When it comes to choosing an operating system for your computer most of you just use whatever is installed when you purchased the computer. Major of the time the operating system (or OS as its also referred to) tends to be the home edition of windows. Now the home edition of windows is great, but is it the ideal version of windows for a business to use?
The 2 main distributions of Windows are 7 & 10, but a professional version of Windows is available to anyone running 7,8 & 10. This blog post will examine 2 of the main reasons why business owners such as yourselves should upgrade to the professional edition of windows.
Professional Edition of Windows
The professional edition of windows doesn’t take away any of the feature or functionality that you will get with windows home edition. In fact it ads more advanced features, which as a business owner you will benefit from.
This useful page created by Microsoft will detail the difference between all the editions of windows 10.
BitLocker
BitLocker is a hard drive encryption tool designed by Microsoft to help users with windows professional edition to secure their data. It is only available on the professional editions of windows.
BitLocker should be used by all businesses to prevent any data being recovered from their computer if they are stollen. Once a drive is encrypted with BitLocker the data can only be recovered is the person using the PC had the password or decryption key, without one of these they will never gain access to data.
BitLocker is especially useful for business owners who use laptops and travel a lot. All to often people leave USB drives and laptops which contain private and confidential data on trains and busses! Now with GDPR approaching this will mean serious trouble for the business owner who lose devices containing personal data as they will have to report it, this will most likely result in a large fine.
Windows Domains
Another reason businesses should upgrade to windows 10 professional is the ability to join domains.
What is a Windows domain I hear you ask? Well “a Windows domain is a form of a computer network in which all user accounts, computers, printers and other security principals, are registered with a central database located on one or more clusters of central computers known asdomain controllers.” – Wikipedia
The benefit of joining your computer to a domain is that everything is managed from one central location, you can change password, block access to files and folders, and enforce password policies, plus much more. Also if you are a Office 365 for business user, and use windows 10 professional you can create an Azure domain which removes the need for a conventional sever and everything is managed from you Microsoft account on the cloud ☁️.
Upgrading to Windows 10 professional
Now I’m going to assume you are using Windows 10 (if your not, you should be, but if you really don’t want to and still want to upgrade to a professional version of Windows 7 or 8 then get in touch).
To upgrade to Windows 10 pro you will need:
- A Windows 10 pro Licence key
- About an hour of free time where you will not being using your PC
Step 1:
Click “Start” then “Settings”
Step 2:
Select “System” then “About”
Step 3:
Select “Change product key or upgrade your editions of windows”
Step 4:
Under “Update product key” select “Change product key”
Step 5:
Enter your new Windows 10 professional licence key into the pop-up screen, once entered click Next and select “Start Windows Upgrade”.
I hope this help you secure your business data, if you get stuck then give our team a ring and we will gladly help.
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