Microsoft Announces Windows 11 SE for Education

At its special education event today, Microsoft announced Windows 11 SE, a special version of Windows 11 that’s optimized for the education market.

“Today, we are addressing the needs [of the education market] with a new edition of Windows 11, purpose-built to support the K-8 classroom,” Microsoft vice president Paige Johnson notes of the release. “Windows 11 SE was designed and built during the pandemic to address the most fundamental challenges that schools will face in the blended learning world. It brings performance enhancements that optimize resources on low-cost devices to deliver more comprehensive learning experiences and is simple to deploy and manage.”

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Windows 11 SE is a far cry from Windows 10S, which Microsoft announced at an education event in May 2017. That release just artificially limited what users could install and didn’t offer any cloud-based management functionality: Microsoft’s Terry Myerson literally demonstrated how a teacher could wipe Windows 10 S-based PCs between classes using a USB stick, a decidedly unsophisticated solution.

But Windows 11 SE is more akin to what schools have come to expect from Google’s Chrome OS. It’s a lightweight version of Windows that’s optimized for the Microsoft 365 workloads that educators want, and it of course works fully offline with desktop Office applications and OneDrive. Built with feedback from educators, Windows 11 SE also supports zero-touch Windows Autopilot deployment and Intune for Education cloud management. So no more USB sticks.

In tandem with Windows 11 SE, Microsoft is also announcing a new ecosystem of first- and third-party PCs that start at just $249. Companies like Acer, ASUS, Dell, Dynabook, Fujitsu, HP, JK-IP, Lenovo, and Positivo will deliver Intel- and AMD-powered education PCs running Windows 11 SE. As will Microsoft, which is separately announcing a new Surface Laptop SE for education. Naturally, I have a separate write-up about that device.

Windows 11 SE was codenamed “Hailey,” if you’re into that kind of thing.

Tagged with

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Conversation 23 comments

  • crunchyfrog

    09 November, 2021 - 12:14 pm

    <p>Not to be confused with any other "SE" related products from the past. Seriously, they couldn’t come up with a more distinguished name for education?</p>

    • jchampeau

      Premium Member
      09 November, 2021 - 12:57 pm

      <p>My thoughts exactly.</p>

      • Paul Thurrott

        Premium Member
        09 November, 2021 - 1:08 pm

        <p>Ditto.</p>

        • Stokkolm

          09 November, 2021 - 6:09 pm

          <p>They’re probably figuring that only you old timers remember those products.</p>

    • dftf

      09 November, 2021 - 3:16 pm

      <p>Apart from <em>Windows 98 Second Edition</em>, (which was probably only named as-such as at-the-time the consumer team likely didn’t want to use the term "Service Pack", like the <em>NT</em> team, as it would sound too-technical), have there been any-other "<em>SE</em>" products?</p><p><br></p><p>(I would guess "<em>Windows 11 SE</em>" in this-context means either "Surface Edition" or "Surface for Education").</p>

      • winner

        09 November, 2021 - 11:19 pm

        <p>Or maybe "Slow Edition" or "Sucks Edition".</p>

  • polloloco51

    09 November, 2021 - 1:44 pm

    <p>It would have been better, if they just called it Windows 10E. </p><p><br></p><p>More simple, less confusing! </p>

    • polloloco51

      09 November, 2021 - 1:44 pm

      <p>Correction</p><p>^Windows 11E</p>

    • red.radar

      Premium Member
      09 November, 2021 - 2:41 pm

      <p>I think there is already an education edition that is targeted at universities. </p>

    • simont

      Premium Member
      09 November, 2021 - 5:53 pm

      <p>Microsoft is not exactly known for clear and simple. Confusing as possible is often preferred.</p>

  • madthinus

    Premium Member
    09 November, 2021 - 2:38 pm

    <p>Does it have a powerwash feature ? </p>

    • atimms

      09 November, 2021 - 4:31 pm

      <p>Yes. It’s almost a complete copy of Google.</p>

    • Donte

      11 November, 2021 - 12:26 am

      <p>InTune is getting really good. We even manage our Mac’s with it. </p>

  • red.radar

    Premium Member
    09 November, 2021 - 2:41 pm

    <p>Why the distinction of K-8? What are unique about the needs of highscool students that this version isn’t a good fit for ?</p>

    • atimms

      09 November, 2021 - 4:37 pm

      <p>There’s no restriction, it’s just a recommendation. Since only apps from a curated list are available this <strong>might</strong> be an issue for higher age groups. But the basics seems to be there.</p>

  • dftf

    09 November, 2021 - 3:19 pm

    <p>Aside from the claim of them having "tuned the performance of <em>Windows 11</em> for lower-end devices", I wonder if there is a significant benefit to using "W11SE", rather-than just Windows 11 Home and then enrolling that device into something like <em>Microsoft InTune </em>or <em>VMWare Airwatch</em>?</p><p><br></p><p>(Which you can do in <em>Windows 10 Home</em>, at-least, by going to <em>Start &gt; Settings &gt; Accounts &gt; Access work or school </em>and signing-in there. Assuming this functionality is still-present in <em>Windows 11</em>, does this solution differ significantly-enough?)</p>

    • atimms

      09 November, 2021 - 4:35 pm

      <p>Guess wait for the reviews.</p><p><br></p><p>One disadvantage of SE is apps are from a curated list(!). You can’t install anything you want. ‘you’ as in the person who manages these, end-user can’t install anything apart from PWAs.</p>

      • atimms

        09 November, 2021 - 4:40 pm

        <p>And the pricing of course!</p><p><br></p><p>Microsoft 365 A1 consisting of Win11 SE, ‘Office 365’ and Minecraft managed by Microsoft Intune. One-off charge $38 per device for 6 years cover.</p>

  • Slawson79

    Premium Member
    09 November, 2021 - 8:48 pm

    <p>I’m not sure how Microsoft believes they can gain traction in the education market at this point. In US K-12 Education Google’s ChromeOS and Chromebooks are a dominating force. Microsoft simply waited too long to respond.</p>

    • spacein_vader

      Premium Member
      10 November, 2021 - 3:36 am

      <p>Because for better or worse MS Office is the de facto standard for office applications and thus kids need to know how to use it. </p>

      • pgiftos

        Premium Member
        10 November, 2021 - 4:17 pm

        <p>Couldn’t agree more!</p>

    • Donte

      11 November, 2021 - 12:23 am

      <p>More in public k-12. My 3 kids went to private (Catholic) schools and they used Windows/Office 365 with iPads all over the place. They also had a small dedicated IT staff vs teachers pulling extra duty. </p><p><br></p><p>The parents got a vote as well. At our parish school, Google products where brought up one year but voted down. The argument of business is dominated by Windows/Office was the major point. Privacy was a close second. </p>

  • justme

    Premium Member
    11 November, 2021 - 4:22 am

    <p>I suppose my thought is why do they need a separate SKU for Windows 11 at all? Why could they not just make a Surface Education (see what I did there?) device with a tuned version of Windows 11 and tell OEMs to make hardware that has the OS tuned and market said devices as ‘SE compliant’. S, SE, RT, Me…its all just too much.</p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC