Updated: Windows 10 Home vs Windows 10 Pro: the key differences explained

Introduction

When you count all the different ways Windows 10 will be available, there are actually seven different editions: Windows 10 Home, Pro, Enterprise, Education, Mobile and Mobile Enterprise, plus several versions designed for Internet of Things devices and embedded systems.

The list of SKUs makes most sense when you divide it up by screen size, because that is what controls the user interface you see, as well as the features you get. Windows 10 Mobile and Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise are for smartphones and tablets that have screens smaller than 8-inch; they have the Windows Phone-style screen, the Edge browser without Internet Explorer, and come with the Office for Windows 10 apps pre-installed.

• 20 smart new and improved features in Windows 10

Windows 10 Home, Pro, Enteprise and Education are for desktop PCs, laptops, 2-in-1s, convertibles and larger tablets. Mostly, they're the equivalent of the similarly named Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 editions. In this article, we'll go through the exact details of each version…

• Read more about Windows 10 migration on our sister website, ITProPortal.com

Windows 10 Home

The version of Windows 10 that you're most likely to get if you buy a new PC, Windows 10 Home, has the key features of Windows 10, from the new Start menu to the Edge browser, to the Windows Hello biometric login feature that uses your face or fingerprint instead of a password, to a now-mandatory Cortana – the voice-controlled assistant deriving from Windows Phone.

Windows 10 Home includes game streaming from Xbox One, which lets you play games from your Xbox One on your PC instead. To keep home users more secure, updates like the massive Anniversary Update overhaul from Windows Update, and you don't get the option not to install critical and security updates.

• How to download and install the Windows 10 Anniversary Update

Windows 10 Home includes the Continuum feature for tablets. This is the tablet mode that simplifies the taskbar and the Start menu, and makes your apps full screen – you can split your screen between two apps, but this is much simpler than the way Windows 8.1 let you arrange windows on-screen.

If you have the Home version of Windows 7 or 8.1, Windows 10 Home is what the free upgrade will get you.

Windows 10 Pro

If you use your PC for business, Windows 10 Pro has extra features over Windows 10 Home – the most important of which is being able to join a domain, including Azure Active Directory for single sign-on to cloud services (and have group policy applied as part of that).

You also get Hyper-V for virtualisation, BitLocker whole disk encryption, enterprise mode Internet Explorer, Remote Desktop, a version of the Windows Store for your own business, Enterprise Data Protection containers (a feature that comes later in the year) and assigned access (which locks a PC to running only one modern application, to use like a kiosk). Pro users can get updates from Windows Update for Business, which includes options for scheduling updates so they don't reboot PCs at important business times.

There are ways of connecting Windows Home PCs to a server, but if you want the familiar business PC experience, Windows 10 Pro is what you need. It will be a free upgrade from the Pro versions of Windows 7 and 8.1 (which includes Windows 7 Ultimate as well as Professional, and Windows 8.1 Pro and Pro for Students), you'll be able to upgrade to it from Windows 10 Home, and some desktops and notebooks designed for business will come with Windows 10 Pro.

Windows 10 Enterprise

Windows 10 Enterprise has all the business features of Pro, and adds a number of more powerful features designed for larger companies: Direct Access for connecting without a VPN, AppLocker for whitelisting apps, BranchCache for sharing downloads and updates with other PCs using a peer-to-peer connection, and group policy for controlling the Start Screen.

There's also Credential Guard and Device Guard features for protecting Windows logon credentials and locking down which applications a PC can run, and the option of keeping a PC on the Long Term Servicing Branch where it gets only security updates (ideal for systems you need to have working reliably for years without being affected by new and changing Windows features).

The free Windows 10 upgrade doesn't apply to Windows Enterprise; that's because you can only get it with a volume licence (and you have to already have a Windows Pro licence for each PC), and if you have a volume licence you already have the option of Software Assurance, which includes upgrades.

Windows 10 Education

Windows 10 Education is a new SKU, designed for large academic organisations like universities that want the security, management and connectivity features of Windows 10 Enterprise (it's common for students to need to join the domain to use official printers, for example).

The feature list is almost identical to Windows 10 Enterprise but it doesn't have the Long Term Servicing Branch and instead of having to upgrade from Windows Pro, you can upgrade directly to Windows 10 Education from Windows 10 Home. That means educational establishments can easily make Windows 10 Education available to students bringing in their own PCs.

Windows 10 Mobile

If you use Windows Phone or a small (8-inch or smaller) tablet with Windows 8.1, when you upgrade what you get is Windows 10 Mobile (a confusing name, given that Windows Mobile was the smartphone OS that Windows Phone replaced). It's also what will come on new devices. The idea is that a 5-inch or 6-inch phone and a 7-inch tablet aren't really very different devices, so having the same interface and – crucially – the same universal apps on both makes more sense (and gives Microsoft a better chance of getting apps for its platform).

