Back in May, Microsoft announced Windows 10 S, a version of Windows 10 Pro that is locked down to the Windows Store. Most of the other Pro features remain, such as Hyper-V. When it was announced, it was squarely aimed at educational customers, but yesterday at Ignite 2017, the company announced that a range of Windows 10 S PCs are coming aimed at businesses, or more specifically, frontline workers.
Microsoft said that it will be targeting the broader enterprise use case in the future, but for now, it"s focused on the frontline worker. With that in mind, the firm is working on a new version of Windows 10 S that"s based on Enterprise, aptly called Windows 10 Enterprise in S mode, which will be made available in spring 2018.
Of course, it"s already possible to lock down a version of Windows 10 to only install apps from the Store, so this is going to be something new. Just like users can upgrade from S to Pro, they"ll be able to upgrade from Enterprise in S mode to Enterprise. And the differences between the two Windows 10 S SKUs should be the same as the differences between Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise.
Since it"s not coming until the Spring, it won"t be available by the time that the devices announced yesterday launch. Neither will the availability of business SKUs of Office 365 in the Windows Store, I"ve been told. Those should be coming shortly after though.