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.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
293 Comments
View All Comments
Notmyusualid - Friday, August 28, 2015 - link
I run a Galaxy S5, Android has a fake Google account, using Cyangenmod as the fork OS, which comes with Privacy Guard by default. I can tell each and every app (as they pop up for permissions), that they cannot have access to say, my contacts, location, camera, photos, etc. Google Syncs nothing, everything turned off - I save my contacts to a file, and via microSD card they are transferred from phone to phone as I upgrade them.You really only need the Google account to access the Play Store, and yes, I do side-load some apps. Having no Samsung account, my Gear apps won't download, so I grab a working apk from a place I've known for some time. I have never ever made an app purchase on Android. Only once on Crapple some years ago (Shazam - now free also).
Every now and again, Android asks me to 'Review my Account', which is their way of trying to force me to add Paypal, or a Credit/Debit card to the account. No chance.
I change the Google account every two years too.
I don't use social media.
Text messages are not seen by apps, due to Pirvacy Guard.
Any more Q's?
Ratman6161 - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
If none of your phones "send anything to the cloud" I'd like to see how you accomplish that. With either iOS or Android are you saying you don't use any apps at all? Or you side load every app you use (don't think iOS would let you do that anyway but not an Apple user).If you are getting any apps from the respective app store you have to be logging into them and providing them a credit card and other information to make the purchase.
Are you saying you either don't get email or have your own mail server so you can avoid the cloud? You never use any social media from your phone?
Use a navigation app? How do you do that without your location going to the cloud?
This is all kind of difficult to believe. For most, a smart phone would be next to useless without at least some cloud services such as email.
Or are you saying you don't use a smart phone and when you say "none of my phones" you mean old feature phones ... oh wait, even text messages could be considered sending your data to the cloud.
Notmyusualid - Friday, August 28, 2015 - link
Ratmann, see my answer above.groberts116 - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
Troll Alert: More misinformation about Windows 10. A lot of wasted time writing a comment that is totally inaccurate. Windows 10 does not read your email or look for any applications for files other than to insure Microsoft Software on our systems has a valid product key.superflex - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
Says the M$ sockpuppet.ppi - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
Using link from RT.com completely discredits your argument, as it is site full of deliberate lies. Half-an-hour watching RT.com TV (when I was genuinely looking for alternative view on Ukraine crisis) was more than enough for me to understand this site is total rubbish.Obviously, if you save data on OneDrive, and court orders to give your data away, MS has to comply. If SWAT comes to your home, they will look in your computer as well.
And citing Technical Preview EULA is unfair. And incorrect.
sonny73n - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
@ppiYour opinion worths trash. You should go back to watching Fox News which is more suited for your perspective.
ppi - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
@sonny73n: You are making incorrect assumption, that I am basing my opinion on RT.com on what they say on Russia/Ukraine. No, I made that conclusion based on what they said on my country and my region, and which were blatant manipulative lies/disinformations. Also, RT.com spreads any fitting conspiracy theory available, no matter how crazy they are.I actually wonder what makes you believe RT.com is reliable source of information for anything else other than things like KHL results.
Michael Bay - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
[muh offended stereotypes intensifies]Oh no, RT didn`t blame Russia for everything, alarm!
Notmyusualid - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
Here, this picture might help you some more:http://i.imgur.com/p2DYhbd.jpg
Kinda spells out the whole privacy issue for me... so much so, I won't be upgrading my Win 7 Pro to Win 10 Pro.
My spare laptop received a free copy of Win 10, and I have a firewall on it, to prevent the Microsoft packet leaks.