Microsoft recently revealed a number of new products and software at its ongoing MicrosoftEDU event in New York City. One of the biggest highlights of the event was the introduction of the company's brand new "true laptop" device, the Microsoft Surface Laptop. Aside from the laptop, the company also unveiled its new Chrome Os competitor that is geared towards the education sector, the new Microsoft Windows 10 S.
Light means fast
Being marketed as a Chrome OS alternative, the new Microsoft Windows 10 S is a stripped-down version of the full Windows 10 operating system.
The new version has been optimized to run on low to mid-end devices and has been developed particularly for the education market. Due to how it is setup, the operating system boots much faster and feels quicker overall. More importantly, it does consume much less power when compared to its full version counterpart.
Somewhat restrictive
Microsoft revealed during the event that new version would apparently only be able to run apps downloaded from the Windows Store. This doesn't mean that it will not be able to run other third-party apps, but developers will apparently need to repackage their apps and make sure that they are fully compatible with the new version before they are allowed to show up in the Windows Store for the particular OS.
Forced usage of its products
One of the biggest caveats that have been discovered with Windows 10 S is that it apparently forces users to utilizes Microsoft's software instead of any other third-party apps. Those that were able to try out the new operating system discovered that there is no longer any option to select other apps as the default app to open files.
Windows 10 S apparently forces users to use Microsoft Edge to open
The new Windows version apparently forces users to use Microsoft Edge to open HTML files and to open web page attachments. Additionally, there is also no option to select other search engines as the default search function, which means that Bing will be the default that will be used when a user wants to do an internet search.
Microsoft did mention that users can download other browsers onto the operating system, but it apparently doesn't want any other software to be used as the default.
Going Pro
For consumers who want to have the full-fledged Windows experience, Microsoft is giving the option to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro for $49. It has to be noted that Windows 10 S may be finding its way to low and medium spec laptops in the coming future, so it would pay to research beforehand if the device can run Windows 10 Pro.
