Microsoft announce the Windows 10 Editions that will be available

Microsoft have released details of the various editions of Windows 10 that will be available at release. There are no real surprises in the SKUs with the main version for consumers being Windows 10 Home which includes all the standard features of Windows and then Windows 10 Pro for small / medium business which Microsoft say adds device and app management and Windows Update for Business. Microsoft doesn’t mention it in the blog post but you will probably need Pro to be able to join a domain with Windows 10.

Windows 10 Home is the consumer-focused desktop edition. It offers a familiar and personal experience for PCs, tablets and 2-in-1s. Windows 10 Home will help people do great things, both big and small. With it, they will be more productive and have more fun thanks to a long list of new innovations: Cortana, the world’s most personal digital assistant; the new Microsoft Edge web browser; Continuum tablet mode for touch-capable devices; Windows Hello face-recognition, iris and fingerprint login; and right out of the box, a broad range of universal Windows apps like Photos, Maps, Mail, Calendar, Music and Video*.

Windows 10 Pro is a desktop edition for PCs, tablets and 2-in-1s. Building upon both the familiar and innovative features of Windows 10 Home, it has many extra features to meet the diverse needs of small businesses. Windows 10 Pro helps to effectively and efficiently manage their devices and apps, protect their sensitive business data, support remote and mobile productivity scenarios and take advantage of cloud technologies. Windows 10 Pro devices are a great choice for organizations supporting Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) programs and prosumer customers. Windows 10 Pro also lets customers take advantage of the new Windows Update for Business, which will reduce management costs, provide controls over update deployment, offer quicker access to security updates and provide access to the latest innovation from Microsoft on an ongoing basis.

The other edition for consumers is Windows 10 Mobile which is the new combined OS for phones and small tablets. It means the Windows Phone name will go away and a return to the old Windows Mobile name.

Windows 10 Mobile is designed to deliver the best user experience on smaller, mobile, touch-centric devices like smartphones and small tablets. It boasts the same, new universal Windows apps that are included in Windows 10 Home, as well as the new touch-optimized version of Office. Windows 10 Mobile offers great productivity, security and management capabilities for customers who use their personal devices at work. In addition, Windows 10 Mobile will enable some new devices to take advantage of Continuum for phone, so people can use their phone like a PC when connected to a larger screen.

That is not all the editions, there is Windows 10 Enterprise for volume license customers, Windows 10 Education for schools, Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise which is the phone / small tablet version for volume licenses customers and Windows 10 for IoT for devices like the Raspberry Pi.

There is no option Windows Media Center option as there was with Windows 8.1, Microsoft have dropped support for Media Center so if you upgrade from Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center to Windows 10 you will get Window 10 Pro and Media Center will be removed.

The list of SKUs pretty much mirrors Windows 8 but with the Mobile Enterprise and Education editions being new. Nothing too surprising over all.

Via the Windows Blog.