Have you ever been using Windows 10 Education and thought that it could use a bit more "Pro"? If so, today is your lucky day, as Microsoft announced that it will be adding Windows 10 Pro Education to its arsenal of Windows 10 SKUs.
Windows 10 Pro Education will be based on Pro, whereas the regular Education SKU will continue to be based on Windows 10 Enterprise.
Windows 10 Pro Education builds on the commercial version of Windows 10 Pro and provides important management controls needed in schools. Windows 10 Pro Education is effectively a variant of Windows 10 Pro that provides education-specific default settings, including the removal of Cortana. These default settings disable tips, tricks and suggestions & Windows Store suggestions.
New devices with Windows 10 version 1607 that are purchased with discounted K-12 licenses will have Pro Education available to them. Existing Windows 10 Pro devices that upgrade to 1607 will automatically receive the new SKU.
Where Windows 10 Pro naturally has more features than Home, you"d be wrong to assume that Pro Education has more features than regular Education. As mentioned above, Windows 10 Education is based on the Enterprise SKU, adding an additional layer of security with features such as Device Guard, Credential Guard, and the Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection service.
Back in February, Microsoft made Windows 10 Education users eligible to use the Windows Insider Program so they could try out the latest preview builds. Microsoft later announced a number of classroom-specific improvements that are coming in the Anniversary Update, such as a "Take a Test" app that creates a locked-down browser-based environment for taking tests.
The number of Windows 10 SKUs now stands at, well, a lot. The main versions of Windows 10 are now Home, Pro, Enterprise, Education, Pro Education, Mobile, Mobile Enterprise, and IoT Core. Aside from that, we have Windows Holographic - which powers the HoloLens, but soon will run on other hardware - and the version of Windows 10 that runs on the Xbox One.
Source: TechNet via Mary Jo Foley