Windows 10 to sell in USB flash drives: Report

After the hype of providing its Windows 10 as a free download, it now emerges Microsoft is set to sell its Home and Windows 10 Pro SKUs in retail stores in USB flash drives.

According to a report by WinFuture, a German website (via Windows Central), Microsoft would sell its Windows 10 Home and Pro SKUs in flash drives in addition to the regular DVD disk sales.

The report added that with the USB flash drive version of the OS, users would be able to install and license it for only one PC.

Both the 32-bit and the 64-bit versions would be included in the flash drive version of Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro. The report had not yet been confirmed by the Redmond-based tech firm.

The company further announced that Windows 10 Home would be available at $119 (Rs7,500 approximately) and Windows 10 Pro would carry a price tag of $199  for new users.

Users holding valid Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 licences would be eligible for free upgrades, however, these prices were for the US market and Windows 10 would retail for a different price in India and other regions.

There was no official word yet on the price for Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro in India.

Meanwhile, a survey commissioned by enterprise networking company Spiceworks, titled Windows 10: Will It Soar?, found that 73 per cent of IT professionals planned to deploy Windows 10 over the next two years, which would represent a significant increase against the 60 per cent who actually deployed Windows 7 in the same period after its launch.

The survey found that 94 per cent of respondents' companies were using Windows 7 today, indicating a phenomenal saturation.

According to the monthly figures from Netmarketshare for May, 57.76 per cent of users across personal and enterprise sectors were using it, meaning that fragmentation would appear to be primarily in the home sector.

Responding to the question as to what their biggest fears were about adopting Windows 10, 79 per cent said they had concerns about compatibility either with hardware and software, even with assurances that the mistakes of Windows Vista would not be repeated in Widows and decent backwards compatibility was ensured.

Further 64 per cent said their main interest was the return of the Start Menu - pointing to it also being the primary reason why Windows 8 had not been more widely adopted by the same audience.