Windows 10 Pro For Workstations Launched For Power Users
Looks like we're back to the good old days of having almost a dozen different Windows editions for very specific sets of users. In addition to the basic Home and Mobile Windows 10 editions, there's also Pro, Education, Pro for Education, Enterprise, Enterprise LTSB, Mobile Enterprise, IoT, Teams, and S. Actually, make that exactly a dozen. Introducing Windows 10 Pro for Workstation, designed for very high-end PCs and very advanced power users. Because Windows 10 Pro just isn' t Pro enough.
While Windows 10 Pro for Workstations has features that you'd probably want in any computer or use case, the fact of the matter is that very few can afford the hardware needed to support these features. We're referring to "server-grade" hardware that runs on Intel Xeons and AMD Opterons and sorts of convoluted combinations of cores and terabytes of storage. Computers that are used for "demanding and mission-critical" scenarios, like servers and, well, workstations.
So what features does Windows 10 Pro for Workstations (try saying that fast 12 times) bring? Microsoft points out four, but two are perhaps the biggest. One is a new filesystem called ReFS, short for Resilient File System. Yes, your NTFS is old school now. ReFS promises better data integrity through features like auto-correction and mirrored storage, pretty much like having RAID built right into the file system.
Then there's "persistent memory", which practically means storing files and programs in something akin to RAM but non-volatile so that files remain even when the computer is turned off. Sort of like a cross between RAM and SSDs in speed and storage, respectively. Of course, this requires a special type of hardware called Non-volatile Memory Modules or NVDIMM-N, which isn't exactly something regular consumers can afford.
Windows 10 Pro for Workstations also brings in faster file sharing via SMB Direct as well as support for computers with up to 4 CPUs and up to 6 TB of storage. Again, well beyond the means of even most power users. Until the day these hardware becomes standard, not to mention affordable, we'll just have to dream for the day when Microsoft puts out a Window 10 Pro for Home Workstations Basic Personal Edition.
SOURCE: Microsoft