The following is a repost from the main Microsoft in Education blog
Today marks the launch of Windows 10! At Microsoft we are constantly thinking about how we can help empower educators and inspire students to achieve more and we believe that Windows 10 is going to be a big part of that mission. With Windows 10, we wanted to deliver Windows to as many people as possible around the world, so they could have the very best Windows experience. To do that we want to make it as simple and affordable as possible by offering a free* upgrade to Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro for education customers who are currently using qualified Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 devices.
Windows 10 is going to be a huge improvement for educators and students. It has a great interface that feels both familiar and new at the same time. It will make you comfortable right away, and give you access to a bunch of innovations that will make you more productive than ever.
Imagine reading a PDF downloaded from the Internet, making notes in real-time in OneNote, the way many students engage with it today – both easily snapped side-by-side on a single screen display. That’s an immersive learning experience that is unique to Windows devices and gets even better with Microsoft Edge and Snap Assist in Windows 10. We’ve seen how Windows helps educators and students alike increase their productivity to enable better learning outcomes – that will only get richer in Windows 10.
Educators and school leaders have told us that they’re looking forward to Windows 10 offering a range of affordable new devices and compatibility with what they already own today. We know that schools are constantly under pressure to provide not only great experiences, but to do it within budget, without sacrificing quality. With Windows 10 we continue to provide choice by enabling organizations to bring Windows 10 to their existing PC fleet, or if they’re looking to update, it will run on a broad range of devices to support education scenarios as well new innovative devices like Hololens and Surface Hub that take productivity and learning to a new level.
For IT professionals, Windows 10 is designed to be simpler to distribute and manage too. We are hard at work developing new runtime configuration tools, designed to easily transform devices from their off-the-shelf state into fully configured education devices, without reimaging. All of the ways you manage Windows today will continue to be supported with Windows 10, along with new management capabilities such as support for Azure Active Directory identity sign-on to devices and the Windows Store for even closer integration with Office 365.
We believe Windows 10 is right for everyone in education and we’re making great offers available. Individuals and organizations can both take advantage of the free upgrade* offer. For organizations in academic volume licensing programs we created a unique edition of Windows 10 just for you, Windows 10 Education. Visit our editions page to learn more about the different Windows 10 editions, features and to evaluate which edition may be best for you. Find out more here about Windows 10 volume licensing offerings.
Over the next several months, we will continue exploring how mobility and productivity solutions from Microsoft and our global ecosystem of partners and customers can even better help empower educators and inspire students to achieve more! We cannot wait to hear your stories of upgrading to Windows 10 – tell us more in comments below or tweet us at @Microsoft_EDU.
*The free upgrade offer applies to Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro, and Windows 10 Mobile for qualifying Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 devices that upgrade in the first year after launch. More information about the free upgrade offer can be found at Windows.com.