Understanding Windows 10 Packaging

Michael analyzed and wrote about Microsoft's operating systems, including the Windows client OS, as well as compliance and governance. Michael... more

Windows 10, which arrived in July 2015, offers three editions with names that are similar to those used with Windows 7, but with significant feature realignment. Therefore, organizations need to understand the packaging of the Pro and Enterprise editions in order to acquire and deploy Windows most effectively. In particular, organizations that continue to deploy Windows 7 need to understand which licenses and hardware to buy to enable downgrade rights, avoid technical issues, and prevent licensing problems resulting from purchasing the Home edition.

Windows 10 Pro

Windows 10 Pro largely retains the feature set offered by Windows 7 Professional, including Active Directory (AD) join and Group Policy management, while offering the Enterprise Mode Internet Explorer (EMIE) functionality and Client Hyper-V, which were added with Windows 8 Pro.

Several new features available with Windows 10 Pro enhance the manageability of the OS:

Azure AD (AAD) Join provides single sign-in to hosted and on-premises applications through the Microsoft-hosted directory service.

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