Curious about Windows 10 S? Mary Branscombe has an in-depth report

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Most of you scoff at Windows 10 S. (For good reason, in my opinion.) But many of you don’t know the main details. Check out this article from Windows
[See the full post at: Curious about Windows 10 S? Mary Branscombe has an in-depth report]

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Elly, flackcatcher, AlexEiffel

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Something I believe would make Windows 10 S a success: if Microsoft would have “substores” within the Windows store, that is, respositories, that companies could create and put their own unique software in them. Then, if they purchase Windows 10 S for their employees, the employees could only get software from their company’s own repository within the Windows store. And each company could decide whether or not to allow their employees to install software from the main Windows Store; and perhaps they could select which Windows Store software was allowed to download and which wasn’t.

Since W10 S is so tightly integrated with the Windows Store, Microsoft needs to work with their big customers to determine what should be included in the Windows Store, so that the Windows Store will be more useful for their customers.

Citrix Receiver will address some of the things that are missing. But it would be better to allow users to run apps directly, rather than making them run them remotely via Citrix Receiver.

A glaring omission from the Windows Store is Skype for Business. We use that ALL THE TIME at my job. Skype for Business is a fantastic IM tool.

A major problem that large corporations will have with W10 S is that they can’t connect these computers to their corporate domain. That will be a deal breaker as far as the corporate world goes, but it might not be a problem for small companies. Microsoft needs to allow W10 S to connect to a corporate domain if that’s what the customer wants.

If Microsoft would correctly implement the Windows Store to include “substores” (corporate repositories within the Windows Store) AND if they would allow W10 S to connect to a corporate domain, then W10 S truly would be a good, secure, stable system for the corporate world. If Microsoft doesn’t do this, then they will miss out on a huge market which is just sitting there waiting for them.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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flackcatcher

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If I’m not mistaken, it’s not just having to go through the Windows Store. I think Win10S only supports UWP apps on the machine – NOT your big business fodder.

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Very interesting.

There are very good arguments why Windows S in theory would be the best solution for many people, including many sysadmins. SMB sysadmins need simple management tools and simple to manage systems, just like home users needs simpler management of their PC. In theory, Microsoft could disable lots of things that are useless to many people in Windows, focusing on a simpler environment to run software, less attack surface, cleaner way to handle uninstalls… and thus a speedier, more secure system.

However, it lacks the reality check that the store apps are not good enough, that the browser restriction is a problem and that you can’t trust Microsoft to make the best choice for you in terms of how it will evolve Windows and offering you an acceptable privacy option when you use their product. If they didn’t constantly added dubious features, bloat and quite insecure or not privacy friendly novelties, and mostly if it didn’t have a huge legacy of software it can’t carry forward because they won’t be converted to the store, Windows S might be a good idea. That’s a lot to ask compared to what they made available. And when they play me-too and ask people to join them in their new model, what value do they bring compared to the competition? The legacy apps that will have been converted to the new model?

Which is worse at MS right now? The idea, the design around the idea or the execution?

 

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MikeFromMarkham, lurks about, flackcatcher

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Why i sense that the review is more about Surface Laptop not Windows 10 S edition itself?
whatever it can do, other editions can do

the store-apps restriction is the only notable feature

and if it’s that good, why Microsoft extended the free Pro upgrade fot it? 😀

BTW, in the next Windows 10 version 1709, the user would be able to switch between these editions by only changing activation key (i.e. spare the actual upgrade process):

S
Pro
Pro for Education
Pro for Advanced PCs
Enterprise
Education

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