The Surface Laptop, the latest hardware offering from Microsoft is currently available for purchase in select regions. The Surface Laptop comes preloaded with Windows S and not the regular Windows 10 Home or Pro editions.
As some of you might already know, Windows 10 S is a new edition of Windows 10. In Microsoft’s own words, Windows 10 S is streamlined for security and performance. The Windows 10 S is more or less similar to Windows 10 Home and Pro editions, but it doesn’t support or allow installing apps from outside the Store. In short, you cannot install classic desktop programs on Windows 10 S.
Windows 10 S packs in most of the features present in Windows 10 Pro. You get Azure AD domain join, Windows Update for Business, Mobile Device Management, Shared PC configuration, and many other features of Windows 10 Pro.
Windows 10 S Recovery Image for Surface Laptop
Microsoft is allowing Surface Laptop users to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro from Windows 10 S for free until the end of this year. Post that, one can switch from Windows 10 S to Pro through the Windows Store for an affordable price (price not revealed yet). However, once you upgrade to Windows 10 Pro from S, you cannot downgrade or switch back to Windows 10 S.
If you ever change your mind and decide to run Windows 10 S again on your Surface Laptop, you need to download Windows 10 S recovery image from Microsoft for your Surface Laptop and then use the same to get the Windows 10 S running on your Surface Laptop.
Microsoft is now offering Windows 10 S recovery image for Surface Laptop users.
To download Windows 10 S recovery image, head over to this page of Microsoft. Enter your Surface Laptop serial number to prove that you own a Surface Laptop. If you have registered your Surface device, you can simply sign in using your Microsoft account. Select Surface Laptop from product drop-down menu. The same page also allows you download recovery image for other Surface devices as well.
To load the recovery image, you will need a USB drive of 16 GB in size formatted with the FAT32 file system. So, be sure to format the drive with FAT32.
If you are not sure how to use the recovery image, chat with Microsoft support agent online or chat with Microsoft support via the Get help app on Windows 10.
