Is it not the same?
No, there is no way to beat around the bush home is missing many features business need to control their assets and Data effectively.
Any business looking to complete cyber essentials should certainly consider migrating to Windows Professional or enterprice licences
These features only exist on Windows Professional and Enterprise
- Centralised authentication and Single Sign on Via Microsoft 365 or on-premise Active Directory
- Group Policy enforcement (Requires Azure Active Directory or or on-premise Active Directory)
- BitLocker device encryption, BitLocker and BitLocker To Go put everything on lockdown, so no one else can access your systems or data.
- Windows updates control. With the business ready versions of Windows 10 IT mangers can centrally control/delay update to help user keep working and reduce updates disrupting productivity.
- Ability to enable Remote Desktop to allow staff to connect to their machine remotely.
There are many posts highlighting the software differences but how about some real world scenarios.
- If a device is running Windows Pro and joined to Microsoft 365 we can secure data and login and remove the need for users to create a separate Microsoft login (more of an issue in Windows 11)
- Single Sign on with your Microsoft 365 / Domain. When a user leaves we can suspend their access and protect company data
- On a Home edition users with access to company SharePoint and using the sync via OneDrive if we disable a user they will still have access to Data for a period of time. With Windows Profession/Enterprise and machines signed into Microsoft 365 or a domain controller this is not the case. Users are immediately blocked.
- Multiple users can login to the same machine without first needing to create a user on that machine. Once a PC is adopted to Microsoft 365 or a domain controller. Any staff member can sign in with their login without IT needing to do anything. Allow staff to share a machine or easily transition staff from one PC to another.
