Any benefits to customization and component removal from using W11 Workstation instead of Pro?

[Anonymous Internet User]

Hi, would Windows 11 Workstation make customization or component removal any easier or more permanent than Windows 11 Pro? I heard that Workstation has more options in Group Policy than Pro, for example. Such as completely removing the Recommended section from the Start Menu. Is that true or is that the Enterprise version? There are so many parts in Windows 11 Pro that, when removed, break something completely unrelated. Would that be any different or still the same with Workstation? Thank you!

 

[garlin]

In a nutshell, Workstation is just another version of Pro edition, but tweaked out of the box for larger PC's (workstation CPU's + memory).

You get different process prioritization defaults and power profiles that favor multi-CPU systems. Otherwise, it's just a repackaged Pro with ReFS, RDMA and NVDIMM support thrown in.

Compare Windows 11 editions

The GPO policy to disable Recommended apps from the Start Menu only applies to EDU & Enterprise. But a new workaround was discovered:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer]
"HideRecommendedSection"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\Start]
"HideRecommendedSection"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\Education]
"IsEducationEnvironment"=dword:00000001

 

[Anonymous Internet User]

Thank you very much! Yeah, I knew about the expanded hardware support, which I, of course, don't need But I wasn't sure about any additional customization options, from an NTLite user perspective. Thanks for clarifying that. So, I'll stick to Pro then. Thanks for the tip on the Recommended section. Gonna try that out. Cheers

Edit: Yup, that reg workaround for the recommended section works beautifully! Thanks.