Microsoft to launch two new Windows 10 variants for educational institutions

With barely four days left for Microsoft’s much awaited anniversary update on 2nd August, the company has announced the addition of two new Windows 10 variants to its already populated line-up. The new Windows 10 variants — Education and Pro Education, are designed keeping in mind the unique needs of rapidly evolving K-12 institutions.

The two new variants join the already available Windows 10 SKUs (stock keeping units or versions) that will be updated and released alongside the Anniversary Update on 2nd August and provide education-specific default settings for the evolving landscape in K-12 education IT environments.

Windows 10 Pro Education edition is built upon the commercial Pro version, while the simple plain Education edition is built upon the Enterprise version of the OS. Microsoft believes that institutions need some control over the Operating System, hence it provides some particular management controls and education-specific default settings.

These default settings are put in place to disable tips, tricks, and suggestions and help center in the operating system. In addition to this, Redmond is not keen on offering the services of its coveted voice assistant ‘Cortana’ to the user of these variants of Windows 10. The Store has also been declared out of bounds for students, and Microsoft will also not display any app suggestions in the Start Menu.

Windows 10 Education variant is superior in comparison to the Pro Education variant because it offers additional features such as Device Guard, Credential Guard, and the new Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection service.