XP Home vs. Pro

Well... I've decided to fork out the cash to buy my own copy of XP as I can't imagine going back to 98, and I'd like to be able to download the service packs and such that I can't with this "borrowed" copy I am using.

My dilemna is, I'm not sure which edition is for me.... Professional or Home. Right now I have Pro on my computer, however, for 100 more bucks, I don't see me getting my money's worth out of Pro if I were to buy it. I don't do anything fancy on my PC.... play games, surf the internet, do some digital imaging/graphics/web pages, burn CD's and what-not..... but that's about all.

Does Professional offer anything that Home does not that I should be aware of that might affect what I do? My understanding is that all Pro does is essentially integrate Win 2000 into it in terms of networking options.... is this pretty much correct?

What version you get depends on what your needs are. If you do not need advanced networking and the computer you are using is a stand along rig then you should save a few bucks and go with the home edition. The kernel in both the home and pro versions are the same and you will not get any more stability out of the pro version of XP. And you have stated that you wanted to use the service packs. To do so you will need to clean install the next XP you load on your machine. Your borrowed XP pro will not let you downgrade to the home edition. So my recomendation to you is to do a clean install whatever version you decide on.

You can save a lot of money by getting an OEM version of pro!

I'm not really stupid...... I just play one on TV.

That's corporate, or a hacked version of pro. It still needs a cd-key, but no activation.

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