Windows Mobile has the key parts of Windows 10, including the Edge browser and the new touch-friendly version of Office – but it doesn't include IE. If you have the right hardware, you'll be able to plug your phone or tablet into a display and get the Continuum interface, with a bigger Start menu and the same interface you'd see for universal apps on a PC.

Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise

The version of Windows Mobile for larger businesses who have volume licences includes similar tools for managing updates to Windows 10 Enterprise, although we don't know if they're exactly the same as Windows Update for Business and the Long Term Servicing branch.

Windows 10 IoT

If you have a Raspberry Pi 2 or an Intel Galileo or a range of other 'maker boards' you can get a free version of Windows 10 for them that can run universal apps. There are also Industry and Mobile versions of Windows 10 that OEMs can put on more traditional embedded devices like point of sale systems, cash tills, ATMs and other machinery.

The Industry version is for x86 systems only and it can run a wide range of software; the Mobile version is for tablets and handhelds that might have x86 or ARM CPUs and they can run universal apps. This is the embedded version of Windows Mobile – it's for the kind of device you might use for entertainment on a plane or for checking stock in a warehouse.

• For a load of neat tips and tricks on Windows 10, buy: Windows 10 Beyond the Manual

Gabe Carey has also contributed to this article

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Round up: The best free PC software 2016

The best free PC software

The best free software for Windows

Superb software doesn't have to cost a fortune - thanks to open source, shareware and ad-supported projects, you can equip your Windows PC with a complete set of essential everyday programs completely free.

We've put the best free Windows software to the test and hand-picked the very best programs for your PC. These are the programs we use ourselves at home, and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do. Don't see your favorites listed? Share your recommendations in the comments below.

Avira Free Antivirus

Fast, reliable protection from viruses and other online threats

Great protection from the latest virus and malware threats, Avira Free Antivirus has a minimal impact on your system performance and offers a range of well-designed presets – just set and forget.

The best free antivirus 2016

LibreOffice

More productivity programs than Microsoft Office, all completely free

A complete office suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, vector graphics, mathematical formulae and databases, LibreOffice is in constant active development and is fully compatible with Microsoft Office formats.

The best free office software 2016

Google Chrome

Google's browser is fast, flexible and almost infinitely extendable

The browser wars are as fierce as ever, but Chrome takes our top spot thanks to its flexibility, stability and cross-platform support. Its integration with your Google account makes it incredibly easy to carry your favorites and bookmarks between devices, and it supports a huge archive of extensions.

The best web browser 2016

MusicBee

The ultimate player, streamer and organizer for music lovers

Everything you need for managing a music collection of any size, MusicBee offers smart tagging and hardware optimization for the best possible playback quality. It's also a great choice for streaming internet radio and enjoying podcasts.

The best free music player 2016

GIMP

Make your photos look their best with the best Photoshop alternative

The best free alternative to Adobe Photoshop, GIMP is packed with smart tools like a clone stamp, healing brush, transformations, smart selections and a host of filters – from the subtle to the creative. There are also dozens of superb user-created plugins to add even more features, and GIMP receives regular updates from its team of volunteer developers.

The best free photo editor 2016

Foxit Reader

Read, create and convert PDFs, with superb format compatibility

View, edit and create PDFs, and convert Microsoft Office files and scanned documents. Foxit Reader's superb feature set is rounded out with annotations, cloud-sharing and security options to protect you from potential security vulnerabilitites.

The best free PDF reader 2016

qBittorrent

Packed with all the tools music, TV and movie fans could want

Fast and efficient, with a built-in search engine and media player, qBittorrent has everything you need for quick, secure downloads. There's automatic prioritization of torrents, torrent creation and IP filtering too, and it's easy to master.

The best free torrent client 2016

Any Video Converter

Download, convert and burn clips from all the biggest video-sharing sites

Download videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion and many more, then convert them to any audio or video format you like. Any Video Converter can also burn converted files to disc, and rip content from your own DVDs and CDs.

The best free YouTube downloader 2016

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Arduino unleashes a serious Internet of Things system for hardware hackers

 Back in the old days hardware manufacturers felt safe in the knowledge that no mere hardware hacker could attempt to recreate their inventions. From Sony to Philips to LG to Samsung, the consumer electronics industry was locked up and no one could crack the case. Until those meddling Arduino kids came along… Now anyone can make cool hardware and, thanks to Arduino, it is easier than ever… Read More

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Mac Week: macOS Sierra vs Windows 10 Anniversary Update: two paths to OS unity

macOS Sierra vs Windows 10 Anniversary Update

It's always fun to start a Mac vs PC flame war. But, while supporters of each platform can be a little tribal sometimes, the truth is that today's Macs and PCs have more in common than ever before.

