Windows 10 Professional

Overview

Windows 10 Professional remains the version a lot of machines should still be running. The interface is settled, the driver situation is as good as it will ever get, and it does not carry the hardware requirements that lock out perfectly capable older systems. Professional rather than Home matters if you need the group policy editor, drive encryption, remote desktop as a host, or the ability to defer feature updates instead of having them arrive on their schedule.

This image is built from the untouched installer with the licensing applied and nothing else changed. No components have been stripped, no tools have been added, no wallpaper or branding has been touched. It is offered as a direct download and as a magnet, and the two are the same image.

What Professional adds over Home

The group policy editor is the biggest practical difference, since it is how most of the annoying default behaviour gets turned off in one place rather than through a dozen separate settings pages. Drive encryption is included, remote desktop works as a host rather than only as a client, and the machine can join a domain if it ever needs to.

Update control is the other reason people pick Professional. Feature updates can be deferred, which on a working machine that has to stay predictable is worth a great deal more than getting the newest shell changes early.

Making the installer

Write the image to a USB stick of 8 GB or larger with a tool that handles the boot sector properly. The stick will be erased, so move anything off it first. On a machine with secure boot enabled the image boots without any change to firmware settings.

During setup, choose custom install rather than upgrade if you want a clean system. Upgrade keeps files and installed programs and also keeps whatever was already wrong with the previous install, which is usually why the machine is being reinstalled in the first place.

After the first boot

Activation is applied in the image, so the system reports as licensed without a key. Check it under the activation page in settings before installing anything else.

Drivers come next. The generic set that Windows installs is enough to get on the network, after which the graphics, chipset and network drivers should come from the manufacturer rather than from the update service, which tends to install older versions.

What you get

• Professional edition with group policy, drive encryption and remote desktop host
• Preactivated, no key entry required
• Multilingual, language selected during setup
• Built from the untouched installer with nothing added or removed
• Boots on machines with secure boot enabled
• Feature update deferral available
• Domain join supported
• Direct download and torrent magnet for the same image
• Clean install or in place upgrade both supported

Inside the archive

• Windows 10 Professional 64-bit ISO
• Checksum file for verifying the image
• Notes on writing the image to a USB stick
• Magnet link for the identical image

System requirements

Installing it

1. Verify the checksum against the file included with the image.
2. Write the image to a USB stick with a tool that handles boot sectors. The stick is erased.
3. Boot from the stick and pick custom install for a clean system.
4. Skip the network sign-in prompt if you want a local account.
5. Check the activation page in settings after the first boot, then install manufacturer drivers.

Mirrors

Release history

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