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 interesting, and is worth noting. But I have bigger issues to discuss today. So let’s dive in.

First, in the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview build, Windows 10 S has been renamed. That is, it’s no longer called Windows 10 S. Now, the name is Windows 10 Pro in S mode.

Microsoft has used this phrase before. And it is descriptive, in the sense that Windows 10 S is based on Windows 10 Pro but has certain capabilities—the ability to run non-bundled Win32/desktop applications or install Windows Subsystem for Linux environments—stripped out. So Windows 10 S is rightfully thought of as a subset of Windows 10 Pro. Put another way, you might think of Windows 10 Pro as a “mode” of Windows 10 S in that adds new features. It is a more powerful mode.

Well, Microsoft doesn’t think of it that way. And, to be fair, the way Windows is configured, Microsoft’s naming convention does make sense. The question, of course, is why the name change.

I have a theory.

As you may know, Microsoft’s original promise was that Windows 10 S users would have some number of days—they’ve extended the deadline at least once—to transition their PCs to Windows 10 Pro. This is possible because Windows 10 S, basically, is Windows 10 Pro: The bits needed to make this configuration change are right there on the disk, and it takes only a minute or so and one reboot to make it happen.

I argued in the past that Microsoft would just quietly keep extending the upgrade timeframe because, after all, Windows 10 S would be unsuitable for most users, especially in its first year. That the timeframe would really be infinite, since why on earth would Microsoft strand customers.

And I think that explains the name change: Windows 10 S is Windows 10 Pro, it’s just in S mode out of the box. If you want to upgrade—well, let’s say transition—the PC to “full” Windows 10 Pro, to disable S mode, you can do so. At any time.

Just a theory.

Two other things happened this week just as I was trying to enroll Surface Laptop in the Insider Program. And at least one of these events triggered some of the issues I originally had.

First, Microsoft issued a new Windows 10 Insider Preview build, 17083. This build more clearly represents what Microsoft will deliver in Redstone 4, and it no longer includes the Sets feature, since the software giant has decided to punt it to Redstone 5.

That was the right decision: The Surface Laptop install of the previous Insider build was buggy and problematic, but it was the first time I’d had the change to experience Sets without using one of Rafael’s hack. And it was pretty terrible: The UI was ugly, and Sets didn’t even work with desktop applications like File Explorer. Microsoft was correct to push this feature debut back. It just wasn’t ready.

Second, Microsoft quietly released the Office 365 Personal and Home apps in the Store. You may recall that Windows 10 S had previous access to these apps for the past several months. And this meant that I should have been able to install them on Surface Laptop. But over the previous two days, my installs of these apps—as part of a suite or individually, I tried both ways—never worked properly. The best I got happened on the third attempt when Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2016 all installed but would not activate.

Since those apps are now officially in the Store, I’m guessing that my issues were tied to some transition between the preview and the current non-preview releases. But whatever the reason, I’m up and running with the full suite of Office 2016 apps from the Store: Access, Excel, OneNote (which you have to install separately, because Microsoft), PowerPoint, Publisher, and Word are all available and running correctly.

Which sort of resets the Windows 10 S—sorry, Windows 10 Pro in S mode—value proposition when you think about it. The availability of full Office in this restricted Windows 10 version goes a long ways to making the system usable by many.

Yes, the same old issues apply. You can’t install driver sets or utilities, or that one desktop application you need to get through the day. But the single biggest issue that remains is, of course, Microsoft Edge. The performance is not great. And it simply doesn’t yet offer an elegant way to run web apps, especially Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), though that support is allegedly coming in RS4. I don’t see it, yet.

Put another way, the real problem is here Google.

That is, if I could have anything in Windows 10 S, if I could choose just one thing that would put this system over the top, it would be Google. That could take one of two forms: A full-featured version of Chrome that is made available through the Microsoft Store. Or, Google’s web apps—Gmail, Google Calendar, and so on—available as PWA-based apps in the Store.

And you just know that neither of those things is going to happen anytime soon.

[I’ve noted in the past that this impasse is Microsoft’s fault](https:// www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/148310/no-chrome-store-still-microsofts-fault). Because it is. But let’s flip the script for a moment. Why on earth would Google ever help Windows 10 S succeed by doing either of things? It just doesn’t make sense.

Remember, Microsoft announced Windows 10 S as part of a massive education push last May, and it very clearly targeted Chrome OS and the inexpensive Chromebooks on which it runs. Once a source of jokes, Chromebooks are, in fact, hugely successful. And just this week, Google announced that Chromebook penetration worldwide—not just in the US, but worldwide—is a lot higher than most would perhaps believe. Here’s the chart.

The rise in popularity of Chromebooks in education is undeniable, in fact it looks like the spread of a disease. If Chromebook deployment stalled, Google might consider putting Chrome on Windows 10 S, or supporting this system generally. But given how things are going, Google would be crazy to do so. It’s already winning. Why aid the enemy?

So, we’ll see. But only Microsoft can step back from the cliff and let Google Chrome into the Store with its rendering engine. They can call Google’s bluff and see if that one change would make this release happen. And in doing so, Microsoft wouldn’t just help its customers. It would help its education efforts too. Sounds like a smart idea to me.