision. A friend told me that if you do a lot of hardware changes, avoid XP home, as there is a limit to the number of times the product can be reregistered after an install to a new, or partially new system. He said that there are no such limits on the Pro edition. Please let me know if this is true or not. If true, I think it is worth the extra money for XP Pro one time rather than XP home several times.regards,Dave

AFAIK, the only difference is if you buy a retail box or get an OEM preload. I never heard of any diff between home and pro on activation. I've networked Win98, Win XP Home and OS/2 Warp 4.50, and the only problem is that I run Netbeui and I had to hunt around the internet to find an XP protocol driver for it (XP is designed to run Netbios over TCP/IP. The drivers are supposed to be on the retail box CD, but I had a preload).scott s..