Should you avoid investing in PCs with Windows 10 S?
Looking to further reduce the cost of computing, Microsoft recently unveiled Windows 10 S, a version of the operating system that relies more on the cloud. The main target audience is students and the education sector, but there will be the usual push to sell these machines wide and far in the coming months. And, at a lower price (around £199), they may tempt some start-ups and businesses to invest too. But is this the right decision?
If your workers are already in the cloud with Office 365, Gmail, Google Docs and other features, then it is possible that an upgrade to Windows 10 S machines might save the company some money. However, Windows 10 S removes a lot of features that businesses may find useful, or even essential.
That includes removing access to the command line and PowerShell, and users will only be able to download apps from the Windows 10 S store, and not install many apps that are essential to their business. This does have a benefit of helping to protect non-technical users, as they won’t be able to install any unapproved apps, which is a common way that viruses and malware get into businesses that do not secure their systems.
If you do choose to acquire a machine running Windows 10 S, perhaps for testing purposes, then you will be able to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro for around £50. That will unlock the full power of the OS, but most of these PCs will be fairly modest in specification, so don’t expect them to be able to do much more than elementary office tasks.
For most businesses, sticking to Windows 10 Pro is the correct choice for security and flexibility. Windows 10 Pro is more mature and supports all the necessary apps, and has a better range of hardware on the market.
Also, with new generations of processors and memory technology from AMD and Intel hitting the PC market soon, any users needing a fast and responsive computer will be far more interested in these machines to be more productive within their business.
