Windows 10 Pro includes everything in Windows 10 Home plus the capability to attach the computer to a corporate domain network; the Encrypting File System and BitLocker (see the “Encrypting File System and BitLocker” sidebar later in this chapter) for scrambling your hard drive’s data; Hyper-V for running virtual machines; and the software necessary for your computer to act as a Remote Desktop host — the “puppet” in an RD session. A big plus is that it allows users to postpone updates up to a year.
Windows 10 Enterprise is available only to companies that buy into Microsoft’s Volume License program — the (expensive) volume licensing plan that buys licenses to every modern Windows version. Enterprise offers a handful of additional features, but they don’t matter unless you’re going to buy a handful of licenses or more.
Windows 10 Education looks just like Windows 10 Enterprise, but it’s available only to schools, through a program called Academic Volume Licensing.
Those four editions run only on Intel and AMD processors. They’re traditional Windows.
You’ll hear increasingly about Windows 10 editions designed for ARM chips — computer chips originally designed for smartphones. In theory, those editions will work exactly the same way as their Intel/AMD brethren but can’t run desktop apps unless they are emulated.
In addition, just to make your life more complicated, many of these editions of Windows can run in S mode. Microsoft’s peddling S mode as an alternative to Chromebooks — stripped-down, fast starting, battery friendly, and somewhat impervious to infection.
WHAT HAPPENED TO WINDOWS PHONE?
Windows Phone turned into a multibillion-dollar tragedy that sent tens of thousands of people to the unemployment line and put a major drain on Finland’s economy.
Finnish company Nokia pioneered the Windows phone and sold millions of them. Nokia sales started drifting off, and Microsoft was faced with a big choice: Either prop up Nokia or lose its only major outlet for the Windows Phone software. Long story short, Microsoft sent one of its execs to lead Nokia, ultimately buying Nokia in April 2014 for $7.2 billion. Three months later, Microsoft announced it was laying off 18,000 Nokia employees.
Fifteen months later, the Nokia phone business had crashed and Microsoft wrote off $7.6 billion in acquisition costs. In May 2016, after several more rounds of layoffs and write-offs, Microsoft announced it was selling the Nokia brand and its smartphones to Foxconn, the company best known for manufacturing computers throughout Asia.
Microsoft sold the remnants of the Nokia brand for $350 million, and Foxconn immediately announced plans to sell Android phones. Windows Phone was rebranded into Windows 10 Mobile but that did not help. In December 2019, Windows 10 Mobile had reached the end of its life.
Windows Media Center — the Windows XP–era way to turn a PC into a set-top box — is no longer available in any version of Windows 10. Do yourself a favor and buy a Chromecast, or use your cable company’s DVR if you really have to record TV.
Any edition of Windows 10 running in S mode runs only apps. That bears repeating: S mode doesn’t run old-fashioned Windows programs. S mode is restricted to running just Windows 10 apps in the Microsoft Store. You can have Windows 10 Home, Pro, Enterprise, and Education, all running in S mode.
This book covers Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro. Most of the content is applicable also to Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Education. Only a little bit of the content applies to Windows 10 in S mode.
Buying the right version the first time
What if you aim too low? What if you buy Windows 10 and decide later that you really want Windows 10 Pro? Be of good cheer. Switching versions isn’t as tough as you think.
Similarly, moving from Windows 10 in S mode to just plain Windows 10 requires only a trip to the Microsoft Store.
Upgrading is easy and cheap, but not as cheap as buying the version you want the first time. That’s also why it’s important for your financial health to get the right version from the get-go.
Narrowing the choices
You can dismiss three regular Windows editions and both Windows Mobile editions out of hand:
Any Windows 10 version in S mode may work for a little while, but I’ll bet you bucks to buckaroos that you’ll get tired of it shortly. S mode is great in schools and places where admins want absolute control. It’s onerous for people who have a choice. You can’t even run the Google Chrome browser in S mode. Plan on ditching it as soon as you can.
Windows 10 Enterprise is an option only if you want to pay through the nose for five or more Windows licenses, through the Volume Licensing program. Microsoft may change its mind — either lower the price for small bunches of licenses and/or make the Enterprise version available to individuals — but as of this writing, Enterprise is out of the picture for most of you. There are some tricks, but in general they aren’t worth the hassle.
Windows 10 Education, similarly, can be purchased only in large quantities. If you’re a student, faculty member, or staff member at a licensed school, you must contact the IT department to get set up.
ENCRYPTING FILE SYSTEM AND BITLOCKER
Encrypting File System (EFS) is a method for encrypting individual files or groups of files on a hard drive. EFS starts after Windows boots: It runs as a program under Windows, which means it can leave traces of itself and the data that’s being encrypted in temporary Windows places that may be sniffed by exploit programs. The Windows directory isn’t encrypted by EFS, so bad guys (and girls!) who can get access to the directory can hammer it with brute-force password attacks. Widely available tools can crack EFS if the cracker can reboot the, uh, crackee’s computer. Thus, for example, EFS can’t protect the hard drive on a stolen laptop/notebook. Windows has supported EFS since the halcyon days of Windows 2000.
BitLocker