Windows 10 release date, features, devices and free upgrade: Microsoft builds China its own Windows 10 OS

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Windows 10 release date, features, devices and free upgrade: Microsoft builds China its own Windows 10 OS.

Windows 10 at-a-glance

Windows 10 launched globally on 29 July 2015 and touted as "the last version of Windows", marking the end of decades of occasional heavy duty OS updates in favour of a more incremental approach. Available as a free upgrade for a year after launch, Windows 10 became full price on 30 July 2016. Here's our round-up of everything you need to know about Windows 10.

Read our full review of Windows 10 here^[1]

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Windows 10 latest news

22/03/2017: Microsoft is apparently ready to roll out a custom variant of Windows 10, produced specifically for the Chinese government.

The company has been working with the state-owned China Electronics Technology Group Corp in order to produce a government-friendly version of its operating system that meets certain security criteria - presumably such as cutting down on the amount of data it sends back to the mothership.

"We have already developed the first version of the Windows 10 government secure system. It has been tested by three large enterprise customers," Microsoft Greater China CEO Alain Crozier told state-owned news outlet China Daily^[2].

"We have worked extensively to make it secure and controllable. We are now ready to serve the market," he said.

Chinese authorities cracked down on the use of foreign technology within government following Edward Snowden's revelations of US spying, over fears that products from companies like IBM, Microsoft and others could allow the US government to covertly spy on Chinese users.

These efforts to get back into the Chinese government's good books could potentially open up a vast new network of procurement customers for Microsoft, including millions of state employees. Success could also lead to a spot on China's list of approved technology providers, which could in turn prove incredibly lucrative.

Windows 10 release date

Windows 10 started to roll out to consumers on 29 July 2015.

The news of a July release came as little surprise to Microsoft watchers, as the company had stated the release would come in summer 2015, and AMD's CEO Lisa Su tipped the world off to a July launch thanks to a slip of the tongue during an earnings call in April that year.

The RTM build was delivered to OEM partners to image new devices on 15 July, and another build is being delivered to retailers to upgrade unsold devices currently running Windows 8.1.

The first end users to get the finished version of the product were the five million Windows 10 Insiders using the operating system in a preview. Following that, Redmond began offering the upgrade to Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 users.

One year after the initial launch of Windows 10, Microsoft rolled out the Anniversary Update, which introduced useful tweaks but was a little light on new features. You can read our full review of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update here^[3].

Volume licensing customers are able to download Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Education from the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC).

System requirements for Windows 10 can be found here^[4].

Windows 10 different versions

As with its predecessors, Windows 10 is available in various different versions: Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Enterprise, Windows 10 Education and Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise.

Windows 10 Home is the standard edition of Windows for consumer PCs, tablets and hybrids such as the Surface 3^[5] and upcoming Surface Pro 4^[6]. This version of the OS features personal assistant Cortana^[7], Edge browser^[8], Continuum^[9] and Windows Hello facial recognition^[10], as well as standard Universal Apps^[11] like Mail, Calendar, Photos and Maps.

Windows 10 Mobile, which had until now been known as Windows 10 for Phones, "is designed to deliver the best user experience on ... smartphones and small tablets", according to Microsoft. It has many of the same features as Windows 10 Home, although Continuum is only be available on large mobile devices.

Windows 10 Pro is aimed at small businesses and includes all the features of Windows 10 Home plus device and app management, data protection services, and support for remote and mobile working.

References

1. ^{^} a future to be embraced, not feared (www.itpro.co.uk)
2. ^{^} China Daily (www.chinadaily.com.cn)
3. ^{^} Windows 10 Anniversary Update review (www.itpro.co.uk)
4. ^{^} requirements (www.itpro.co.uk)
5. ^{^} Microsoft Surface 3 review (www.itpro.co.uk)
6. ^{^} Surface Pro 4 release date, specs and rumours (www.itpro.co.uk)
7. ^{^} Cortana (www.itpro.co.uk)
8. ^{^} edge (www.itpro.co.uk)
9. ^{^} ContinuumMultipleDesktops (www.itpro.co.uk)
10. ^{^} SecurityandPrivacy (www.itpro.co.uk)
11. ^{^} UniversalApps (www.itpro.co.uk)

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