How Windows 8 Is Delivered to Enterprises

Two editions of Windows 8 will be of interest to organizations: Windows 8 Pro and Windows 8 Enterprise edition. Both editions include the new Modern touch-enabled user interface features, such as the Start screen (where applications are represented by Live Tiles versus static icons) and Semantic Zoom (a touch-optimized technique used by applications to present and navigate through large sets of related data or content within a single view). In addition, both editions can run existing Windows 7 applications as well as the new Windows Store applications, including Mail, Calendar, People, Messaging, Photos, SkyDrive (online file storage), Reader (for viewing PDF files), Music, and Video.

The most important features that differentiate the two business editions of Windows 8 are as follows:

Windows 8 Pro, which replaces Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate editions, is intended for businesses and “tech enthusiasts.” It includes BitLocker (full-disk encryption) and BitLocker To Go, Client Hyper-V (hardware virtualization on x64 processor—based computers only), the ability to join an Active Directory domain and use Group Policy to manage configuration, the Encrypting File System, and the ability to host a session with a Remote Desktop client. (BitLocker, like Multilingual User Interface, was only found in the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows 7.)