The roads they travel may differ, but the destinations look awfully similar: Intel-powered machines promising improved productivity and offering cloud storage and sync, personal virtual assistants and compatibility with mobile devices.

They're both great operating systems. But are they great at the same things? There's only one way to find out…

macOS Sierra vs Windows 10: the interface

Sierra doesn't come with any big design surprises: it looks almost identical to El Capitan, its predecessor. However, apps can now use tabbed windows like the Finder, and there's a new icon in the Dock and menu bar for Siri. More of her in a minute.

The Windows 10 Anniversary Update, to our eyes, is Windows 8.1 done right: the Start Bar is back and much improved, and the confusing weirdness of Windows 8 is no more. It's a little gaudy for our taste, but the Live Tiles are useful, the Start Menu provides easy access to things you actually want to do and there's a big friendly box for invoking Cortana. More of her in a minute, too.

Windows also has a built-in tablet mode for slates and 2-in-1 devices. Sierra doesn't, as Apple currently gives its mobile devices their own OS in the form of iOS. Touchscreen PCs also benefit from Windows Ink, which can translate on-screen scribbles into notes – albeit not as smoothly as you may have seen in the tech demos.

macOS Sierra vs Windows 10: security, privacy and payments

Both Windows and Sierra offer automatic unlocking. Windows via approved smartphones or Windows Hello, which can identify you via special iris-detecting cameras or fingerprint sensors. Sierra does the same via your Apple Watch, if you have one.

This macOS feature isn't available on older Macs, as they don't have the latest Bluetooth version. Macs also get Apple Pay in their Safari web browser provided they connect to an iPhone, iPad or Watch for Touch ID verification. Apple Pay is rolling out on the web now, as of this writing, albeit slowly.

Windows 10 has attracted criticism for its license agreement, which says it'll disclose personal data, such as email and other private communications, via a "valid legal process" or if "someone is using our services to traffic in stolen intellectual or physical property of Microsoft."

You can opt out of that by disabling some features or electing to run Windows without a Microsoft Account, although that does limit the availability and usefulness of Windows's cloud features and Cortana.

macOS Sierra vs Windows 10: productivity

Apple's macOS and Microsoft's Windows 10 both enable you to use virtual desktops, but Microsoft has also added a four-window snap view that's particularly handy on large monitors. The not-entirely-loved Internet Explorer has been all but dumped in Windows in favor of Edge which, despite being a good browser, it's still playing catch-up.

Safari benefits from a wider range of extensions, largely because Edge didn't support extensions at all until the Anniversary Update. Plus, Safari's ability to pinpoint and silence noisy web pages is a wonderful thing indeed – Edge can detect tabs making noise, but can't mute them.

That said, both operating systems enable you to share functions between your computer and smartphone. For example, Windows 10 can send SMS messages from your PC. MacOS Sierra does more, though.

In Sierra, you can make and receive calls, and the Universal Clipboard allows you to copy and paste files and text between your Mac(s) and iOS device(s). Apple's Handoff, which enables you to pick up on the Mac from the app you were using on iOS, is very clever, too.

macOS Sierra vs Windows 10: the cloud

One of Sierra's headline features is that it puts your desktop in the cloud, wherein your Mac automatically syncs files and folders on your Desktop and Documents folders automatically, so they're available anywhere. So far, it's been a bit of a disaster.

The way it works is confusing, and people with multiple Macs have been encountering all kinds of issues. That's a shame, because it's a great idea and iCloud syncing of other things – passwords, logins, contacts, photos etc – works well.

It's a shame that it costs so much, too: Apple persists with its policy of offering free iCloud storage per account, not per device. So, if you have eight Macs, three iPhones, four iPads and an Apple Watch on the same iCloud account, you still only get 5GB of space for free. After that, it's $0.99 (or £0.79) per month for 50GB, $2.99 (or £2.49) a month for 200GB and $9.99 (or £6.99) for 1TB.

Not that Microsoft's OneDrive is any better on value. It offers 5GB for free, too, and it's $1.99 (or £1.99) per month for 50GB. Terabyte storage is only available as part of an Office 365 subscription.

By comparison, Google Drive's free tier is 15GB and Amazon offers unlimited cloud storage for $59.99 per year (or around £40).

macOS Sierra vs Windows 10: gaming

Mac gaming is much better than it used to be. In addition to more games being ported to the Mac than ever, any modern Mac is capable of running Windows games in Boot Camp. Plus, Apple's Metal API is making developers' lives easier.

But, Windows remains the superior platform here, with much more choice in both hardware and in available games. Windows 10 brought in a new version of the DirectX API for both PCs and the Xbox One, DirectX 12, and Microsoft says that game developers have embraced it more quickly than they did any previous version.

