Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro, what’s the difference? More importantly, what’s the best choice for your business? Why do most businesses opt for Windows 10 Pro?
In essence Windows 10 Pro was created by Microsoft with small to medium businesses in mind. Pro comes with all the same ‘specs’ as Windows 10 Home, but with additional features designed around business needs.
So, what are these extra features?
Reasons To Get Windows 10 For Business
Security
One of the most important things you should be thinking about is data protection. Windows 10 Pro has two key additions that Home does not which help protect your business’s data.
BitLocker Device Encryption
If a work device has been lost or stolen, BitLocker allows you to encrypt and lock everything on that device and its hard drive: preventing any unwanted access to your systems or data. This is particularly handy nowadays as most workers take their laptops and work mobiles home with them every day, increasing the risk of both loss and theft.
Windows Information Protection (WIP)
You may have heard this word floating around, but what does it actually do? It prevents accidental data from leaking onto personal documents or online accounts. WIP does this by having files set to ‘work’ and alerting you if you are about to add that information to a non-work file. This is an excellent feature, particularly with most people working from home and using one device for both work and personal. With WIP you can lower the risk of accidental data leakage significantly.
Microsoft 365 Premium
By using 365 Premium you will gain, along with many other benefits, the ability to remotely wipe a device. This means if a work device is stolen you can wipe the device from anywhere and because it’s all on 365 and therefore the cloud, you won’t experience any data loss.
Accessibility
Group Policy and Assigned Access give you control over what your employees have access to.
Group Policy
Helping you define your security and networking policies for your employees. Allowing you to manage PCs, employee accounts and groups. You will have the capability to decide which employees or desktops have access to which files and applications.
Assigned Access
Here you can restrict accounts to only have access to one application. This is great if you work for retail or hospitality as you can allow your employees to put through purchases without accessing other applications. Or if you have a kiosk, Assigned Access prevents customers from going outside of the app and accessing other elements on the device.
Other Additions
A couple of other clever additions to Windows 10 Pro that Home does not have are:
Windows Business Store App
This App Store was created with businesses in mind. When purchasing an app from this store you can easily distribute it to all your devices on the same network. Whereas if you were using Home, it is assumed your purchase is for a single device and you will have to manually install the app onto other devices.
Domain Join
With this handy piece of software, you can easily add devices or computers to your network. Great if your business is beginning to grow and you anticipate needing more devices.
There are other versions of Windows 10 available: Enterprise and Education. Windows Education is built for and distributed through Academic Volume Licensing. Windows Enterprise is designed with larger businesses in mind, it has a few extras that are better suited to larger businesses like Desktop Analytics.
Windows 10 Pro has been created for small to medium businesses. With excellent features like BitLocker and Assigned Access, it outperforms Windows 10 Home for a working environment. Windows 10 Pro has everything Home has and more, talk to us today to discuss how to migrate over to Windows 10 Pro.
