Windows 10 for Enterprise is not free, but it will offer more flexibilities

Windows 10

Microsoft has confirmed that businesses moving to Windows 10 Enterprise will not be getting the free upgrade offering, the company will provide to home users and small businesses running Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 during the first year of Windows 10, and the Enterprise version of the new operating system will update in a different way.

Unlike home users and small businesses, large corporations need more control on how they update their systems and they need to update at their own pace. For this reason, customers on the software assurance service running Windows 10 Enterprise, Microsoft will provide a “Long Term Servicing branch” that will allows big businesses to receive the level of enterprise support they come to expect for mission critical systems.

On the Long Term Servicing branch, customers will have more control on how to deploy security updates and other fixes using Windows Server Update Services. However, in this update branch feature updates that will normally roll out to normal customers will not be provided during the support lifecycle of the operating system.

Then businesses will have the option to go with the “Current Branch for Business” and with the level of updates devices will get feature updates normal customers get, but the release date will get pushed out. Once Microsoft is confident that the update has been tested thoroughly, only then it will release to the Current Branch for Business. This will allow non-mission critical devices to get the latest bits of Windows 10 and sometimes even earlier if the devices are enrolled to the Windows Insider Program.

On both branches, Microsoft will offer more control to businesses to decide if they want to deploy updates automatically or use the Windows Server Update Services.

Source Microsoft

About the author

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me.