Microsoft recently announced a new version of Windows 10: Windows 10 Professional for Workstations. What makes this version of Windows special and do you need to consider it for your next workstation purchase?

Realistically, all of you reading this will likely never need this version of Windows. This version of Windows is built for ultra high-performance workstation computers that use server-grade hardware and cost $10,000+ from places like this. It supports more physical processors than the standard version of Windows Pro (4 vs 2) and more RAM than the standard version (6TB vs 2TB) as well as a new file system structure and a few other new features for that target market.

However, 99% of businesses are not the target market for this operating system. Since you can already get 22-core Xeon processors and workstations that can hold two of those (for 44 computing cores – standard desktops will usually have between 4 and 8), there isn’t a lot of need for something like this for a normal office environment. But if you need a Windows desktop with 88 CPU cores and a metric ton of RAM, you will soon be able to use Windows Pro for Workstation instead of Windows Server (which is what other folks in that situation have had to do prior to this announcement).