Taking the "pro" out of Windows is only bad if you don't hang around with normal PC users. Really. Keep reading if you're still not convinced.

One of the toughest things to balance on a site dedicated to Windows and its related products is how to target content. While professionals and enthusiasts tend to be the most articulate and knowledgeable, they can also be myopic, especially compared to "regular" consumers. This is why I'm grateful that my close friends and family barely understand the things I know or care about professionally. Geeking out over innovative design languages, Windows 10 on ARM, and software "bridges" is not normal. I get that, and I hope you do too. I bring this up because if you're reading this article, itching to comment, you're likely in the one-percent: a Windows enthusiast, aficionado, maybe even an expert. I regularly concede that many people in our audience have proficiencies where I lack serious credibility. That's what's so fun about this place — the sharing of knowledge and viewpoints. Best VPN providers 2020: Learn about ExpressVPN, NordVPN & more

This preamble is necessary because the world is mostly made up of people who are not Windows enthusiasts, experts, or even what I would describe as fans. They're just regular people who need to send an email, browse the web, play a game, or watch a movie. In recent articles, we wrote about Windows 10 S and Surface Laptop there is a perceptible blowback from the "pros," which was expected. Why would anyone want this?, readers wrote. You can't even download Steam! they said.

These same people are aware that Apple has sold millions of pseudo-PCs in the form of iPads. With kludgy keyboard covers and iOS phone apps, I see people all the time on planes, media events, and cafes trying to make the iPad into something it's not: a PC replacement. Now Microsoft comes on the scene with an x64 PC that can still run Win32 apps (and soon even iTunes from the Store) and suddenly people aren't ready for such a thing. Even though we live in a world where 80 percent of the smartphone market belongs to Android – arguably not the world's friendliest OS – Windows 10 S is suddenly too complicated or confusing. I don't get it. Windows 10 S has real challenges None of this is to suggest that Microsoft is going to have an easy sell with Windows 10 S. In that regard, I agree with Windows Central writer Jason Ward's recent article spotlighting consumer education as an invaluable piece of Microsoft's potential success here. Microsoft is already confronting this, but in typical marketing methods they are focusing on the positives for Surface Laptop, such as "streamlined for security" and "performance made personal." Don't expect Redmond's creation to be sold as "the gorgeous laptop that can't run McAfee Antivirus and WinX DVD Ripper!" (Oddly enough, for some of us this is a selling point ... ) That is the right approach, too. There are benefits to running an OS with no background tasks, or thousands of registry entries (Microsoft called out the fact that Visual Studio creates 750,000 registry entries as one egregious and ironic example).