Windows 11 Home vs Pro: Which Edition Do You Need?

Almost every consumer PC on sale today ships with one of two editions of Windows 11: Home or Pro. They are the same operating system — the same Start menu, the same apps, the same updates, the same performance. Pro is simply Home plus a bundle of extra features aimed at businesses, IT departments and enthusiasts. Nothing in Pro makes an ordinary laptop faster or nicer to use day to day; Microsoft's own guidance is clear that with the Pro-only features switched off, the two editions behave identically.

So the decision is not "which is better" — Pro is a strict superset — it's "will I ever use the extra features I'm paying for?" This guide walks through exactly what those extras are, who each edition is for, and how to move from Home to Pro if you decide you need it. Everything here reflects Windows 11 as it stands in 2026; where a step differs on Windows 10 we say so.

What Pro adds over Home — the features that actually matter

These are the capabilities you get only by choosing (or upgrading to) Pro. If your reason for wanting Pro isn't on this list, double-check it — many features people assume are "Pro only" are in Home too.

BitLocker drive encryption

Pro includes the full BitLocker management experience: encrypting your system and data drives, encrypting removable USB drives with BitLocker To Go, choosing the encryption method, and controlling recovery keys — including through Group Policy on managed machines. This is the single most common reason home users reach for Pro.

The nuance worth knowing: Home is not completely unencrypted. Many recent Windows 11 Home PCs support Device Encryption, a streamlined, on-by-default version of BitLocker that switches on when the hardware qualifies and you sign in with a Microsoft account. What Home lacks is the manual control panel and BitLocker To Go — not encryption itself.

Hyper-V and Windows Sandbox

Hyper-V is Windows' built-in virtualization platform — it lets you run other operating systems (another copy of Windows, or Linux) in a virtual machine on the same PC. Windows Sandbox is a related Pro feature that spins up a clean, disposable, throwaway Windows desktop in seconds — perfect for opening a file or running an installer you don't trust, then discarding the whole environment. Both are Pro-only — Microsoft Learn's Windows Sandbox documentation lists Pro, Enterprise, Pro Education/SE and Education as the supported editions and states plainly that Sandbox is not supported on Windows Home. (Note that Home can still use virtualization-based apps such as WSL 2 and Docker, which rely on the hypervisor platform; it's the full Hyper-V management role and Sandbox that Home leaves out.)

Remote Desktop — hosting, not just connecting

This one trips people up. Both editions can connect out to another machine using the Remote Desktop client. Only Pro can host an incoming Remote Desktop session — meaning only a Pro PC can be the machine you dial into from elsewhere. If you want to reach your home or office desktop remotely, that desktop needs Pro. Microsoft's Enable Remote Desktop on your PC guidance says it directly: Professional, Enterprise, Education and Windows Server editions can act as hosts for incoming connections, while Home editions can't host but can still be used as clients. (Home users often use alternatives like Chrome Remote Desktop or third-party tools to work around this.)

Group Policy, domain join and Microsoft Entra ID

Pro includes the Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc), the tool IT pros and tinkerers use to configure Windows behaviour centrally. It also lets a PC join a Windows domain (Active Directory) or join Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) so a workplace can manage it. Home can't do any of this — it only supports a personal Microsoft account or a local account. If your employer or school hands you a PC to enrol in their systems, it needs Pro (or Enterprise).

Windows Update for Business and other management extras

Pro adds business-oriented management features: Windows Update for Business (deferring and scheduling feature and quality updates), Assigned Access / kiosk mode, support for Mobile Device Management (MDM), and higher hardware ceilings. On paper Pro also supports far more RAM and a second physical CPU socket than Home — limits so high that no normal desktop or laptop ever reaches them, so they rarely affect a buying decision.

Home vs Pro at a glance

Who each edition is for

Choose Windows 11 Home if…

• You're buying a laptop or desktop for personal use — browsing, email, Office, media, gaming.
• You sign in with a personal Microsoft account and don't need to enrol the PC in a workplace system.
• You want the lowest price and don't recognise the Pro features above as things you'll switch on.

Home covers the overwhelming majority of home users. Gaming, in particular, gains nothing from Pro — the gaming stack is identical on both.

Choose Windows 11 Pro if…

• You need full BitLocker control, especially encrypting removable drives.
• You run virtual machines with Hyper-V, or want Windows Sandbox for safely testing software.
• You want to remote into this PC from another location (Remote Desktop host).
• You use the Group Policy Editor, or you must join a domain or Microsoft Entra ID for work or school.

How to upgrade from Windows 11 Home to Pro

You don't need to reinstall Windows. The upgrade happens in place and keeps your files, apps and settings. You'll need either a valid Windows 11 Pro product key or to buy the upgrade from the Microsoft Store. The steps below follow Microsoft Support's Upgrade Windows Home to Windows Pro article, which gives the same Settings > System > Activation route, the 25-character Pro product key, and the Open Store path for buying the upgrade.

1. Open Settings (press Windows + I).
2. Go to System > Activation:

   Settings > System > Activation

3. Expand the Upgrade your edition of Windows section. You'll see two paths:
   • Open Store — buy the Windows 11 Pro upgrade directly from Microsoft; the licence applies automatically once the purchase completes.
   • Change product key — if you already have a Pro key, select Change and enter your 25-character key.
4. Confirm when prompted. Windows verifies the licence, applies the upgrade, and restarts once.
5. After the restart, return to Settings > System > Activation and confirm it reads Windows 11 Pro and that activation is active.

On Windows 10 the path is slightly different: go to Settings > Update & Security > Activation, then use Go to Store or Change product key. The result is the same in-place edition upgrade.

The other editions: Windows 11 SE and Enterprise

Home and Pro are the two you'll actually choose between at a store, but you may see two other names and wonder where they fit.

Windows 11 SE is a simplified, cloud-first, locked-down edition built specifically for schools. It ships pre-installed on low-cost education laptops and is managed by the school's IT admins; it is not sold to the public and you can't buy or upgrade to it as an individual. In spirit it's the modern descendant of the old low-end, tightly-scoped Windows editions — a deliberately streamlined Windows for a specific audience and affordable hardware.

Windows 11 Enterprise is essentially Pro plus advanced security and large-scale management features (things like more granular update control and additional endpoint protections). It's licensed to organisations through Microsoft volume-licensing agreements rather than sold as a boxed copy, so a typical individual buyer never chooses it directly. If you don't work in an IT department procuring fleets of PCs, Enterprise isn't a decision you need to make.