Why Does My Windows 10 Home Edition Have Remote Desktop and BitLocker?

why-does-my-windows-10-home-edition-have-remote-desktop-and-bitlocker photo 1

It is no secret that the Home Editions of Windows systems have had certain features trimmed out or made inaccessible without an upgrade, so why would a person see features that are supposedly not included? Today’s SuperUser Q&A post has the answer to a confused reader’s question.

Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites.

The Question

SuperUser reader iranano wants to know why Windows 10 Home Edition has Remote Desktop functionality:

I have a laptop with Windows 10 Home Edition preinstalled on it and successfully activated, but I see that it has Remote Desktop and BitLocker functionality.

I have heard it said that the Home Edition of Windows 10 is not supposed to have the Remote Desktop or BitLocker features though. Is there something different about OEM versions like the one installed on my laptop?

Why does Windows 10 Home Edition have Remote Desktop?

The Answer

SuperUser contributors Ben N and Ramhound have the answer for us. First up, Ben N:

You have the Remote Desktop client on your system, something that comes with all editions of Windows as I recall. Therefore, you can remotely log into other computers that support it.

Your laptop, however, does not have the server part of Remote Desktop, so you cannot connect to your laptop remotely from anywhere else. The server part only comes with the Pro and Enterprise Editions of Windows (and Windows Server).

Followed by the answer from Ramhound (regarding BitLocker):

It is worth pointing out that Windows 10 Home Edition can actually mount volumes encrypted by BitLocker.


Have something to add to the explanation? Sound off in the comments. Want to read more answers from other tech-savvy Stack Exchange users? Check out the full discussion thread here.

Article Why Does My Windows 10 Home Edition Have Remote Desktop and BitLocker? compiled by Original article here

More stories

How to Schedule Your Ecobee3 to Go Into Vacation Mode

If you’re going on vacation soon, and don’t want to be bothered changing the thermostat as you’re trying to wrangle the family, the Ecobee3 actually allows you to schedule the thermostat to go into an away mode ahead of time.

How to Add an App Drawer to the LG G5’s Home Screen

LG did something weird with the G5: it completely removed the app drawer in the stock launcher, and tossed all apps on the the home screens, like in iOS. I get that some people probably like this—maybe even prefer it—but I’m sure it’s off-putting to many others. If you’d like to give the stock

How to See When a Text Message was Sent on Your iPhone

By default, the iPhone’s Messages app shows you the date and time for the first message on any given day, but not for every message sent and received. However, the exact time each message was sent is hidden–but there’s an easy way to show all the exact timestamps.

How to Prevent Windows from Automatically Updating Specific Drivers

Windows–especially Windows 10–has a bad habit of installing new updates for hardware drivers whether you want them or not. You could go big and simply prevent Windows from downloading updates altogether, or you might have luck blocking or hiding updates. But if you’ve got the Pro or Enterprise