Microsoft now says that it will no longer charge customers who wish to upgrade from Windows 10 in S mode. The revelation comes after a bizarre tweet in which Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore confirmed Thurrott.com’s exclusive story that it would kill Windows 10 S and provide S mode in all mainstream Windows 10 versions.
Now, Belfiore is providing more information and is doing so via a more traditional means: A Microsoft corporate blog.
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“We’ve received feedback that the [Windows 10 S] naming was a bit confusing for both customers and partners,” he writes. “Based on that feedback, we are simplifying the experience for our customers. Starting with the next update to Windows 10, coming soon, customers can choose to buy a new Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro PC with S mode enabled, and commercial customers will be able to deploy Windows 10 Enterprise with S mode enabled.”
To be clear, this is what we wrote when we unveiled S mode: That it would arrive with the next Windows 10 update, due in about a month and called Redstone 4. Belfiore’s earlier tweet explaining S mode said that this change would come “next year.” That’s incorrect: It’s coming next month.
Best of all, however, Belfiore now says that Microsoft will no longer try to charge customers to upgrade from S mode. (Today, the upgrade from Windows 10 S to Windows 10 Pro costs $50.) So you can upgrade from the hobbled S mode in Windows 10 Home, Pro, or Enterprise to the “full” version of whichever OS product edition for free going forward. This is absolutely the correct thing to do. (We knew previously that the upgrade from Windows 10 Home in S mode to Windows 10 Home would be free.)
What isn’t said is whether this mode is a two-way street. That is, can a customer switch from a “full” version of Windows 10 to that version in S mode? I would guess no, but it seems like a mode should work that way. Perhaps this is something we’ll see in Redstone 5, and after the adoption of Windows 10 S—sorry, S mode—continues to go nowhere. Which is my expectation.
Stooks
<p>Microsoft please promise to make confusing changes to Windows, licensing, the store, UWP and Skype at least twice a year!</p><p><br></p><p>It is what customers have come to expect from you. Also at least once a year cancel some product.</p>
skane2600
<p>So instead of an additional cost, it will just be a "user confuser". Full Windows should be the default since that's what the vast majority will want and expect. IMO, just a continuation of MIcrosoft's policy of favoring its own agenda over that of customers that started with Windows 8. Ironically, this approach has actually hurt Microsoft instead of helping it. </p><p><br></p><p>Fundementally Microsoft is still following the (really) dead hand of a mobile first strategy. They should revist their pre-Windows 8 assumptions with the realization that mobile isn't going to be a thing for them.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#251323"><em>In reply to SocialDanny123:</em></a></blockquote><p>Obviously because "Windows" to the vast majority of people, means an OS that runs "Windows programs" as that term has been understood for decades. Why should an unfamiliar, limited mode be the initial state of the system? </p><p><br></p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#251348"><em>In reply to SocialDanny123:</em></a></blockquote><p>People with such modest needs would probably just use their smartphones. In any case, it's worth remembering that Full Windows functionality is a superset of S mode, so casual users would lose nothing if S mode didn't exist.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#251655"><em>In reply to JG1170:</em></a></blockquote><p>Although it's true that Chomebooks have no price advantage over Windows laptops, they are still quite cheap so it's not really credible to suggest that people buying low-end laptops are choosing Windows because of the price. They are choosing Windows primarily because of its capabilities. </p><p><br></p><p>I wouldn't count on ChromeOS eventually reaching functional parity with Windows. Adding Android apps doesn't lie along that path.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#252579"><em>In reply to JG1170:</em></a></blockquote><p>You can argue inertia with respect to any dominant product including iPhones and Android phones. Again price isn't really a factor because a low-end Windows PC and a low-end Chromebook are quite close in price.</p><p><br></p><p>We'll have to wait and see if Fuchsia will ever see the light of day as product rather than just a project. Like many projects in the early stages it's seems to be everything to everybody. Is it designed for traditional embedded systems, smartphones, or desktop devices? Who really knows.</p><p><br></p><p>An open source embedded OS not based on the Linux kernel would certainly be a good thing if it's designed properly. You can use Linux for embedded systems and it is often used for that purpose (IMO because it's free) but it wasn't designed from the ground up for that use. </p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#251369"><em>In reply to scoob101:</em></a></blockquote><p>I don't think Microsoft has stated that Win32 is "depreciated". I'd say that UWP is being promoted, but that isn't the same thing.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#251726"><em>In reply to hrlngrv:</em></a></blockquote><p>I was working under the assumption that in the future Windows 10 will be shipped only with S mode included (which seems to be the assumption tech sites are making, although the details are still sketchy). </p><p><br></p><p>Having the option at order time to choose S vs non-S is essentially what the option was before MS decided to depreciate Windows 10 S. </p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#251378"><em>In reply to Jeremy_Petzold:</em></a></blockquote><p>Well, it works the other way too. Need to deploy a batch of PCs in Full Windows mode, you have to spend extra time upgrading.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#251458"><em>In reply to CaedenV:</em></a></blockquote><p>Sure, but again applies either way.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#251650"><em>In reply to Geoff:</em></a></blockquote><p>The attitude with regard to each would be comparabile if Chromebook's OS had a long history as a full, powerful OS with many legacy programs and then Google decided to make the OS default a dumbed-down version. </p><p><br></p><p>From the beginning it was understood that Chromebooks had a limited OS so anyone who couldn't live with the limitations could just ignore it. Windows users are not in that situation.</p>