Windows 7: Home Premium vs. Pro

Hi all,

I currently run XP pro on my home PC and I'm wondering which would be the better upgrade choice:

Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Pro?

More details:

• I have no domain on my home network (just one desktop, one netbook, one htpc)
• The target PC will be used mostly for Web surfing, gaming, some light spreadsheet work, connecting to a work PC, and maybe some dev stuff (probably contained in a VM machine though)
• I don't care for the "XP Mode / Virtual PC"
• I don't care for the online backup and encryption
• the htpc runs Vista Home Premium, the Netbook runs XP Pro; I don't need to 'network' them together very often, but I sometimes do. Would W7 Home help or hinder that?
• I VPN/RDP to my work PC - any issues with W7 Home with that?
• I read that W7 Home only has the RDP client, not the server - a bit of a bummer but not a deal breaker
• How does the W7 Home user account management compare to W7 Pro's? (in the context of a home network, not a domain)
• the price difference is obviously a factor (especially with the 50% pre-order deal)

Thanks!

illogical said:

• How does the W7 Home user account management compare to W7 Pro's? (in the context of a home network, not a domain)

Thanks!

Well, as I noticed under Vista Home Premium, it didn't have local user account management or local security policy in the MMC but the Ultimate version did. If that's what you're asking. My guess is that W7 HP will be the same way. Only Pro or Ultimate will include those features. Though for an extra 50 bucks, that stuff might not be worth it to you.

You can still create users through the Control Panel, and there are always command line and registry hacks to enable lots of the same features without using the MMC.

It would seem that Pro has a few tidbits that would interest commercial vs. home users, basically network domain management & encription. I went with Home Premium, not caring for those commercial features. I think MS did a fairly well defined demarcation between these two versions. I think only encription might be a grey area here.

Yeah, currently Home Premium seems sufficient for my needs and it will probably by my choice, unless I learn of a 'must-have' feature available only on Pro.

So far, the only feature I'd miss from Pro is the rdp server, but LogMeIn serves me fine for my remote access needs...