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Sometimes I despair for the PC industry.
Microsoft has, somehow, convinced people – even arguably sane industry pundits – that Windows 10 Home is "good enough" for its latest PCs, which is to say the Surface Pro 6 and the Surface Laptop 2. As best I can tell, you can 't even order a new Surface Pro 6 or Laptop 2 with Win10 Pro – you have to get Win10 Home, and then upgrade to Pro.
If you already have a license for an earlier "Pro" version of Windows, you may be able to upgrade. Ed Bott's primer on ZDNet.)
The fact that Surface Pro now ships with Windows Home has not escaped the notice of many. But the "nothing to see here, carry on" response in blogland drives me up a wall.
Microsoft adds a few features to Win10 Pro, compared to Win10 Home – Join network domains, group policies, desktop remote, BitLocker – but all of those are all about Win10 user needs: The ability to block updates.
Microsoft's official comparison list does not mention the fact that Pro includes update and upgrade-blocking settings (which are occasionally "Accidentally" ignored). Home does not have any.
With Win10 Pro, you stand a chance of fighting with your computer. With Win10 Home, you only have three ways to fight
- Set your internet connection to metered;
- Disable the Windows Update service, wuauserv;
- Use a third-party update blocker.
Each of those approaches has problems.
- Tea metered connection kludge is not documented anywhere. Microsoft has not committed to refraining from upgrading or upgrading metered machines. This approach is simply an observation of the way Windows 10 Update has worked in the past; there's no guarantee it will continue to work in the future.
- Disabling wuauserv is a scorched-earth approach that may have unknown and unintended consequences. I know that you have a lot of things to do, and I respect the decision.
- Third-party update blockers have mushroomed in recent years. With Win10 Home (and even Pro) users, they may be the best alternative for Win10 Home. I'm still looking for you because they're going to make you feel like you're going to be here, and you're going to be doing it. The risks for screwing things up – both intentionally and unintentionally – are enormous.
Windows 10 Home leaves you open to the vagaries of Microsoft's forced patching algorithms – Windows gets updated to Microsoft's schedule, not yours. If you've been following along, you know how well it's turned out. July and October were particularly egregious.
If the Windows patches were marginally competent, we would not be having this discussion. Month after month, though, we've seen how premature patches mess things up. I routinely hear conversations among muggles about how windows bit their butts. And I never, ever tell non-combatants that I watch Windows updates.
Win10 Home occupies an important niche in the Windows ecosystem: Cannon fodder. If you want to control your machine, stick with Home. It's good enough for you. And your screams help us in the peanut gallery figure out where the bugs lie.
Is Win10 Home "good enough" for Surface Pro 6? No!
If you're going to spend $ 1,000 on a new machine, set aside an extra $ 100 to upgrade to Win10 Pro. Better to pay the piper now.
Watch the watchers on the AskWooody Lounge.
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