Windows 10 editions

Windows 10 has eleven editions (excluding the four "N" editions), with varying feature sets and intended hardware.

All mentioned editions have the ability to use language packs, enabling multiple user interface languages. This functionality was previously only available in Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise. Single-language variants of Home and Pro editions are also available.

As with all versions of Windows since XP, all Windows 10 editions for PC hardware have "N" and "KN" variations in Europe and South Korea that exclude certain bundled multimedia functionality, including media players and related components, in order to comply with antitrust rulings. The "Media Feature Pack" can be downloaded and installed to restore these features. As with Windows 8.1, a reduced-price "Windows 10 with Bing" SKU is available to OEMs; it is subsidized by having Microsoft's Bing search engine set as default, which cannot be changed to a different search engine by OEMs. It is intended primarily for low-cost devices, and is otherwise identical to Windows 10 Home.

Designed specifically for use in small footprint, low-cost devices and IoT scenarios. It is a rebranded version of Microsoft's earlier embedded operating systems, Windows Embedded. Three editions are already announced: IoT Core, IoT Enterprise, and IoT Mobile Enterprise.

At the time of launch, Microsoft deemed Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 users eligible to upgrade to Windows 10 free of charge, so long as the upgrade takes place within one year of Windows 10's initial release date. Windows RT and the respective Enterprise editions of Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 were excluded from this offer. Since July 29, 2016, Windows 10 is no longer offered as a free upgrade, instead a license must be purchased.

Academic Select volume license customers who purchased prior volume license versions of Windows outright, and did not purchase Software Assurance, are also able to qualify for a free upgrade to Windows 10. However, as shown in this chart, the upgrade path is from Windows 7 Professional and Windows 8.1 Pro to Windows 10 Pro, and not to Windows 10 Education.

Certain features of Windows 10 Education make Windows 10 Professional less desirable in a shared computer classroom or lab setting, due to the inability to lock down the appearance of the Start screen across all users, and other user experience management features listed in the next section of this article.

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