Evening Washington
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • latest news
  • USA News
  • World
  • Other
    • TECH
    • Health
    • Fashion
    • Sports
    • Business
No Result
View All Result
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • latest news
  • USA News
  • World
  • Other
    • TECH
    • Health
    • Fashion
    • Sports
    • Business
No Result
View All Result
Evening Washington
No Result
View All Result
Home TECH

Windows 10 S becoming a mode, not a version, as Microsoft shakes up its pricing

admin by admin
February 6, 2018
in TECH
0
Windows 10 S becoming a mode, not a version, as Microsoft shakes up its pricing
0
SHARES
0
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

RELATED POSTS

Android app downloaded millions of times from Google Play Store has serious security flaws

Ransomware hack cripples United Health Services hospitals, facilities across the US

EnlargeMicrosoft

With the next big update to Windows 10, version 1803, Microsoft is making some big changes to how it sells the software to OEMs. The biggest casualty? Windows 10 S—the restricted version of Windows that can only run apps from the Store—is going away.

Currently, Windows 10 S is a unique edition of Windows 10. It's based on Windows 10 Pro; Windows 10 Pro has various facilities that enable system administrators to restrict which software can be run, and Windows 10 S is essentially a preconfigured version of those facilities. In addition to locking out arbitrary downloaded programs, it also prevents the use of certain built-in Windows features such as the command-line, PowerShell, and Windows Subsystem for Linux.

For those who can't abide by the constraints that S imposes, you can upgrade 10 S to the full 10 Pro. This upgrade is a one-shot deal: there's no way of re-enabling the S limitations after upgrading to Pro. It's also a paid upgrade: while Microsoft offered it as a free upgrade for a limited time for its Surface Laptop, the regular price is $49.

When announcing Windows 10 S, Microsoft expressed the hope that other premium devices would ship with the version. This doesn't appear to have happened; aside from Surface Laptop, the other Windows 10 S devices are all low-end, aimed at education markets. Among these, Microsoft's figures say that some 60 percent remain on Windows 10 S. Of those who switch, 60 percent do so within 24 hours, but of those who keep Windows 10 S for a week, 83 percent never upgrade to Pro.

Brad Sams of Thurrott.com writes that, for Windows 10 version 1803 (codenamed "Redstone 4"), this is changing. According to leaked documents provided to Microsoft's partners, with version 1803, Windows 10 S will be a mode of Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Education, and Windows 10 Pro, rather than a distinct version. Switching Windows 10 Home S and Windows 10 Education S to regular Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Education will be free; switching from Pro S to Pro will continue to cost $49.

Redstone 4 is also bringing a new system of OEM pricing that will tie what OEMs pay to the hardware specs of the system they're selling. This isn't the first time Microsoft has done this, but the new scheme appears to be finer grained, with five different tiers: Entry, Value, Core, Core+, and Advanced.

CPU RAM Storage Screen Price
Entry Intel Atom/Celeron/Pentium ≤ 4GB ≤ 32GB ≤ 14.1" (notebook)
≤ 11.6" (2-in-1/tablet)
≤ 17" (all-in-one)
$25
Value ≤ 64GB SSD
≤ 500GB HD
$45
Core Anything better than Entry or Value, but not up to Core+ or Advanced $65.45
Core+ Intel Core m3/i5/i7
AMD Ryzen 3/5/7
≤ 16GB ≥ 2TB < 4K $86.66
Advanced Intel Core i9 Any Any Any $101
Core i7 with 6 or more cores
AMD ThreadRipper
Core i7 ≥ 16GB
AMD Ryzen 7
Any Any ≥ 4K

These prices and hardware configurations apply to the Home edition; Pro and Pro for Workstations have their own pricing schemes.

This repositioning of S as a mode rather than a version makes sense. How the details will work in practice, however, is not immediately clear. Current Windows 10 Pro can't revert to Windows 10 S without a full reinstall. This means that there's no ability to, for example, switch to the unlocked operating system to troubleshoot or perform one-off driver installation and then revert to the safer, locked down mode for normal operation. This makes 10 S much less appealing than it might otherwise be for, say, kids' PCs.

The leaked documents also say that S mode will be opened up to certain anti-virus and security apps. Again, it's not clear quite what this means: the value of 10 S is that it prevents access to arbitrary programs. Anti-virus and security software is typically highly invasive, requiring not just administrative privileges but also custom kernel-mode drivers. Allowing such programs to be installed on 10 S undermines the very protections that the mode is supposed to offer.

Original Article

Ars Technica

ShareTweetPin
admin

admin

Related Posts

Android app downloaded millions of times from Google Play Store has serious security flaws

Android app downloaded millions of times from Google Play Store has serious security flaws

by admin
November 24, 2020
0

Android users need to be aware of a serious security issue with a hugely popular Google Play Store app that's been...

Ransomware hack cripples United Health Services hospitals, facilities across the US

Ransomware hack cripples United Health Services hospitals, facilities across the US

by admin
October 19, 2020
0

A nationwide cyberattack has crippled operations at Universal Health Services, one of the nation’s l..

Save the Children? Extremist conspiracy movement QAnon fabricates pedophile claims against Biden as election looms

Save the Children? Extremist conspiracy movement QAnon fabricates pedophile claims against Biden as election looms

by admin
October 19, 2020
0

President Donald Trump recently shared a tweet with his 86 million followers that accused his Democr..

Microsoft 365 suffers outage across the US

Microsoft 365 suffers outage across the US

by admin
October 19, 2020
0

Microsoft 365 was down across the United States Monday evening, affecting users’ access to multiple ..

Trump or Biden: Who won the first presidential debate? Social media picked a winner

by admin
October 19, 2020
0

Social media was abuzz with reactions to Tuesday night’s political debate, and data suggests that Am..

Next Post
Philip Hammond to Boris Johnson: No Brexit dividend for NHS

Philip Hammond to Boris Johnson: No Brexit dividend for NHS

Most Irish voters would vote in favor of legalizing abortion: poll

Most Irish voters would vote in favor of legalizing abortion: poll

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Sport

Mets retaining Luis Rojas as manager

Mets retaining Luis Rojas as manager

November 24, 2020
Nets no longer focused on James Harden trade pursuit

Nets no longer focused on James Harden trade pursuit

November 24, 2020
  • 21.4M Fans
  • 79 Followers
  • 93.2k Subscribers
  • 657 Followers
  • 22.9k Followers

MOST VIEWED

  • ‘Amphan’ may bring first flood of year in Assam: CWC

    ‘Amphan’ may bring first flood of year in Assam: CWC

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Where to buy Bitcoin in the UK and how does it work

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Russia Scores Gold In Women’s Figure Skating, Leaving USA Ladies Without Medals

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Goth crocs with spikes and chains exist – and the internet kind of likes them

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • 24 Of Genie Bouchard’s Sexiest Shots Off The Court [SLIDESHOW]

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

CATEGORY

  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Business
  • Europe
  • Fashion
  • Health
  • latest news
  • Sports
  • TECH
  • Uncategorized
  • USA News
  • World

SITE LINKS

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
  • Landing Page
  • All Features
  • Get JNews
  • Contact

© 2020 eveningwashington.com.

No Result
View All Result
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • latest news
  • USA News
  • World
  • Other
    • TECH
    • Health
    • Fashion
    • Sports
    • Business

© 2020 eveningwashington.com.