Windows and Xbox are becoming increasingly integrated, too, with universal apps, cross-platform play and cross-platform chat. Where Apple seems a bit puzzled by games, Microsoft takes the gaming community very seriously indeed.

macOS Sierra vs Windows 10: virtual assistants

Both systems offer personal digital assistants: Cortana in Windows and Siri in macOS. Cortana accepts both vocal and typed queries, while Siri is voice-only.

Siri is a new addition to macOS, as previously it was only available on iOS, but it's as good and as occasionally infuriating as its iOS sibling. Plus, Siri on macOS has for more access to the underlying OS's files, folders and apps than it does on iOS.

Cortana's very good, but Windows doesn't enable you to drag Cortana results into the document you're working on – something that's already proving to be a winning feature for Siri on macOS, too. That said, access to Cortana is more present throughout Windows 10 than Siri is throughout macOS, complete with voice activation, which Siri does not on macOS.

For a detailed breakdown of how the two compare, check out our thorough Siri vs Cortana piece.

macOS Sierra vs Windows 10: the hardware

As ever, macOS Sierra only works (officially) on Macs: specifically 2010 Macs and later, although some 2009 models are covered, too. Of course, that allows macOS to be tailored specifically to its range of Mac devices, making way for features like Handoff, the cloud clipboard and more.

Meanwhile, Windows 10 will run on pretty much anything. The minimum system requirements are identical to Windows 8.1, so that's a 1GHz processor, 2GB of RAM (for 64-bit), 20GB of hard disk space and an 800 x 600 display. It won't run brilliantly on that spec, but it'll run. The point here is versatility.

macOS Sierra vs Windows 10: the price

Windows 10 was available free to users of Windows 7 and 8 for a whole year, but the free period ended in July.

If you haven't already upgraded to or bought a machine running Windows 10 then it's $119.99 (or £99.99) for Windows 10 Home and $199 (or £189.99) for Windows 10 Pro.

Apple, like many times before, has made macOS Sierra is a free upgrade for compatible devices.

macOS Sierra vs Windows 10: the verdict

The winner depends on who you are, honestly. Are you constantly moving between iPhone, iPad, Watch and Mac? Is your Mac of relatively recent vintage? Then macOS Sierra was made for you: nobody does the gadget family thing quite like Apple, and Sierra's mobile support and user-friendliness are first class. We're not sure we'd trust iCloud with our Desktop just yet, but its irregularities will be solved soon enough.

If you're a gamer or a power user, or just someone who just doesn't think Apple's OS justifies the cost of its hardware, then Windows 10 Anniversary Edition was made for you. It's genuinely the best Windows yet, and what it lacks in beauty and simplicity it more than makes up for in customization and flexibility. It's just a shame that the free upgrade period has ended.

• Now, catch our full macOS Sierra review

This article has been updated for TechRadar's Mac Week. This year marks not only the 10th anniversary of Apple's unibody MacBook, but the triumphant return of macOS. So, TechRadar looks to celebrate with a week's worth of original features delving back into the Mac's past, predicting the Mac's future and exploring the Mac as it is today.

Gabe Carey originally contributed this article

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Now you have to deal with ads in Apple's App Store, too

First announced at Apple's Worldwide Development Conference (WWDC) earlier this year before being rolled out for beta testing over the summer, adverts are coming to Apple's App Store from October 5.

Called Search Ads, these adverts start working when you search a keyword in the App Store search bar. Depending on what you've searched for, ads for relevant apps will appear at the top of your search results.

According to Apple, over 65 per cent of app downloads via the App Store come from search results so spending some money to put your app at the top of the results list could prove to be a good move, particularly if the process is as easy as Apple claims.

Spend money to make money

Setting up a Search Ad can apparently be done in "a few easy steps", with developers retaining complete control over how much money they wish to put behind the ad, the kind of audience they want to target, and insight into the numbers coming from placing the ad.

Being as simple as it is, Search Ads could be especially useful for small independent developers that are trying to get their app noticed by potential customers. If app download numbers do actually depend quite so heavily on the search results page as Apple says, a couple of days at the top of the results list could be all a genuinely good indie app needs to boost its popularity.

In an attempt to keep the playing ground more even, Apple is ensuring that popular developers with larger marketing budgets can't abuse the service by targeting popular terms with app ads that are irrelevant to a user's search. For example, you won't find an Angry Birds ad when searching for fitness apps.

The relevance algorithm is also being implemented for the sake of app store customers who won't have to worry about scrolling through pointless and irrelevant apps before seeing the results they actually asked for.

Safety first

To make sure not safe for work apps don't manage to crawl their way to the top of the results, Apple has also put together a content policy list which advertisers must comply with before their app will be featured.

Though app store users won't see ads until October 5, Apple is allowing developers to set up their campaigns from now, incentivizing US developers by offering them $100 credit towards their first use of the service.

• Best iPhone apps 2016

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