Windows 10 Pro for Workstations is a high-end edition of Windows 10 Pro, comes with unique support for server grade PC hardware and is designed to meet demanding needs of mission critical and compute intensive workloads.
Windows 10 Pro for Workstations – a glorious throwback to classic Microsoft naming schemes – provides users with ReFS, persistent memory, and more, and allows up to four processors (instead of two) and a maximum of 6 TB of memory (currently 2 TB).
For clarity: older Windows pro SKUs supported multiple cores per CPU (modern CPUs have 4 or so cores, with 8+ “hyperthreads”). This just means you can have multiple physical CPUs plugged into the motherboard
Windows 7 Pro x64 and higher also supports two physical CPUs with multiple cores. I’ve seen 7 Pro installed on a 12 core Mac Pro with both CPUs, all 12 cores, and all 24 threads active.
Prior to this announcement, to go beyond two physical CPUs with Windows you would have to use a server edition of the OS and tune it for workstation use.
Wow that brings back memories…anybody else use Windows 2K3 as a workstation OS? I remember at the time there was a bazillion tutorials showing how to make 2K3 into a workstation OS, a stripped down desktop oriented version of 2K3 called “Tiny 2K3” was making the rounds on all the P2P sites, and everybody at work (myself included) was running 2K3 as a workstation OS which really kicked ass.
Its just a shame MSFT ended up first aping Apple and then aping Google because back then they could make a lean mean OS with minimum bloat for maximum performance.
I did – sorta. XP 64-bit edition was the same core as Win2k3 64-bit – same kernel, libraries, etc, but just configured to be XP, with the desktop utils and minus the server stuff.
lots of engineering went into this…
if (product_name != “pro”):
max_men = 2GB
max_disk = 64GB
max_resolution = (1024,768)
set_cpu_speed = 1.1Ghz
if (random.random() > 0.9): kernel_panick()
pass
not
I’ll generally be the first to defend Microsoft these days. But is this necessary?
Seriously, there should only be 3 skus. Windows server, windows 10 and windows EU version.
?? Why a EU edition?
Because the EU is special and has special needs.
Becuase Internet Explorer happened
I thought this was an ideal listing of the versions needed. Why would we need two versions? THE EU mandate for choosing browsers was a good idea. If we are in fantasy land, lets choose the best option. BTW, I think that requirement expired.
I think The EU version is the one without media player installed. Good riddance. Who cares about it. That’s not a big enough reason to have two nearly identical versions.
There is already a pro edition. Perhaps it would have made sense to call it windows 10 workstation and left it at that.
I don’t think this affects a lot of people right now. You’d have to be able to find a workstation which is already super difficult. Few OEMs still make real ones with most of Dell and HP’s line using consumer grade CPUs now. You’d also want to use windows. For many applications, Linux is probably more common in this setup.
So can I run this on my desktop? And if so, does it come without ads, Cortana, and the other Windows 10 bullshit I never wanted?
I would love it if 10 Pro dropped all the preinstalled games and useless apps. There is zero need for that crap on a workstation OS, and if I ever felt like playing the latest Candy Crush time waster, I know where to find it. Hell, last time I installed 10 Pro (a couple of months ago) it ended up with over a dozen games, and apps like Twitter and Facebook, that I never asked for and had to uninstall. That’s more than what once came installed on bargain-basement HP and Dell computers from Walmart.
Similarly, why does a “Pro” OS installed on a desktop that has no wireless or cellular hardware come configured out of the box for “metered connections” and apps like “Paid WiFi and Cellular”? You’d think they would be able to detect the installed hardware and turn on or off features accordingly.
Windows 10 Home, Pro, Pro Edu, Education, Enterprise, Enterprise E3, Enterprise E5, Business (yes, thats right, there is a business edition just for Microsoft’s new Business 365), Windows 10 S, Windows 10 Pro for Workstation, Windows 10 IoT (with its own subsets) along with the architectures – x86, x64, ARM.
Windows 10 Pro already supports ReFS on non system partitions. So does this edition support it on systems partitions now?
I’ve not seen anything specific, but I think that’s what this means.
The irony of this for me is that that’s the only thing I would pay for this for (especially with the new Threadripper CPU’s out now, I’d rather not have a NUMA system for a desktop personally), and it’s something that I can’t use on my own Windows system because I need the system partition to be accessible from Linux to deal with crap like TrustedInstaller owned files that the updates always leave behind.
Assuming it’s the same as Server 2016, then, no, but it means it can use it directly on disks, rather than having to configure Storage Spaces volumes.
The system partition likely still has to be NTFS.
Did they ever fix the whole ‘You can’t use OneDrive on ReFS volumes’ thing? It would be horribly ironic if Workstation users couldn’t use OneDrive for Business because they were using the business version of Windows.
and don’t know where to turn to next.
or
Just don’t know if they are coming or going.
There must be a whole department in Redmond dedicated to making things difficult as possible for the poor users.
upon reflection, that department is the entire company.
I’m so glad that I ‘KISS’ed them goodbye last year.
Then my expenses will go increase with a Pro System of Microsoft.
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