Whether you're buying a new PC or building one from scratch, you'll inevitably double-check that the Windows 11 edition your machine uses is the one that can actually meet your needs. Windows 11's licensing isn't nearly as confusing as it used to be back in the day -- like Windows 7 and Windows Vista -- as normal consumers have only two editions to consider: Windows 11 Home and Windows 11 Pro. 

Buying the wrong license is frustrating because while you can pay to upgrade your license, no one wants to pay for their operating system twice. This can especially feel like a slap in the face if you just forked over hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a new computer. 

If you're here because you, too, found Microsoft's comparison of the two lacking in depth and detail, I'm happy to say we don't have too much extra to cover, but what it missed could be crucial for those of you living a multimachine life. Chances are, Windows 11 Home will be enough for 85% of you reading this at home, but here's what the other 15% need to know.

Windows 11 Home vs. 11 Pro: Free upgrades and retail licenses

The cost between these two versions is relatively small, and if you're upgrading rather than buying or building new, your upgrade might be free. We'll set aside the cost of original equipment manufacturer licenses bundled with new laptops for now, as that price may or may not already be factored into your laptop's or desktop's price, and you may not have a choice of which one a specific model comes with.

At their retail prices -- if you're installing Windows 11 on a fresh machine or upgrading to 11 Pro from a 10 Home machine -- there's a $60 difference between a $140 Windows 11 Home license and a $200 Windows 11 Pro license. However, deals regularly put both licenses down to near or the same price, such as this StackSocial deal that will give you either one for $15. 

So long as a PC meets the hardware requirements for Windows 11, upgrading an old Windows 10 machine to Windows 11 is free, so long as you stick with the version you already have: Windows 10 Home can upgrade to 11 Home for free, and Windows 10 Pro can upgrade to 11 Pro for free. And you should do so soon because Microsoft is ending Windows 10 support in October.

Windows 11 Home vs. 11 Pro: Feature comparison

Windows 11 Home vs. 11 Pro: Hardware limitations

This is going to be the rarest of the reasons for choosing Windows 11 Pro over Home, but it is the easiest distinction: If you're planning to use a machine with more than 128GB of RAM or more than 64 CPU cores -- two processors -- you need Windows 11 Pro. Windows 11 Pro still has hardware limitations, but if you're using more than two processors and more than 2 terabytes of memory in the same machine, chances are you're going to be using a more specialized operating system anyway. 

Having 128GB of RAM seems like a ridiculous amount of memory to some, and many processors today aren't equipped to use more than 128GB, either. In the age of complex multisource rendering, home servers and virtualization, there are certainly instances where that amount of RAM could be used -- but outside STEM and business applications, you're going to be hard-pressed to find them. 

Windows 11 Home

This is all 90% of us need in a laptop

Windows 11 Home isn't as restrictive as Home was in the Vista/7/8 days, as it still boasts all of Microsoft's Copilot AI features, system enhancements and a cornucopia of consumer-grade security features. Unless you're running an ungodly amount of RAM or reliant on Remote Desktop or Hyper-V, this is what you need.

Windows 11 Pro exclusives: Remote Desktop

If you like using Remote Desktop -- accessing your Windows PC from other machines when the computer itself isn't nearby -- and prefer the official Windows RDP over third-party solutions, you're going to want to go Pro. Any computer can be used to access a Remote Desktop server, but that server can be hosted only from a Pro machine.

If you have only one computer or need to remote into your work computer from your home computer, Windows 11 Home should be fine. On the other hand, if you believe you might need Remote Desktop down the line and catch the Pro license on sale, it may be worth the upgrade. 

A word about Windows Remote Desktop

Microsoft retired the Remote Desktop app from the Microsoft Store on May 27 and encourages users to switch to the Windows app instead, but the Remote Desktop Connection client is still there, and you still need Windows 11 Pro in order to remote from a PC. Any PC -- or Mac or Android -- can remote into a remote desktop server, but to host a remote desktop server, you need a Pro machine.

So if you have a Windows desktop and two Windows laptops that you want to access to the desktop from, the laptops need only 11 Home, but the desktop needs 11 Pro. 

Or you can go with a third-party remote desktop client, and your Windows edition won't matter. Nor would you need to suffer the growing pains of a Windows app that isn't a fully functional replacement yet. 

Windows 11 Pro

For those who want it all -- or use it from anywhere

Remote Desktop is far and away the most prominent reason people might opt for Windows 11 Pro on their personal laptop, beyond work in STEM or a security-obsessed industry like finance or law. Hyper-V and Windows' other virtualization-based features can come in handy, but the corporate-minded management and data security features of Pro are wasted on machines that aren't connected to or managed by centralized servers and Group Policy.

Windows Pro exclusives: Hyper-V and Windows Sandbox

Hyper-V is Microsoft's built-in hardware virtualization engine; it lets you create and run virtual machines, allowing you to create isolated systems and sessions without having to have dozens of spare desktops or laptops on hand. Virtual machines can be useful for security-related tasks, program development, testing and various enterprise needs. 

Most of us at home don't need virtualization software to create and deploy customized VMs, but a similar feature you might also miss out on with Windows 11 Home is Windows Sandbox. Windows Sandbox is a local VM that's completely isolated from your main operating system and runs a clean version of Windows 11. Like the sandbox you played with as a kid, the Windows Sandbox is designed to keep whatever unstable shenanigans and random software you've stumbled across from messing up your yard or house.

Microsoft Sandbox can be used to test out a new program before you install it on your main system, letting you see if the program will work as intended, diagnose whether your misbehaving machine is a programming conflict or has a more nefarious cause or check a sketchy torrent where it can't steal or corrupt your important info. This is certainly a tool with regular consumer uses, and if you're the security-minded sort -- or have teens or tweens who keep wanting to install random apps on their computers. 

Stopping a bad actor in the Sandbox just once can certainly more than pay for the Pro upgrade compared with the time and money of a compromised or corrupted system, but if you don't tend to download much in the way of apps and have faith in your security software, you can just as easily go without.

Windows Pro exclusives: Enterprise security, Azure and Bitlocker Drive Encryption

Pro is meant for, well, professionals, so it's no surprise you need it for corporate security protocols like Group Policy, mobile device management and connecting to corporate servers in Azure or Active Directory. Unless you're an IT professional, are intending to start or run a small company using this specific PC or are in a specific position where you know you'll be expected to use the Azure, Active Directory, Group Policy and MDM tools at any given moment, you don't need to look at most of this and will be just fine with Microsoft Defender and Windows Security, with the possible exception of BitLocker Drive Encryption.

Windows 11 Home has Device Encryption, a bare-bones version of BitLocker to automatically encrypt internal drives, including your operating system's drive, so if you want to also encrypt external drives or want more control over what and how your system is encrypted, you'll want the full BitLocker experience in Windows 11 Pro. Pro's version of BitLocker can allow you to remotely encrypt your Windows computer in the event of theft, but if you're on Windows 11 Home and already using automatic encryption, you're already covered.

Windows 11 Pro is nice if you can get it, but Home does everything most of us need

Again, unless you're a developer, work in IT or data security or are planning to start or run a home business, you probably don't need Windows 11 Pro unless you heavily rely on Remote Desktop. If you're purchasing a new license for a new machine and you can get either version for the same price, you can save your money by sticking to the Windows 11 Home that comes with your new laptop or you can get through Microsoft's free upgrade from your old Windows 10 Home PC. Remote Desktop and virtualization are handy tools, but there are third-party options for Windows 11 Home users in a pinch.

However, if you believe in being safe rather than sorry, there's no real harm in going with Pro either, as there's only one feature I've found so far that is missing from Windows 11 Pro but is available in 11 Home: S-mode, the security-restricted version of Windows where you can only install apps from the Microsoft Store, and once you switch out of it, you can't re-enter it. S-mode can be handy for a computer you're giving to a child or an elderly relative who may not be savvy at checking their program's sources, but for the vast majority of users, one of the very first settings they change is turning off S-mode forever.