Windows 10 is available to most users in just two editions: Home and Pro (with 32-bit and 64-bit options for each), but all of the major features appear in both versions. Pro adds business-y things like network domain joining, Hyper-V virtualization, group policy management, and BitLocker encryption. That last one may be of interest to security-conscious personal users, too. Unsurprisingly, if you upgrade from Home levels of Windows 7 or 8, you get Windows 10 Home, and if you update from the professional versions of 7 or 8, you get Pro.
There are, of course, other editions of Windows 10 for special use cases: Enterprise is still an option for large organizations that want bulk licensing deals. Anniversary Update introduced two new Education versions for K-12 institutions: Windows 10 Pro Education and Windows 10 Education. Neither includes Cortana, for now. And let's not forget the lightweight edition that powers Internet-of-things devices and the Raspberry Pi: Windows 10 IoT Core.
Windows 10 presents almost no learning curve for longtime Windows users, while managing to incorporate many of the advances of Windows 8—faster startup, tablet capability, better notifications, and an app store. Its windowing prowess remains unmatched, letting you easily show the desktop and snap windows to the sides and corner quadrants of the screen. The newest Windows still runs the vast majority of the millions of Windows programs in the wild. Yes, that means it still uses the much-derided Registry to maintain configuration settings, but on today's fast hardware that no longer presents issues. (Microsoft recommends against using any third-party registry-optimizing software for Windows 10.)
When setting up a Windows 10 account, you can log in to a local account, without the need for a Microsoft account (Mac OS X, by comparison, requires an Apple account), but you'll lose many of the OS's best features if you do so. A lot of critics have nevertheless called out Microsoft for harvesting usage data by default, so if you're the paranoid type, you shouldn't set up the PC using Express Settings, which enable anonymous usage data collection. For details, read Windows 10: How to Protect Your Privacy.
Interface
Aside from the improvements to headliner features, such as Cortana, Hello, and Ink, the Anniversary Update makes some subtle, but useful, improvements to the desktop interface. For example, the Start menu has been updated: Now it shows the All Apps list without a second button press, and it also shows most used and newly installed apps. I've often found clicking the date in the Taskbar useful, since it pops up a calendar; now you can also see your appointments in that view.
Aside from the improvements to headliner features, such as Cortana, Hello, and Ink, the Anniversary Update makes some subtle, but useful, improvements to the desktop interface. For example, the Start menu has been updated: Now it shows the All Apps list without a second button press, and it also shows most used and newly installed apps. I've often found clicking the date in the Taskbar useful, since it pops up a calendar; now you can also see your appointments in that view.
Live tiles have also been updated in a way that makes more sense than before. Now, when you click on a live tile, you'll go to the content highlighted there, rather than just to the app. For example, you'll go directly to the news story or the email or the photo showing on the live tile.
The Windows Store also gets another redesign, this time with features designed to appeal to gamers, in particular. It's aligned more closely with the Xbox Store, and it now offers game bundles and subscriptions. For everyone else, the new design does make it a bit easier to get to the top apps, music, and movies. The Store's download progress indicator is now bigger and clearer, too. One other tweak is that the Action Center (see below) icon now is all the way at the right of the Taskbar, making it easier reach. And one final new interface option, Dark mode, shows apps with black window backgrounds, which can be gentler on the eyes—as well as just looking cool.
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