What the Windows 10 S Upgrade Extension Really Means (Premium)

As I noted yesterday, Microsoft has extended its free Windows 10 Pro upgrade offer for Windows 10 S users by another three months. What does this say about the state of Windows 10 S?

Honestly? Nothing.

Like Microsoft, I noted this change in a post about Surface Laptop availability. And it’s easy, given Microsoft’s tendency to cherry-pick the information it shares externally, to see that as an attempt at burying the real story. I mean, Microsoft doesn’t even mention this grace period extension in its own headline about this subject, as I did.

Thus, my knee-jerk reaction—“Windows 10 S is DOA”—was the same as yours, I’d imagine: Windows 10 S is such a non-starter that Microsoft has been forced to extend the availability of the free upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. Interacting with others on Twitter, that’s certainly the reaction I saw. Some even speculated that the version of iTunes that’s coming to the Windows Store has been delayed, as if that would somehow bear on the masses trying to use Windows 10 S today.

But in reflecting on this change, and in re-reading what Microsoft did write about it, I find myself in a more nuanced position. This is Microsoft simply doing the right thing. And instead of silently extending the deadline later in the year, they’ve actually communicated the change in the time and place that makes the most sense for its customers.

So let’s re-read Microsoft’s description of this change.

“For those that find they need an application that isn’t yet available in the Store and must be installed from another source, we’re extending the ability to switch from Windows 10 S to Windows 10 Pro for free until March 31, 2018,” the software giant explains. “We hope this provides increased flexibility for those people searching for the perfect back-to-school or holiday gift.”

In other words, in a post in which Microsoft is announcing an availability expansion of its most desirable Surface portable PC ever, one which is (yes, inexplicably) based on Windows 10 S, the firm is likewise announcing that it is safe for people to buy these machines now. Whether they’re for back-to-school or a holiday gift. Some won’t unwrap that expensive gift until, say, Christmas Day, just 6 short days before the initial offer expires. So this change makes a Surface Laptop purchase a safer bet. Today. And throughout the holiday period.

And that, ultimately, is what matters most. Not the (supposedly) lost revenue from some future and imagined Windows 10 Pro upgrades, but the (very real) lost sales that might have otherwise resulted from not doing this.

If you listen to Windows Weekly, you know that Mary Jo and I often discuss this type of internal (to Microsoft) calculation, where the firm must disadvantage one of its offerings to benefit another. These decisions are made pragmatically. And today, in the wake of the Consumer Reports reliability debacle, making sure that shaky consumer confidence in Surface is rectified matters a lot more to Microsoft than some future Windows 10 Pro upgrades that may or may not ever happen.

But, again, this change doesn’t say anything (new) about Windows 10 S. Because nothing has changed since Surface Laptop and this OS was first announced.

The Windows 10 S value proposition—with its “streamlined security and performance … and verified apps in the Windows Store”—is almost non-existent. That is, the positive aspects of Windows 10 S—again, better security, reliability, and performance—are empty promises, and are today non-verifiable. But Windows 10 S’s negatives—the big one being that it is incompatible with Windows desktop applications, the only applications that matter at all on Windows—are very much real.

What Microsoft is doing here, then, is removing the nagging question that potential Surface Laptop buyers should be having. Which is, can I quickly, easily, and for free, remove Windows 10 S and upgrade to Windows 10 Pro? And the answer, for now, is yes.

I assume that many readers have wondered about an obvious solution to this problem: Why doesn’t Microsoft simply offer Surface Laptop for purchase with the buyer’s choice of Windows 10 S or Windows 10 Pro? That way, customers could get what they really want, and even if the versions that came with Windows 10 Pro cost a bit more, it would probably make some sense to do this.

Except for one thing: Were Microsoft to offer Surface Laptop with a “real” version of Windows 10, that is what customers would choose. Almost literally every single time. And in such a situation, that choice would become public very quickly.

Today, by only providing Windows 10 S in the box, Microsoft achieves two goals. One is that it can hide the rate at which customers upgrade to Windows 10 Pro, a rate I assume is close to 100 percent. And two, it can simplify its manufacturing processes, and thus lower its costs. Which is important, because Microsoft doesn’t sell that many PCs compared to established PC makers and it simply doesn’t have the capacity to offer many choices. (This explains why this week, over three months after Microsoft first announced Surface Laptop, that it is finally offering the device in multiple colors—its key selling point—outside of the U.S.)

But stuck between a rock and a hard place—yes, of its own making—Microsoft is still doing the right thing. For both itself and its customers. And while this isn’t the perfect outcome for consumers, it’s better than it needs to be. So I’ll shelve the snark for a day and give Microsoft a pass on this one. Windows 10 S is not ready for prime time, and Microsoft is not able to publicly admit that, but it is still doing the right thing.