Microsoft announced today that it will offer a new configuration of Surface Hub 2S that comes with Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise.
“Today’s environment requires different kinds of flexibility to make people and teams as productive as possible,” Microsoft’s Yoav Barzilay writes. “It’s never been more important to empower every worker, employee, and student with the tools they need to collaborate whether they are together in person or connected remotely. Surface Hub 2S can help bridge the gap and connect people wherever they are whether in traditional workspaces and classrooms or in personal offices and offsite locations.”
Until today, all Surface Hub collaboration displays came with Surface Hub OS, an offshoot of Windows 10 that was later renamed to Windows 10 Team. Unlike traditional Windows 10 PCs, Surface Hub isn’t designed to be used by or authenticated against a single person; instead, it is a collaboration solution that supports multiple users at once.
The problem, of course, is that all of those people need to be in the same room at the same time. And in this New Normal ™ we live under because of COVID-19, that’s no longer possible for most. So Microsoft is addressing this problem by making Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise—which are designed for individuals—available as an option with Surface Hub 2S.
This new configuration also allows Microsoft’s customers to create custom kiosk mode configurations in targeted environments, just as they would on any Windows 10 PC.
Less obviously, this means that you can now run Windows desktop applications—also called “Win32 apps”—on Surface Hub 2S for the first time as well. Windows 10 Team can only run Microsoft Store apps.
Finally, you can also migrate existing Surface Hub 2S devices from Windows 10 Team to Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise.