There’s an edition of Windows for almost any computing environment. In this video, you’ll learn about different Windows editions for Windows 10 and Windows 11, the features available in each edition, and how Windows N editions are used in Europe.
For your Core 2 exam, there are two versions of Microsoft Windows you need to be familiar with. One is Windows 10, and the other is Windows 11. CompTIA’s official exam objectives state that they consider all in-support Windows versions to be in scope for the exam. And Microsoft has commonly supported Windows for five years after its release.
For clarification, CompTIA has specifically written in the exam objectives that they expect you to know information about both Windows 10 and Windows 11. Fortunately, both of these Windows versions are very similar to each other. So once you know Windows 10, you’re already very familiar with Windows 11. We went directly from Windows 8 to Windows 10, so you’ll never see any references to Windows 9.
Windows 10 was designed to be a single platform that would work across multiple devices. This isn’t exactly how Windows 10 turned out, but you did find Windows 10 being deployed on many different devices. Through the Windows 10 life cycle, there were more than 15 different released versions, with the last one being in November of 2021, which is version 21H2.
Microsoft has already stated that Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro support will end on October 14, 2025. Although that is the last official date of support from Microsoft, I think most of us realize that there are organizations that continue to use these operating systems past their usable lifetime. So you will still see Windows 10 being used in production, even though the official support ended on October 14, 2025.
Windows 10 Home, as the name implies, is designed for the home user. This is the version of Windows you would get if you purchased your computer at a retail store. This integrates Windows with your Microsoft account, and it integrates the OneDrive backup feature. So when you use Windows 10, it will automatically backup parts of the operating system for restoration later. Windows 10 includes a very capable antivirus and anti-malware software known as Windows Defender. And you can interact with your operating system using your voice through Microsoft Cortana.
Windows 10 Pro was built for the enterprise. If you’re working in a business, you’re probably using Windows 10 Pro. That’s because Windows 10 Pro includes a number of features not available in Windows 10 Home, such as the ability to set up Remote Desktop as a host on the system. That allows anyone to be able to connect to a Windows 10 Pro device from their computer and perform Remote Desktop functionality.
Windows 10 Pro also includes Full Disk Encryption, or FDE, through the use of BitLocker. And if you need to join a Windows domain, you can do that in Windows 10 Pro because Windows 10 Home does not support that feature.
Microsoft also made a high-end version of Windows 10 called Windows 10 Pro for Workstations. If you’re running a system that has up to four separate physical CPUs, then you can use Windows 10 Pro for Workstations. This version of Windows 10 also supports a maximum of 6 terabytes of RAM inside of the system. And it supports the relatively new file system known as Microsoft Resilient File System, or FeFS. This is the same file system you’ll find in Windows Server.
And if you are in a very large organization, you may be using Windows 10 Enterprise. This is a Windows 10 that includes volume licensing that you can deploy to hundreds or even thousands of devices. This edition of Windows 10 includes AppLocker, which is an administrative feature that allows you to enable or disable the use of certain applications.
You can also use BranchCache in this version, which is a way of caching data at a remote site instead of having to use a wide area network connection. There’s also a granular user experience control, or UX control, where you can define what users see on the Windows desktop. This means that you can control what features inside of Windows 10 are available and what features would be invisible to the end user.
Here are the four editions of Windows 10 that you would find. It’s the Windows 10 Home, Pro, Pro for Workstations, and Enterprise. Windows 10 Home does not have any access to a Microsoft domain. It doesn’t include BitLocker support. It can only use Remote Desktop as a client and not as a server. Group policy management is obviously not available in the Home version. And if you’re running the 32-bit version of Windows 10 home, it supports a maximum of 4 gigabytes of memory, and the maximum is 128 gigabytes of memory.
With Windows 10 Pro, Pro for Workstations, and Enterprise, you can access the domain, use BitLocker, use remote desktop as both a client and a host, and you have the ability to manage the device using group policy. And because 32-bit operating systems only support 4 gigabytes of memory, all of those versions also support only 4 gigabytes. But notice that the maximum amount of memory for Windows 10 Pro is 2 terabytes. And for Pro for Workstations and Enterprise, the maximum is 6 terabytes.
The upgrade to Windows 10 is Windows 11. And it was released in October of 2021. One significant change with Windows 11 is, there is no longer support for 32-bit CPUs. Windows 11 comes with a new user interface, so the desktop looks slightly different with a new start menu and new taskbar widgets. Windows 11 integrates Microsoft Teams, has new snap layouts within the operating system itself, and it’s able to be used better on tablets using their new touch integration included with Windows 11.
Microsoft has also built in artificial intelligence using Windows Copilot inside of Windows 11. Windows 11 Home is the edition designed for the consumer market. So if you bought a computer for use at home, it’s probably using Windows 11 Home. This version of Windows integrates with your Microsoft account, or you can create a local account on your computer. It, of course, has limited management functionality because we don’t tend to have Active Directory in a home environment.
And Microsoft has included some additional encryption functionality within Windows 11 Home called Device Encryption. This is very similar to BitLocker, but it’s designed for the consumer market. In an enterprise, we would store recovery information within Active Directory. On Windows 11 Home, this recovery information is stored in the user’s Microsoft account.
Windows 11 Pro is the version you would use when you’re at your office or in a large organization. It integrates with Active Directory so that it can be centrally managed from one place. It includes full disk encryption using Microsoft’s BitLocker functionality. And it has virtualization capabilities using Microsoft Hyper-V. The Pro edition of Windows also supports Remote Desktop as both a client and as a server.
Windows 11 Enterprise was built for the very large organizations that purchased their Windows licenses using a volume licensing function. There are also additional management functions built into Windows 11 Enterprise through the use of Mobile Device Management, or MDM, and Mobile Application Management, or MAM. And unlike other editions of Windows 11, Windows 11 Enterprise supports the Resilient File System, which is the file system you also find in Windows Server.
This table of features for Windows 11 is very similar to the one we just saw for Windows 10. Windows 11 Home does not have any type of domain access, BitLocker functionality, can only use Remote Desktop as a client, and does not have any group policy management functions. There’s obviously no maximum memory available in the 32-bit version of Windows 11 because there is no 32-bit version of Windows 11. There is only support for 64-bit CPUs. And the Home version of Windows 11 supports 128 gig of memory.
Windows 11 Pro and Windows 11 Enterprise support domain access, BitLocker, can use Remote Desktop as both a client and a host, and supports group policy management. Windows 11 Pro supports a maximum of 2 terabytes of RAM. And Windows 11 Enterprise supports 6 terabytes of memory.
If you’re in Europe, you may be familiar with another edition of Windows, known as the Windows N edition. The N means that it does not come with any media player functionality. Not only is there no Windows Media player. There are no other multimedia utilities built in to the Windows N editions. Fortunately, these can be added later through the Media Feature Pack for N edition. You’ll find this under Settings, Apps, Optional Features, Add an Optional Feature, and the Media Feature Pack.