Windows 11 Pro: Features, Who Needs It and How to Upgrade

Windows 11 Pro is the edition aimed at people who manage, secure or virtualize their PCs, from freelancers and small offices to developers and IT departments. It contains everything in Windows 11 Home and adds a set of tools that Home simply does not have. Most home users never miss them; for some people one of them is a dealbreaker. This hub explains what Pro adds, who actually benefits, and how to move from Home to Pro without reinstalling.

What Windows 11 Pro adds over Home

Pro is a superset of Home. The everyday experience is identical: same Start menu, same apps, same updates, same gaming performance. The difference is a group of features for control, isolation and business networks:

Feature	Home	Pro	What it is for
BitLocker Drive Encryption (full management)	No	Yes	Encrypt drives with full control of recovery keys and protectors
Device encryption	Yes, on supported hardware	Yes	Automatic encryption with simpler controls
Hyper-V	No	Yes	Run full virtual machines
Windows Sandbox	No	Yes	Throwaway desktop for testing unknown apps and files
Local Group Policy Editor	No	Yes	Fine-grained policy settings for the PC
Remote Desktop host	No (client only)	Yes	Connect into this PC from elsewhere
Active Directory domain join	No	Yes	Join a company network
Microsoft Entra join	No	Yes	Join a cloud-managed organization
Assigned Access (kiosk mode)	No	Yes	Lock a device to one app

For the side-by-side version with every row explained, see Windows 11 Pro vs Home.

BitLocker management

Windows 11 Home includes Device encryption on hardware that supports it, which encrypts your system drive automatically when you sign in with a Microsoft account. Pro adds full BitLocker, which lets you choose which drives to encrypt, manage protectors such as a startup PIN, encrypt fixed data drives, and use BitLocker To Go for USB drives.

Whichever you use, back up the recovery key. Our guide to BitLocker recovery explains where it is stored and what to do when Windows asks for it.

Hyper-V and Windows Sandbox

Hyper-V is Microsoft’s hypervisor, built into Windows 11 Pro as an optional feature. It runs full virtual machines with their own operating systems, which is useful for testing, running older software, or keeping a separate environment for work. Microsoft lists the requirements as a 64-bit processor with Second Level Address Translation (SLAT), virtualization support enabled in firmware, and at least 4 GB of RAM. Hyper-V cannot be installed on Windows 11 Home.

Windows Sandbox is a lighter tool built on the same technology. It opens a clean, disposable copy of Windows in a window. Anything you install or download inside disappears when you close it, which makes it a safe place to open a suspicious attachment or try an app you don’t trust. Microsoft states that Sandbox is not supported on Home.

Both are switched on from Turn Windows features on or off (search for it from Start), then a restart.

Group Policy and Assigned Access

The Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) is a Pro-only console with hundreds of settings for Windows behavior: update timing, what users can change, security options and more. Many guides online assume you have it; on Home, those instructions do not work, and you should be wary of scripts that claim to add it. Our Group Policy guide covers what it is safe to change.

Assigned Access locks a device to a single app or a limited set of apps, which is how kiosks, reception tablets and shared devices are set up.

Remote Desktop host

Any edition of Windows 11 can connect to another PC using Remote Desktop. Only Pro and higher can be the PC you connect to. If you want to reach your office PC from home, that office PC needs Pro.

To turn it on in Pro: Settings > System > Remote Desktop, switch on Remote Desktop and select Confirm. Our page on hosting Remote Desktop on Windows 11 covers network-level authentication, which accounts can connect and safe access from outside your network.

Domain join and Microsoft Entra join

Businesses manage PCs either with on-premises Active Directory or with Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory). Joining a PC to either requires Pro or a higher edition. If your employer hands you a Home laptop and asks you to join it to their network, it will not work until it is upgraded. See joining Windows 11 to a domain for the steps on Pro.

How to upgrade Windows 11 Home to Pro

The upgrade happens in place: no reinstall, and your files, apps and settings stay. Windows 11 Home should be activated first. Then:

With a Windows 11 Pro product key

1. Open Settings > System > Activation.
2. Next to Change product key, select Change. Approve the administrator prompt.
3. Enter the 25-character Pro key and select Next.
4. Let Windows apply the upgrade and restart.

Without a key, through the Microsoft Store

1. Open Settings > System > Activation.
2. Expand Upgrade your edition of Windows.
3. Next to Upgrade in the Microsoft app, select Open Store.
4. Sign in with your Microsoft account, complete the purchase and restart when asked.

A few practical notes before you start:

• Activate Home first. Microsoft’s instructions assume Windows 11 Home is already activated. If it isn’t, sort that out in the activation hub before buying anything.
• Use an administrator account. The Change product key button asks for administrator approval.
• Save open work. The upgrade restarts the PC, sometimes more than once.
• Expect the same apps and files afterwards. Nothing is wiped, and the Start menu, desktop and settings look the same. The new tools simply appear: Remote Desktop under Settings > System, Hyper-V and Windows Sandbox under Turn Windows features on or off, and gpedit.msc from the Run box.

The Store purchase becomes a digital license linked to your Microsoft account. Check the current price in the Store before you buy; it varies by region. Our page on Windows 11 Pro product keys covers where legitimate keys come from and how to avoid the cheap grey-market ones that get blocked later.

Should you upgrade?

A simple test: if you can name the Pro feature you need, upgrade. If not, Home is fine.

• Upgrade if you need to host Remote Desktop, join a work domain or Entra ID, run Hyper-V virtual machines, use Windows Sandbox, or manage BitLocker on several drives.
• Stay on Home if you mostly browse, game, stream, study or use Office. Device encryption, Microsoft Defender, Windows Hello and all the same updates are already there.

Two misconceptions are worth clearing up. First, Pro is not faster: both editions share the same core, so games and apps perform the same. Second, Pro does not change the hardware rules: it needs the same TPM 2.0, Secure Boot capable firmware and supported CPU as Home, and a Pro key will not get Windows 11 onto a PC that fails those checks.

For larger organizations, Pro is often a stepping stone; Windows 11 Enterprise vs Pro and Pro for Workstations explain when the higher editions make sense.