The Windows 10 Review: The Old & New Face of Windows
by Brett Howse on August 25, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Operating Systems
- Microsoft
- Windows 10
Windows 10 Editions
Branding Windows has been somewhat hit and miss over the last couple of generations. Microsoft took the entire exercise a bit too far over the Windows Vista and Windows 7 period, with a lot of different versions that had different features available. With Windows 8, they moved to just a couple of different versions which simplified the selection. Windows 8 Core was the one most people needed, and Pro offered a few more features that most home users would not need, such as the ability to join a domain, or use Remote Desktop. There was also an edition for volume license customers called Enterprise, and it contained every feature.
Windows 10 continues down this path, but rebrands the home version Home again. That makes a lot of sense since the “core” branding on Windows 8 was kind of silly.
Once again, there are two basic versions which you can purchase. Windows 10 Home, and Windows 10 Pro are both going to be offered in retail sales, and once again there is a volume license version called Enterprise, and another carryover from is a special version of Enterprise for education, called, you guessed it, Education.
Education and Enterprise are almost identical, with only a couple of differences. But most of us are going to be using Windows 10 Home or Pro.
As before, Windows 10 Home is a subset of Pro, with Pro offering features that are aimed more towards business users. The one big exception is Bitlocker support, which is Microsoft’s drive encryption software. Many people were hoping to see this come to the Home version for this round, but alas, that is not the case.
All versions except Home also support a new Windows Update for Business service, which is a method for companies to deploy and manage updates. Windows Server Update Services is the existing method for this, and that also still exists for customers who want to keep that level of control.
Speaking of updates, Windows 10 no longer offers a way to disable Windows Updates in the settings page. Pro will let you defer feature updates, but not security updates, and Enterprise versions will offer a long term servicing branch option, but the goal here is to keep Windows up to date going forward.
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zman58 - Thursday, October 15, 2015 - link
"worlds largest and most obnoxious spyware"We really don't know exactly what data it sends back on the user and their system(s) do we? The EULA does not detail this for us. In fact, the EULA has you agree to whatever they desire from your system--for improving the product. The spyware option is purely opt-out, for those of us who know what opt-out means and are capable of figuring out how to opt-out.
Then once you can/do opt-out, how can you be assured you will remain opted-out through upgrades, hot-fixes, patches, and what-not?
Bottom line is that the vendor decides what and when they want to collect data from your system, you have absolutely no control over them. Read the EULA and consider what it means before you click "I agree". You might not want to click that button...
Perhaps using an alternative reliable, safe, secure, and private operating system might be a better approach. ...Well hello there Linux.
bs grinder - Tuesday, December 26, 2017 - link
thanxjohn
ddriver - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
"The privacy concerns are certainly not overblown, but for most people, they will make the trade-off of less privacy if it means an improved experience. The textbook example here is advertising, where in order to deliver relevant ads to the user"Ah yeas, I bet the whole world rejoices being able to give up their privacy to be blasted with ads. It is a great trade-off indeed.
"If you are concerned, the best thing to do is to read the privacy statement and adjust your settings accordingly."
I bet that's the best you can do, pretending that somehow clicking a button or two magically makes all problems go away
Also, I see a catch in those "privacy settings". You seem to only be able to turn off "sending MS info", but that doesn't imply that data is still not being mined and sent anywhere else.
imaheadcase - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
You are aware these settings are present in almost almost win OS? The only privacy stuff they collect is related to MS services, onedrive, etc. Just because win 10 gave people options (gasp!) vs win 8 and 7 does not mean those did not, and still do have it.ddriver - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
No they are not. Especially if you bother to watch what updates you install. For example, MS will try to sneak in the "telemetry" data miner service on your windows 7 as an update, but it is not there to begin with.I haven't used and will likely never use a windows version after 7, but in a "clean" windows 7 install none of the win 10 invasions of privacy are present. It doesn't keylog, it doesn't listen to speech, it doesn't analyze text or file content and it doesn't report everything you do back home.
Oh, and you can also chose not to install certain updates, whereas with the "nice free" windows 10 MS get to deploy on your system whatever it wants - all in the name of your comfort.
Michael Bay - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
Your religious belief in 7 is amusing, at least.ddriver - Thursday, August 27, 2015 - link
If anyone around here is a believer, that is you, believing MS are trustworthy that is.Gigaplex - Friday, August 28, 2015 - link
If you don't trust MS, you shouldn't be using any version of Windows.althaz - Thursday, August 27, 2015 - link
FYI: Windows 7 collects telemetry by default. It was turned off by default in Vista and XP, but most OEMs turned it on for you. So Win 10 is collecting the same information as Windows XP, Vista and 7 (and 8), for most people.yuhong - Friday, August 28, 2015 - link
Does Win10 really "keylog" outside of search boxes and the like? search suggestions are not new either. There is no evidence that Win10 can read arbitrary files either.