7 Editions of Windows 10

Windows 10 is coming this summer in 190 countries and 111 languages. Microsoft just cleared up some of the confusion around the different varieties of Windows 10 that will be available when it ships later this year.

The company confirmed Wednesday that the operating system will come in seven different editions, including desktop and mobile versions for homes and businesses, along with offerings for schools and the Internet of Things.

This isn't the first time Microsoft has offered different versions of its software — Windows 8 shipped in a number of different editions as well — but this marks the first time Microsoft has clearly outlined exactly how it's positioning its different Windows 10 experiences.

"We designed Windows 10 to deliver a more personal computing experience across a range of devices," Microsoft's Tony Prophet wrote in a blog post. "An experience optimized for each device type, but familiar to all. Windows 10 will power an incredibly broad range of devices – everything from PCs, tablets, phones, Xbox One, Microsoft HoloLens and Surface Hub."

As with Windows 8, the consumer-ready editions are focused on desktop and mobile.

Windows 10 Home:

This is the "consumer-focused desktop edition" that will replace Windows 8 Consumer and the one most users will see on their PCs, laptops, tablets and "hybrid" 2-in-1 devices. It will ship with Cortana and Microsoft's Edge browser and have Continuum capabilities. Xbox users will also be able to play Xbox Live games on PCs with Windows 10 Home.

Windows 10 Mobile:

Formerly Windows Phone 8.1, this edition will run on smartphones and tablets with smaller displays. It will run universal Windows 10 apps and the new Office apps optimized for smaller touchscreen devices.

For companies, Microsoft is offering two business-focused desktop editions, depending on the size of the organization.

Windows 10 Pro:

Meant to replace Windows 8.1 Pro, it's designed for small businesses, with extra features to allow companies to manage apps and data across devices. Windows 10 Pro users can also take advantage of Microsoft's new Windows Update for Business program, which makes it easier for organizations to control how they get security and other updates from Microsoft.

Windows 10 Enterprise:

This edition replaces Windows 8.1 Enterprise and is designed for larger companies. It has more robust security features and also supports the Windows Update for Business program. Enterprise customers aren't able to take advantage of Microsoft's free Windows 10 update as it's only available to volume licensing customers.

Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise:

Formerly Windows Phone for Business, Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise is the enterprise edition for smartphones and smaller tablets. Also available to volume licensing customers, it gives companies more control over security features and how updates are installed.

Finally, Microsoft is adding new editions for schools and connected devices.

Windows 10 Education:

The academic edition's feature set is similar to the enterprise edition in that it gives admins more control over how updates and security features are managed and is available through academic volume licensing. Microsoft also says there will be "paths for schools and students using Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro devices to upgrade to Windows 10 Education."

Windows 10 IoT Core:

This edition appears to be the replacement for Windows Embedded and will power smaller connected devices, like gateways. (Larger-scale devices like ATMs and retail point-of-sale devices will run versions of Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise, Microsoft says.)

Microsoft notes the company is "on track" for a summer release for Windows 10, though exact availability details are still unclear. Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for the first year to most consumers who already have licenses for Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1.

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Microsoft Edge will be safer than Internet Explorer

Microsoft decided to develop an all-new web-browser, Microsoft Edge, for the launch of Windows 10. Little by little, Microsoft is revealing additional information about Microsoft Edge, its upcoming browser replacement for Internet Explorer. Not only does Microsoft Edge have a new look and feel and a new rendering engine — it also has a new take on security, web standards and legacy code.

On its Microsoft Edge Dev Blog the Edge Dev team has been busy posting information about what the browser will have — and what it will leave out.

The company stated:

"This fundamentally changes the process model, so that both the outer manager process, and the assorted content processes, all live within app container sandboxes. This provides the user and the platform with the confidence provided by other Windows store apps.”

Microsoft Edge will also run as a 64-bit program every time it is used by a 64-bit processor, and not just via a default setting. The company says this move will allow for Windows ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) to be stronger: "Attackers want to inject malicious code into your browser process via a coding bug, and then execute their malicious code. ASLR makes that harder by randomizing the memory layout of the process, making it hard for attackers to hit precise memory locations to achieve their ends. In turn, 64-bit processes make ASLR much more effective by making the address space exponentially larger, making it much more difficult for attackers to find the sensitive memory components they need."

Bye Bye ActiveX and BHOs

The biggest change for developers coming with Microsoft Edge is that it will get rid of legacy browser technologies including ActiveX and Browser Helper Objects (BHO). Both of these technologies go back to the 1990s and the heyday of Internet Explorer.

ActiveX was introduced back in 1996 as a way to embed native Windows technology into the web browser. This was the way other web technologies such as Flash, Silverlight, Java and PDF plugins would typically get integrated into the browser.

ActiveX is going away because as Microsoft says, the need for those sorts of controls "has been significantly reduced by HTML5-era capabilities, which also produces interoperable code across browsers." And just because ActiveX is going away doesn't mean Flash is dead. No, Microsoft will be building Flash into the browser — much as Chrome does now. Microsoft Edge will also support native PDF rendering.

Microsoft is also getting rid of its old extension model, the Browser Helper Objects (BHO). BHOs were most commonly used to build third-party search toolbars for stuff you never wanted or needed. This means that with any luck, you will never again see an Ask.com toolbar in a Microsoft browser.

Microsoft is still going to offer a way for developers to build extensions — following a similar HTML/JavaScript model that has been adopted by Mozilla, Google, Apple and Opera. Microsoft says it will enable that model later this summer so that developers can build their add-ons for the new browser.

Getting rid of other cruft

Microsoft also says it has removed 220,000 unique lines of code (LoC) and more than 300 APIs.

At the same time, it is adding a ton of stuff to the new browser. More than 300,000 LoC have been added, as well as 49 new major features and 4200 browser interoperability features.

Microsoft is also getting rid vendor prefixes for Edge. This means that in order for developers to take advantage of special HTML5 or CSS features, they won't have to use a specific Edge prefix. Instead, they can just code to web standards.

This is a move in the right direction for Microsoft and it mirrors some of the recent hires the company has made in the area of open web evangelism and web standards.

Embracing a secure, sandboxed model

On Monday, the Edge team blogged about some of the security features within Microsoft Edge. Microsoft lays out how it is building its new browser to better be able to stand up to web threats, as well as how its update model will be better than before.

Getting rid of ActiveX and BHOs will actually make the browser more secure. For years, third-parties have exploited the binary aspect of ActiveX to execute nasty code that can take down the browser or the underlying operating system.

By shifting to HTML/JavaScipt-based extensions, Microsoft is limiting the access extensions will have, as well as some of the control they could potentially take system.

The biggest feature for security, however, might just be in how Microsoft is treating Edge. Microsoft Edge is being released as a Universal Windows App. This means that it will live in a sandboxed world. Microsoft says this means that "every Internet page that Microsoft Edge visits will be rendered inside an app container, the latest and most secure client-side app sandbox in Windows."

It also means that as a Universal Windows App, users can get updates from the Microsoft Store — as opposed to updates being tied to Windows Update.

Decoupling browser updates from the rest of the OS is great, especially for keeping stuff up-to-date. It also opens up the door for Microsoft to do the kind of automatic updates that Chrome and Firefox do now.

Microsoft Edge will debut alongside Windows 10 when it launches later this summer.

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Windows 10 will be the Last Version of the OS

Microsoft Windows 10, which will be launched for PCs this summer, will be the Redmond-based tech firm's last Windows OS version, said Jerry Nixon, a Microsoft employee and developer evangelist, at the company's ongoing Ignite conference in Chicago.

"Right now we’re releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10." That was the message from Microsoft employee Jerry Nixon, speaking at the company's Ignite conference this week.

Nixon said Microsoft secretly made its base for Windows 10 when it launched Windows 8.1 last year, and that with Windows 10 it will be pushing out regular updates to the OS instead of introducing new versions. It's all just Windows 10. While it immediately sounds like Microsoft is killing off Windows and not doing future versions, the reality is a little more complex. The future is "Windows as a service."

