Windows Editions & Features

Windows 10 vs. Windows 11

The 220-1202 (Core 2 V15) exam expects you to recall the exact thresholds that separate Windows 11 from Windows 10. Windows 11 is 64-bit only, demands UEFI with Secure Boot, and requires a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0 chip — the single most common reason a machine fails the upgrade check. Windows 10 reached end of support on October 14, 2025, after which it stops receiving free security patches unless enrolled in Extended Security Updates (ESU).

Exam trap: A PC that meets RAM, CPU, and storage minimums but reports "This PC can't run Windows 11" almost always lacks TPM 2.0 or has Secure Boot disabled in UEFI. The fix is enabling the firmware TPM (Intel PTT / AMD fTPM) and Secure Boot, not adding RAM.

Edition Feature Comparison

The practical exam question is "which edition do I need?" Everything below the Home/Pro line is what you upgrade for.

The five features the exam returns to repeatedly are BitLocker, Group Policy, Remote Desktop host, Hyper-V, and Domain Join — all absent from Home. If a scenario says a Home user cannot do one of these, the answer is "upgrade to Pro."

Key Pro features explained

• BitLocker Drive Encryption seals the OS volume to the TPM so the disk is unreadable if removed. BitLocker To Go covers USB flash drives. The 48-digit recovery key must be stored (Microsoft account, file, USB, or printout) before encryption completes — losing it can mean total data loss.
• Remote Desktop uses the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) on TCP port 3389. Only the host side is Pro-restricted; any edition can be the connecting client.
• Hyper-V is Microsoft's built-in Type 1 hypervisor. It requires a 64-bit CPU with Second Level Address Translation (SLAT) and hardware virtualization (Intel VT-x / AMD-V) enabled in UEFI, and is turned on under Windows Features, not installed from media.
• Windows Sandbox spins up a disposable VM that is wiped on close — ideal for testing suspicious downloads without infecting the host.

Upgrade & Update Model

In-place upgrade keeps files, apps, and settings; a clean install wipes the drive. The valid in-place paths are Home to Pro (same version) and Windows 10 to Windows 11 when hardware qualifies. 32-bit to 64-bit and Pro to Home both demand a clean install — no in-place route exists.

Always back up data before any upgrade, confirm activation afterward, and re-run Windows Update until no patches remain.

How Editions Map to Real Scenarios

The exam rarely asks you to recite a feature list in the abstract; instead it drops you into a help-desk scenario and expects you to pick the edition or action. A small accounting firm that buys ten consumer laptops preloaded with Windows 11 Home and then tries to join them to a new Active Directory domain will fail, because domain join is a Pro feature. The correct, lowest-cost remediation is an in-place edition upgrade from Home to Pro using a Pro product key — no reinstall, no data loss.

Contrast that with a request to move a single workstation from Pro back to Home, which has no in-place path and forces a clean install; in practice you would simply leave it on Pro.

A second recurring theme is the activation and licensing channel. Retail licenses are transferable between machines, OEM licenses are tied to the motherboard they shipped on, and volume licenses (the only way to obtain Enterprise) are managed centrally through a Key Management Service (KMS) or Multiple Activation Key (MAK). If a refurbished PC shows "Windows is not activated" after a motherboard swap, an OEM key is the likely reason, and the fix is a new license rather than troubleshooting hardware. Knowing that Enterprise is volume-only also lets you eliminate it as an answer in any single-PC retail scenario.

Finally, remember the upgrade-readiness gating that pairs with the requirements table. The free PC Health Check tool reports the exact failed item, and the two failures you will see most often are TPM and Secure Boot — both firmware toggles, not hardware purchases. Modern Intel platforms expose the TPM as Platform Trust Technology (PTT) and AMD exposes it as fTPM; enabling either, plus Secure Boot, typically converts an "unsupported" verdict into a clean upgrade.

A genuinely unsupported CPU (one not on Microsoft's approved list) is the one failure a firmware change cannot fix, and the supported answer there is to stay on Windows 10 (with Extended Security Updates if needed) or replace the hardware.