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hello all, I have to reinstall my OS (i.e, Windows XP Home addition), and I was wondering if I should upgrade to Windows XP Professional. Is it better and more stable, or should I just keep my XP Home? I own a Pentium 4 1.80GHz, 1024 MB of RAM, 60 GB devided on 2 discs, and I use mostly Poser 4, Vue d'Esprit and Photoshop (huge files). all opinions are welcome. :)

Windows XP Pro, no doubt. XP Home is a DOWNGRADE from Win 98. Get the Pro version as fast as you can.

It's a downgrade? I find that hard to credit seeing as I've had far less trouble with WinXP home compared to Win98. Any chance of some examples of why you think it's a downgrade?

Id give windows 2000 Professional a shot. M$ probably has to relase another 17,000 patches and upgrades now that they have a brand new SP creating havoc out there.

Keep your XP Home. The basics of what XP Pro has over Home is... -Multi-processor support - (supports up to two microprocessors, while Home Edition supports only one) -Automated System Recovery and backup utilities -Web server software -Security features supporting file encryption -Enterprise and advanced networking features (so XP Pro machines can join active domains) Other than that,you won't gain anything in the way of performance or a more stable OS (course performance and stability are not really an issue with either). SWAMP

I agree with SWAMP. Owning both versions, I prefer Pro over Home, but if you do not require the extra functionality there is no reason to spend the money. As for the new service pack, I have been running it for a month with all the software you listed and have not run into a problem yet.

Here's another vote to keep your Windows XP Home Edition. I don't know why anyone would advise you to dump XP Home for Pro. It would be a waste of money if you don't need the extra features which are more geared toward corporate network security.

I've got every version of windows (and used each of them) that has been released. Hands down, I choose Win 2k Pro over all the rest. I've noticed that the machines here at work that use Win XP have more internet problems than any other machines. We've taken to removing the spyware from those XP machines every other week versus the once a month for the other machines. At home, I use 2k Pro and Linux. The kids like playing games on the computer and some of the games are older games. They simply won't play on an XP machine. They play fine on 2k Pro and a few of them play on our Linux machine. Kristta

If these are your two only options I would say XP Pro without any SP. Have you concidered though, to try Win 2003 Server? I find it much more stable.

If your machine is used by more than one user, XP Pro has a much better way of separating the different profiles and much better security. You don't want your kids to accidentally delete your important files! A more technical issue: XP Home runs all system processes with maximum privileges, making it easier for hackers to hijack it. XP Pro has different system accounts with different privileges. It's better protected against hackers than XP Home. I run XP Pro SP2 on three of my machines and 2003 Server on two other machines (one of them a domain controlloer). I've seen quite a few attacks on my 2003 domain controller, none of them came through. It is very stable, but I've run into trouble with DVD burners and scanners - the drivers install, but just won't work. They work fine on my XP Pro boxes.

Pro!

If you've got a recent P4 machine with hypertreading, consider it a dual processor machine. I believe XP Home has been patchted to support hyperthreading, XP Pro has support for dual processors built right into the core. 2K Pro is also very good. It seems to start slower, but that's an illusion, XP (Home and Pro) both just display the login dialog pretty early in the startup cycle, 2k displays it after all system processes have been started.

XP Pro is more stable from my experience, however I haven't had to deal with the mess of home in about 2 years