Windows 10 - What’s in it for students?

It was a truly epic launch. On July 29, Windows 10 was made available in batches across 190 countries and Microsoft claims 14 million users had it up and running within 24 hours.

Yousuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice-President, Windows and Devices Group, Microsoft, described it as “unprecedented demand”, calling customer feedback “overwhelmingly positive around the globe”. Mehdi is looking forward to “one billion devices running Windows 10 in the next few years” and insists this Windows is the best version to date.

But is it also the best Windows for students? #GNTECH spoke to Ihsan Anabtawi, Regional Manager — Applications and Services at Microsoft Gulf to find out.

What does a student get out of Windows 10 that they can’t with Chrome OS or Apple’s OS X?  
Microsoft is unveiling Windows 10 Education, which builds on Windows 10 Enterprise and is designed to meet the needs of schools — including staff, administrators, teachers and students.

Windows 10 Education is packed with innovative features that will benefit all student users — from the minimal learning curve for mouse and keyboard users, to the familiar usability scaled across Windows 10 devices — and teachers will be productive and comfortable from the start. Windows 10 Education is designed to deliver a more personal computing experience across a range of devices and will power everything from PCs, tablets, phones, Xbox One, Microsoft HoloLens and Surface Hub. This will enable students to easily access their work on any device and allow fast interaction with friends as well as teachers.

Windows 10 Education also features improved start-up times and faster performance, which allows students and staff alike to get on task and lessons far quicker than previously, reducing the amount of wasted valuable learning time waiting for the system to load. It allows students to be more productive with powerful multitasking by synthesising, connecting, creating and linking.

The software suite contains the widest range of educational peripherals and app support that allow students to quickly solve problems, make decisions, search, compare side by side and share things.

How can they get a hold of it?
Windows Education will be available through academic volume licensing, and there will be paths for schools and students using Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro devices to upgrade to Windows 10 Education.

What are the key advantages of opting for Office 365 over the competition?  
Office 365 Education empowers students and teachers to succeed with a dynamic set of tools. It provides staff, faculty and students with free email, online document editing and storage, IM and web conferencing facility.
Additionally, it also delivers a best-in-class cloud productivity experience to help students and teachers work together in exciting new ways.
Office 365 offers its users the flexibility to install latest versions of the familiar office
applications across PCs, tablets, etc., as well as work effectively in the online versions of these apps.

The program suite helps students and teachers to stay connected with secure, private social networking. Tools like Yammer help learners and instructors stay in touch, encouraging open communication and deeper understanding.

What are the new features in the 2016 Office edition that make it a better experience?
The new Office 2016 will help students to quickly access their work on any device. If you are used to Office on a PC or iPad, you will find yourself right at home with the new, modern versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote.
Students will appreciate having access to their documents in the cloud whenever and wherever they need them, as well as the ability to share their work with classmates, instructors or even their parents for review and collaboration.

In Windows 10, has Microsoft added any special features or customisations for users in the Middle East?
The applications and features of Windows 10 have been customised to meet the particular needs of each of the markets in which we operate.
For example, Arabic-speaking users in the Middle East will be able to switch the interface language to Arabic to make their work easier. Windows 10 will also support right-to-left text flow, which will make it easier for users in the region to type input in the language.

We are seeing significant growth in the usage of PCs in the Middle East and this trend is expected to continue following the launch of Windows 10, giving a boost to software sales.