New Windows 10 Features for Enterprises

Only a few days ago, Windows 10 release 1607 was lifted into Current Branch for Business (CBB), and Microsoft is already working intensively on the upcoming release of Windows 10, which was officially given the name "Creators Update". Recently, the software company has already announced some feature highlights that were mainly concerning 3D and mixed-reality experiences. Now Microsoft has presented in a blog some other innovations of the coming Creators Update, that are primarily addressing corporate customers. They include new features and improvements to the management of the operating system, as well as enhanced security.

In the future, the Windows Security Center will provide a summary of all security events. Because of this the Security Center is linked to Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection via Microsoft Intelligent Security Graph. Thus, administrators will be able to monitor attacks across all endpoints. As a further innovation, additional features have been added to the Advanced Threat Protection of Windows Defender. They ensure that the service is able to detect kernel level exploits and memory based malware. In addition, new countermeasures will be made available in order to reduce response time to detected risks.

With new features of Windows Upgrade Analytics, Microsoft wants to simplify the management of its current operating systems. Via the new Analytics Dashboard, telemetry data will be used to log the state of any client within the company’s network. For this purpose, an integration into the Operations Management Suite has been announced in order to allow additional data analysis. At the moment, Windows Upgrade Analytics is only able to provide a simple inventory of all productive OS versions.

As another new feature, Microsoft has announced a conversion tool that is able to automatically convert a legacy BIOS into the commonly used Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). In addition, administrators should no longer have to do any manual adaptations when upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10, and the tool can be used with other management tools like System Center Configuration Manager.

With the Creators Update, Windows 10 will also obtain new features that shall simplify the management of applications on private devices via security and compliance policies. According to Microsoft, these new features will allow to separate business and private content on mobile devices, without requiring the device to be enrolled in a distinct mobile device management solution.

It is still unknown, if all the new features will be available in every Windows 10 edition, but it is to be expected that especially the security capabilities will require Windows 10 Enterprise E3 as a minimum, if not even Windows 10 Enterprise E5.

Within the scope of Windows as a Service, Microsoft plans to release at least two Windows 10 upgrades per year, presenting new or improved features. Four months after being published in the Current Branch (CB) for Windows 10 end users, the new OS releases will be lifted into the Current Branch for Business (CBB).

Source: Microsoft