XP Home ?XP Pro?

[tony draper]

Pottering about trying to get a neigbours new broadband connection working yesterday,she has XP Home instaled on her laptop,I have XP Pro installed on me desk top, I can't see any difference, so what exactly is the diff betwixt XP Professional and XP Home Edition? and would it be worthwhile to instal/ungrade her machine to XP Pro?
Sadly her new Blueyonder broadband still not working her sons is fine we loaded the drivers and the service worked fine first time, with her machine if starts instaling the disk that came with the kit but at one point says it cannot detect any modem on the usb or ethernet port then things go to pot.
One shall continue the battle today.

[oldbeefer]

Mr D - if you get stuck, I recommend the forums on http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/ - they've helped me out on numerous occasions.

[ORAC]

I can't see any difference, so what exactly is the diff betwixt XP Professional and XP Home Edition?

There are three basic differences you might notice, plus lots of other more detailed ones, all business related, see here.


The three you might notice are:

Networks: Pro will join a domain, Home is restricted to using workgroups.

Security: Pro has file/directory level security where you can encrypt and restrict access to files by individual user.

CPU: Pro supports multiple processors, Home doesn´t. I am not sure if, or how, that is relevant for the new dual core CPUs, as I only use Pro.

[Lost_luggage34]

Unless you are using USB to connect to the Blueyonder Broadband service use the supplied Blueyonder CD as a coaster.

[planecrazy.eu]

Hey,

The XP website gives details of the differences, i always had Pro untill i got my new Laptop, i now have home, and can i notice the difference? Nope!. I know there are differences but the majority of us wont notice the difference. To be honest, i have had far less issues with Home than Pro, Pro seems to have more to go wrong with it, its prob just me and my poor usage of it though.

Pro normally costs £80 ontop on the PC, and if i ever want to access a domain at uni there are things that you can download free to do that. Not sure what they are as my college gave me mine, its that rubbish, errr, i cant think, its the one that makes SUSE.

[tony draper]

Thanks chaps got both laptops working fine using the ethernet connections,the problem seems to be the desktop that is still using win98 and only has USB connections,it simply refuses to see the broadband modem,tried a dozen different ways of loading the software,it gets to the point of looking for the modem doesn't find it and thats all she wrote.
The other problen is one of the laptops is used betwixt home and work and from what she says the workplace only has A USB to connection to the internet.
The strange thing being the original they were using was Blueyonder Broadband after a bit of fannying about I got all three machines working fine using USB,they then shifted to BT Broadband and I got all three working fine again using the USB connections,they have now shifted back to Blueyonder and have been given a new broadband modem that none of the machines want to talk to via USB.

[Guern]

This site is quite good for XP problems http://www.theeldergeek.com/ don't know if it will help in this instance.

[batninth]

Mr Draper Sir,

I'm not surprised by what you are seeing. If the desktop & loptop machines are "old" then the earlier USB chipsets were notorious for power handling, and these USB based internet modems tend to be power hungry. I had an Acer laptop that had major problems with USB modems. Modern hardware is much more freindly towards USB power hogs (USB coffee mug warmers, USB fans, USB Broadband modems etc)

Also Win98 is not good with USB, so any modern USB device that does anything remotely sophisticated could bamboozle Win98.

The latest BlueYonder USB device may well be different enough internally to cause a problem whcih accounts for your BT working then BlueYonder not on a new modem.

Sad to say, but my advice is to get a router if funds allow & let that talk to the Broadband line. Then use Ethernet which is much older & more robust. It frees up the PC from having to talk to the broadband line.

[ORAC]

Batninth,

An excellent post and an excellent summation.

Win98, even SE, was a cludge and was should not look for a fix, but a replacement...

[Capt Snooze]

ORAC,


XP Home works fine with the dual core machines...............

Comes as the standard pre-load with most manufacturers around this part of the woods.




Snooze

[goates]

Originally Posted by Capt Snooze

ORAC,
XP Home works fine with the dual core machines...............

Comes as the standard pre-load with most manufacturers around this part of the woods.
Snooze

Microsoft has clarified that their XP licenses refer to physical sockets, so a dual core (or quad core if you have the money) processor will work fine under XP Home. Two dual core processors won't though.

[Brat]

P.S. Thank you Guern for the tip on eldergeek, seems to be a good source for info on my previous question on manually uninstalling.