This sounds like W8 & Metro.
"We're not moving enough units, change the name."

@ Cr00zng > "Microsoft pitches Windows 10 S as being streamlined for security/performance... " < If you've ever used 10 S you'll get the meaning of that statement. It's very restrictive in what software can be installed and run. And very restrictive in what the user can do. Most of the malware your typical user inadvertently installs, won't install, etc. You can't easily load it up with junk ware either. If I remember correctly about all you can install are approved store apps.

alphanumeric said:

@ Cr00zng > "Microsoft pitches Windows 10 S as being streamlined for security/performance... " < If you've ever used 10 S you'll get the meaning of that statement. It's very restrictive in what software can be installed and run. And very restrictive in what the user can do. Most of the malware your typical user inadvertently installs, won't install, etc. You can't easily load it up with junk ware either. If I remember correctly about all you can install are approved store apps.

Actually people will shoot me down but I think this is a good move assuming only an admin account user could upgrade to the normal non S mode.

I have relatives and friends who never learn about "sensible clicking" and end up with all sorts of crap on PC. I would love to lock down their PCs so it is in S mode only. I was never prepared to pay for PRO just to be able to use 10S as like most users they use Home.

For parents, this provides an additional welcome layer of security.

I hope you will be able just to install latest version and it will install in S mode be default and use existing Home licences to activate. It will be crap if we have to buy new Home licences just to do this though.

I ran 10 S very briefly, too restrictive for me. I agree with what your saying though. It has its uses in certain situations. Currently it's listed with its own keys under my "My Visual Studio" subscription. Mine activated without entering a key as that PC already had a DL for Home and Pro. I believe it used the Pro DL. All I had to do was do a "change product code" to switch to Pro. The generic key if I remember correctly. If it stays that easy to switch schools etc are going to have problems stopping people from doing a quick upgrade to Pro. I imagine there is GPO to block it, haven't researched it though.

alphanumeric said:

I ran 10 S very briefly, too restrictive for me. I agree with what your saying though. It has its uses in certain situations. Currently it's listed with its own keys under my "My Visual Studio" subscription. Mine activated without entering a key as that PC already had a DL for Home and Pro. I believe it used the Pro DL. All I had to do was do a "change product code" to switch to Pro. The generic key if I remember correctly. If it stays that easy to switch schools etc are going to have problems stopping people from doing a quick upgrade to Pro. I imagine there is GPO to block it, haven't researched it though.

Wouldn't you need admin rights to do that? The school administrator (in your example) would only setup students as standard users?

A standard user can install uwp apps which in a way is better than a standard user who can normally only install win32 apps if given admin rights.

The sort of user I am taking about only uses email, surfing, uses word etc. Locking them down would not really affect them.

The one big issue I have with S versions is you can only use tools like Macrium Reflect Free booting in win pse mode (eg by booting from a flash drive). This makes it virtually impossible to remote connect to PC and do a backup from Windows.

Oddly enough, you can use Windows own image backup from S versions whilst running Windows but as we all know it is a deprecated feature!

I contacted Macrium to see if they intended to bring out a uwp version, but they said it was technically very difficult (interpret as blinking impossible) as UWP versions cannot execute with sufficient rights to do their job (obviously a consequence of the extra security).

Even remoting in is more restricted, as you cannot setup remote tools to run in background for unattended access. You can do this with Pro S using RDP but you have other security risks using port forwarding to do it over internet.

I really think S versions have to allow some win32 apps to run (obviously possible as you can run notepad for example) but require some form of security to do this e.g. approved certificates.

I don't know if you need admin rights to do a "change product key". I only ever run as a member of admin group. I usually only ever set up the one account. The only PC here with two accounts on it is my wife's laptop. And they are both admin accounts. I should probably do more testing under standard user, just too lazy these days. To be honest I'm getting less and less enthused with Windows and the direction its taking. I find tinkering with my Raspberry Pi and BBC Micro bit more fun, even when things go wrong, lol.
I gave 10 S a test run just to have a look see, and because I could. Same deal with Education and Enterprise. If I wasn't an MVP and had the free MSDN SUB, I wouldn't be doing near the testing I do. I'd be complaining how restrictive Home version is, lol. I retired so it's just friends and family to support. And they have pretty simple needs.