Windows XP Home & Professional Comparision

NDC · December 5th, 2001, 10:43 PM

Windows XP Home & Professional Comparision

Looks like the Home Edition doesn't support NTFS!?!?

sharder8 · December 5th, 2001, 11:03 PM

Hey NDC --

It does support NTFS, but it doesn't give the the same amount of Security controls over your files as the XP Pro version does.

I've installed WinXP Home Edition on several machines lately, and in the case of up-grades, I had the choice, but left them using FAT32.

I did one WINXP yesterday with a clean install using an Up-grade disk and formated and loaded that one in NTFS.

Harder

NDC · December 6th, 2001, 12:55 AM

Ok, thanks Sharder!

Yeah, I was kinda trippin out that NTFS was not supported in XP Home Edition... So it's just the security features that's excluded... Thanks!

DVNT1 · December 6th, 2001, 03:31 AM

NTFS is still there and I think you still have all the NTFS security. It looks like the Encrypting File System has been left out though. That encryption and access to encrypted files are all automatic (once enabled and selected for a folder or file) in XP Pro (and W2K). This is actually a very nice feature that doesn't seem widely used.

cadetstimp · December 6th, 2001, 04:15 AM

Looking at the details it looks like Pro supports Dynamic Disk (which includes File Sys encryption, Quota Management, and Striping) and Home version only allows Basic Disk.

I usually recommend any client only use Basic Disk unless it is a server. Unless you actually take advantage of Dynamic Disk featues it just adds extra overhead and slows disk access (although only slightly). A Dynamic Disk also has a way of "locking" drive letter assignment when moved from one WinXP/2k system to another.

Anyways, if needed a Basic Disk can be upgraded to a Dynamic Disk without loosing existing data.

BTW...I found that our laptops cannot be updated to use Dynamic Disk anyways!

sharder8 · December 6th, 2001, 04:26 AM

DVNT1 --

Just out of curiousity (sp), how can all the security still be there if

Quote:

It looks like the Encrypting File System has been left out though. That encryption and access to encrypted files are all automatic (once enabled and selected for a folder or file) in XP Pro (and W2K).

There are a couple other security functions that have also been left out of XP home edition, and that is why I stated

Quote:

doesn't give the the same amount of Security controls over your files as the XP Pro version does

December 6th, 2001, 08:55 AM

NTFS is there in Home but maybe not with all the bells and whistles. Who knows.

I stick to FAT32.

DVNT1 · December 6th, 2001, 02:28 PM

Wow, those Eagle eyes of yours sharder8 don't miss anything!

I was really just thinking of NDC's "So it's just the security features that's excluded" comment when I replied. Since NTFS has many security related attributes (other than Encrypt.) that's what I tried to relate to. Not so much that that DSF is a security feature, I think it is more like a file system/accessability feature.