I'm considering upgrading to XP Professional from XP Home Edition, but I'd like to do some more research first. What are the major differences between the two OSes? The only thing I notice is it takes a lot longer to boot up with Professional (but I've not used it too extensively yet, so I'm sure there's more). I've heard it's more 'stable,' less likely to crash...is this true? What other features am I missing out on if I stick with Home Edition? What would you recommend and why? If this is the type of post that belongs here, I apologize, but I just wanted some advice. Thanks!

This post does belong here, but it has already been discussed SO many times in great detail. I would recommend using the search feature at the top of this site, and/or visiting the Microsoft site. The M$ site has a comparison of all the different features. As far as one being more stable than the other, no. They're both built on the same kernel. For all intents and purposes, they're the exact same OS. Pro just has some other features. Same goes for boot time. XP Pro doesn't take any longer to boot up than Home.