Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


Microsoft Debuts Surface Laptops, Windows 10 S for Education, Teams for Office 365 for Education

Microsoft has unveiled several new offerings for education, including the forthcoming Surface Laptop and a new version of Windows 10 designed for school environments — Windows 10 S.

Surface Laptop and Windows 10 S

The Surface Laptop, which sports a touch-sensitive, 13.5-inch PixelSense display (201 PPI pixel density with a resolution of 2,256 x 1,504), starts at $999 (with a Core i5 processor, 4 GB RAM and 128 GB SSD) and runs up to $2,199 (with an i7 processor, 16 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD).

Microsoft Surface Laptop

The Microsoft Surface Laptop is available now for preorder (shown here with the latest Arc Touch Mouse).

The devices will run Windows 10 S, a new version of the Windows 10 operating system designed specifically for education. The new OS is designed with security in mind. Software can be installed only from the Windows Store, and apps run in a "safe container," as Microsoft explained it, "ensuring consistent performance of the system. In the classroom, this ensures fast login times and consistent performance, enabling everyone in the classroom to start learning quickly, and stay focused without distraction."

Windows 10 S 

Windows 10 S uses Edge as the default browser, which cannot be changed. Although any browser that's available in the Windows Store can be used, the default will always remain Edge.

It's worth noting that, while Edge offers accessibility features, other accessibility apps that are not available through the Windows Store will not work on devices running Windows 10 S, according to a Windows 10 S FAQ published by Microsoft. (A list of Windows accessibility features can be found on Microsoft's site.)

For those who purchase the Surface Laptop with Windows 10 S, Microsoft is offering a free swap for Windows 10 Pro through the end of the year.

The Surface Laptop is expected to ship by June 15.

New Windows 10 S Education Devices from Microsoft Partners

Along with the Surface Laptop, Microsoft announced forthcoming Windows 10 S devices from its partners, including Acer, Toshiba, Samsung, ASUS, Dell, HP and Fujitsu. Microsoft offered few details about the devices except to say they would start at $189 and that in the coming months a wide range of devices, including some premium models, would be unveiled.

Acer TravelMate Spin 

Teams Adds Education Features

Microsoft also announced additional features for Teams, its group collaboration tool for Office 365, that are designed to make "Teams in Office 365 for Education the digital hub for teachers and students." Those features include:

  • The ability to "create classes with automatically populated student rosters from ... school information system," according to Microsoft;
  • Announcements;
  • File sharing;
  • The ability to create sub-groups within a class (for group projects, for example);
  • Quiz creation, distribution and grading;
  • The ability to create, distribute, collect and grade assignments;
  • Support for OneNote Class Notebooks; and
  • New integrations with "busuu, Canvas, Flipgrid and Kahoot."

The new features for Teams are in limited preview now and will be widely available this summer. More details about Teams for Office 365 Education can be found on Microsoft's site.

About the Author

David Nagel is the former editorial director of 1105 Media's Education Group and editor-in-chief of THE Journal, STEAM Universe, and Spaces4Learning. A 30-year publishing veteran, Nagel has led or contributed to dozens of technology, art, marketing, media, and business publications.

He can be reached at [email protected]. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrnagel/ .


Featured

  • abstract smartphone translucent screen displaying AI interface

    Apple Introduces Redesigned Siri AI

    At its recent Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple introduced Siri AI, a redesigned version of its voice assistant that Apple describes in its own announcement as "a profoundly more capable and personal assistant." The update is intended to make Siri more conversational, more context-aware, and more useful across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro.

  • Businessman using laptop to analyze and control information security data

    Survey Reveals Data Governance Enforcement Gap for Agentic AI Tools

    According to a new report, 99.7% of IT and security leaders surveyed by identity security company Delinea said their organization has a formal policy governing what data AI tools and agents are permitted to access. Yet only about 51% said AI access is checked against those policies in real time.

  • interconnected nodes with currency symbols

    Gartner: Half of Gen AI Projects Could Exceed Budget by 2028

    Organizations may be underestimating the actual cost of generative AI as they move from experimentation to production, according to Gartner's "10 Best Practices for Optimizing Generative and Agentic AI Costs" report.

  • Minimalist binary data fragmentation

    Fragmented Data Is Quietly Undermining Student Success and Cybersecurity Hygiene

    Siloed tools, teams, budgets, and resources spread across departments and campuses generate massive amounts of data. However, fragmentation creates unnecessary exposure to security threats and inadvertently reduces student support because no one can see the whole picture.