Microsoft has been discussing the idea of Windows as a service, but the company hasn't really explained exactly how that will play out with future versions of Windows. That might be because there won't really be any future major versions of Windows in the foreseeable future. Microsoft has altered the way it engineers and delivers Windows, and the initial result is Windows 10. Instead of big releases, there will be regular improvements and updates. Part of this is achieved by splitting up operating system components like the Start Menu and built-in apps to be separate parts that can be updated independently to the entire Windows core operating system. Microsoft revealed that Patch Tuesdays will be abolished, and the update cycle will be moved to a 24x7 one. Users could either opt-in for slow rollout, meaning receiving updates in bundles, or a fast rollout, where they would receive updates as soon as they are released. It's a big undertaking, but it's something Microsoft has been actively working on for Windows 10 to ensure it spans across multiple device types.

While we'll witness the results in the coming months, Microsoft is already in launch mode for a number of its apps and services that power Windows 10. The software company is testing preview builds of Window 10 with willing participants, and apps like Xbox and Mail have been engineered for regularly monthly updates. Even Office for Windows 10 will also get regular updates, much like a mobile version, instead of the big bang release every few years.

"Recent comments at Ignite about Windows 10 are reflective of the way Windows will be delivered as a service bringing new innovations and updates in an ongoing manner, with continuous value for our consumer and business customers," confirmed a Microsoft spokesperson when approached by The Verge for confirming Nixon's comments. "We aren’t speaking to future branding at this time, but customers can be confident Windows 10 will remain up-to-date and power a variety of devices from PCs to phones to Surface Hub to HoloLens and Xbox. We look forward to a long future of Windows innovations."

Microsoft is already said to have engineered apps like Xbox, Mail and even Office for regular monthly updates in Windows 10. The results will however will be reflected after a few months. The firm has also been testing the OS with Windows Insider participants in the form of different OS version builds both for PC/laptops and mobile devices.

With Windows 10, it's time to start thinking of Windows as something that won't see a big launch or major upgrade every few years anymore. Much like how Google's Chrome browser gets updated regularly with version numbers nobody really pays attention to, Microsoft's approach will likely result in a similar outcome. This is really the idea of Windows as a service, and the notion that Windows 10 could be the last major version of Windows. Microsoft could opt for Windows 11 or Windows 12 in future, but if people upgrade to Windows 10 and the regular updates do the trick then everyone will just settle for just "Windows" without even worrying about the version number.

It is worth mentioning that while Windows 10 is due to arrive for PCs by this summer, the OS will be released for mobiles, tablets, HoloLens, and the Xbox One at some point later this year.

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How to Snap 4 Windows at Once in Windows 10

PC users have been able to snap programs to the left or right side of their screens since Windows 7 launched in 2009. However, with Windows 10, Microsoft has taken snapping to the next level, adding the ability to split your screen in quarters and suggesting apps you can use to fill empty space on your screen. Here’s how to snap in Windows 10.

Snap 4 Windows on Screen at One Time

Using the mouse:

1. Drag each window to the corner of the screen where you want it.

2. Push the window’s corner against the screen corner until you see an outline.

Your window will take up about a quarter of the screen. Modern-style apps may take up slightly more.

3. Repeat for all four corners.

Using keyboard shortcuts (faster):

1. Select the window you wish to move.

2. Hit Windows Key + Left or Right. The window will now take up half of the screen.

3. Hit Windows Key + Up or Down to make it snap to either the upper or lower corner.

4. Repeat for all four corners.

Use Snap Assist

1. Snap a window to the right, left or a corner of the screen. You can use the mouse or keyboard shortcuts. A list of thumbnails showing open apps appears.

2. Click the app you want to fill the available space.

Snap to More than Half the Screen

1. Snap a window to the right or left side of the screen.

2. Resize the window to make it narrower or wider.

3. Snap another window to the other side of the screen.

It will fill all the available space, making it bigger or smaller than the first application you snapped.

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