Windows Home vs Pro for new DAW PC

Sometime back (Dec 2012), I've purchased a Windows 8 Pro license at a good low price and I've received the product key, still unused and is intended for my future DAW PC (that I'm expecting to setup soon) - and to upgrade to Windows 10 before the deadline of July 29.
 
Reading on the Pro vs Home features such as
- join a domain
- BitLocker (don't need this encryption .. will slow down disk access)
- group policy management
- remote desktop <- especially this that I don't need to prevent any sort of possible ..erm..hacking ?
- etc..(don't need all of the Pro features really)
 
I'm beginning to wonder if a Home version is better off for DAW use ? Which version do you use ?
 
I've also read that in case of future hardware change after activation, the "retail" version can be re-activated easily, but not the OEM version. Can I assume that the version (Windows 8 Pro) that I purchased must be the retail version ? The invoice simply print "Windows 8 Pro".

Definitely HOME.
 
I just read an article this morning that the minimum requirements for Win10 32-bit are changing in July when the Win10 Anniversary edition is dropped on us. 32-bit Win10 will require a minimum of 2 GB of RAM instead of 1 GB. The minimum for 64-bit remains 2 GB.

tomixornot
Sometime back (Dec 2012), I've purchased a Windows 8 Pro license at a good low price and I've received the product key, still unused and is intended for my future DAW PC (that I'm expecting to setup soon) - and to upgrade to Windows 10 before the deadline of July 29.
 
Reading on the Pro vs Home features such as
- join a domain
- BitLocker (don't need this encryption .. will slow down disk access)
- group policy management
- remote desktop <- especially this that I don't need to prevent any sort of possible ..erm..hacking ?
- etc..(don't need all of the Pro features really)
 
I'm beginning to wonder if a Home version is better off for DAW use ? Which version do you use ?
 
I've also read that in case of future hardware change after activation, the "retail" version can be re-activated easily, but not the OEM version. Can I assume that the version (Windows 8 Pro) that I purchased must be the retail version ? The invoice simply print "Windows 8 Pro".

 I think the retail version will say Full instead of Retail.  I was shopping around for W8 retail licenses and that was my conclusion.  Buying Windows licenses can be tricky.  The easiest way is to install it and find out. I have a thread that shows you how to find out if your OS is retail. 
 

tomixornot
Thanks for all the feedback.
 
If I don't have a license yet, Windows 10 Home Full Retail is the right choice. So, I'm going the direction of using my existing PRO since I've already purchased it.. but the following comparison of Windows 10 versions got me thinking otherwise
 
https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/windows/windows-10-editions
 
Specifically
- Windows Defender and Firewall is _not_ supported by Windows 10 Pro ?
- All the gaming features , especially Direct X 12 - not supported by Windows 10 Pro. Not that I'm a gamer yet, but it'll be a nice OS feature.
 
 

Where did you get that information? I did not see that nor do I believe.
DX12 is in all versions.  You need a card that supports it otherwise its DX11.
Defender is the new MSE.  You can choose to update Defender everyday in Pro.
 
For the average user Windows 10 Pro is good if you like to network stuff and to add more memory in hardware that isn't available yet for the common man.  Even Home which supports 128GB of RAM check out the prices of motherboards that support that much and then price 128gb of DDR4 RAM.
 
 

Looking at the chart again, I'm suspecting the middle column title (Mobile) should have the least feature - moving it to the end seems to make sense..

The simple answer is don't worry about it. For anything you do at home, the Home edition of Windows will do fine. Pro will also work fine, as it is a superset of Home, there is no feature in Home that is not also in Pro. It just costs more. So the Home version isn't better for a DAW, it is just not worse in any way. They are equal.
 
That graphic on Pro is 100% incorrect. I run Pro on my system and DX12 and Xbox controllers work fine. I'm not talking theoretically either, I have a DX12 card and I've run DX 12 software on it, and my Xbox Eilte controller is my favourite controller to use. Also Windows Defender is included in Pro and is enabled by default (personally I'd get a different virus scanner).
 
The only possible limit you could hit, and then only realistically in theory, is RAM. Home is limited to 128GB, Pro allows 2TB. That really is a non-issue as even the high end X99 boards only support 128GB, and normal desktops cap out at 32GB or 64GB. That aside, even if your system did support it, you probably wouldn't elect to put that much RAM in a system. Your P67 board supports 32GB max.
 
If you have a free license for Pro, go for it, there's nothing wrong with it. All the additional features are optional and are either off by default, or can be turned off. If you are paying, get Home as there's no reason to blow $80-100 more for Pro.

In terms of hardware support (RAM, disks, Firewire, USB, etc.), Home is perfectly adequate for a DAW. But I would still go with Pro. There's no risk, as you're only getting some extra features you may never need. The upgrade is free now but if you do Home now and change your mind later you'll have to pay for it. 
 
 

Jim Roseberry
There's a registry tweak to "Prompt that Windows updates are available" (but to disable automatic download)

 
Hi Jim:
 
I was wondering if you could share that registry tweak?
 
I know of a setting under Settings>Update & Security>Advanced Options to "defer upgrades," but I would like to have control and be able to disable automatic downloads.

That may be the best argument for Pro. Not only can you defer updates, you can also specify the time of day that Windows checks for updates so as to avoid starting downloads during a DAW session. They don't make it easy anymore, but it can still be done. 
 
For Home users, one option is to disable the network during tracking sessions. Under XP, I used a batch file that killed/re-enabled the network. I suppose you could even replace your normal SONAR shortcut with a batch file that killed the network and then started SONAR. If you ever needed the net during a DAW session, e.g. to activate a new plugin, you'd just use the normal shortcut instead.