Windows 10 S: A New Name, Office Apps, Chrome, and More (Premium)

I wasn't expecting to write about Windows 10 S again this quickly, but a confluence of events necessitates a follow-up.

Yesterday, I wrote about my efforts to restore the Surface Laptop back to Windows 10 S and then upgrade it to the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview build so I could examine how the coming Redstone 4 release is changing things.

I experienced a number of issues trying to make this happen. But as it turns out, my timing was bad, and on a number of levels. That is, some of the issues I experienced were no doubt related to some major changes that coincidentally happened this week. So while I experienced three problematic installs of Windows 10 S over Tuesday night and Wednesday, last night I was able to get up and running successfully. And I think this latest experience is the more representative of the normal experience moving forward.

So let's talk about Windows 10 S. Again.

In Two More Questions About Windows 10 S (Premium), I noted the strange experience of trying to run the following three Microsoft-created Win32/desktop applications on Windows 10 S:

Update Assistant. This utility upgrades an install of Windows 10 to the latest version. It does not run on Windows 10 S.

Media Creation tool. This utility can be used to create USB- or DVD-based Windows 10 install media or to download the Windows 10 Setup ISO. It does not run on Windows 10 S.

Windows 10 Setup. This application, found on the Windows 10 Setup ISO/media, is used to install the latest version of Windows 10, or, from within an existing install of Windows 10, upgrade it to the latest version. It runs fine on Windows 10 S. For some reason.

I also openly questioned Windows 10 S's ability to perform more consistently over time, noting that this is almost certainly not an architectural or foundational improvement over other Windows 10 product editions. Instead, the improvement is artificial: Windows 10 S cannot install desktop applications, which often clog Startup with updaters and other boot-time tasks. And it seemed to me, at the time, that Microsoft Store apps---which can also add tasks to Startup---were barred from doing so on Windows 10 S.

That last bit, as it turns out, is incorrect. As I discovered last night after successfully installing Windows 10 S and then upgrading to the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview build, Microsoft Store apps---like Spotify---can add tasks to Startup and enable them to run automatically. I'm not sure why I wasn't seeing this before, but it is possible that just running Spotify once is what triggers this behavior.

Whatever the reason, Spotify does configure itself to launch automatically every single time you boot a Windows 10 S PC. This is bad behavior, as few people would want this. And it undercuts the Windows 10 S promise about consistent behavior over time: After all, if you install enough Store apps that create Startup tasks, the PC's performance will degrade over time.

OK, so that's interestin...