Windows 10 S

Microsoft Windows 10 S - launch

May 2017

Microsoft has announced a new version of Windows 10 called Windows 10 S.

The S could be considered to stand for Student as its an educational "focused" version but in some ways Store is more apt as it will ONLY work with programs downloaded from the Microsoft Store. Programs that are "desktop" apps loaded either from CD, USB or downloads from anywhere other than Microsoft's Store can not be installed.

Do not assume someone will find a work round for desktop "apps" - this is very very unlikely. Microsoft have developed a mechanism but this requires the program developer to specially wrap and adjust the program so that it can go into the Microsoft Store, which Microsoft have to approve. This can not be done by an individual on a program they did not write . So anything not in the Store can not be used.

Peripherals

Do not assume existing peripherals (eg printers) will work with Windows 10S, in some cases there may be an issue even though the peripheral works with Windows 10 Home/Pro (eg drivers should be Ok but utilities may not be)

Features

The underlying features of Windows 10S are more similar to Windows 10 Pro than Home because more security and management features are included.

The range of features of the hardware supplied with Windows 10 S could be quite large but at the time of writing only a few products have been announced.

Some machines are intended to be low cost and therefore presumably low(ish) spec whilst a few are high spec (eg Microsoft has launched a Surface Laptop)

It is possible some of the low spec machines will not include a USB port but this seems unlikely.

Upgrade to Windows 10 Pro

At the time of launch Microsoft stated that it is possible to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. However please check the details and charges carefully before purchasing.

An upgraded machine will be a Windows 10 Pro machine and so should run SuperView 25 Rplus fine (assuming the machine spec is not too low). In effect this is a rather roundabout way of purchasing a Windows 10 Pro machine NB there is no facility to downgrade back to 10 S.

Presumably because of the security features in Windows 10S that Windows Home does not have there appears to be no mechanism to upgrade to Home.

Windows with Bing

There is a version called Windows with Bing - that is different to Windows S and is specially licensed but is otherwise very similarly featured to the corresponding Windows Home version (ie 10 with Bing=> Windows 10 Home). Windows 8 with Bing was available on a number of low cost tablets, Windows 10 with Bing is available on similar types of machines

Windows 8 RT revisited ?

If you do not remember RT that is not a surprise - it was not a success and that's being very kind!

However RT had similar aims to Win 10S but the main difference (from a users point of view) is that 10S uses the "familiar" desktop interface not the Tile interface of Windows 8. However the main restriction - that they only run Microsoft Store Apps is very similar (although technically not identical)

SuperView

Current versions of SuperView (eg 25-Rplus) are not available through the Microsoft Store so they can not be installed on Windows 10S.

 However we are developing a version that could be - so please contact us if you are interested - however do NOT purchase hardware using Windows 10 S on the assumption we will release a version - please contact us first.

Older versions of SuperView are also not available (and never will be) to install/run on Windows 10 S.