Windows 10 Pro could be a dead end for enterprises, a prominent Gartner analyst has argued.

"[We] predict that Microsoft will keep positioning Windows [10] Pro to be a release that is not appropriate for enterprises by reduction of ... support and limiting access to enterprise management features," Stephen Kleynhans, an analysis vice president at Gartner and you of the research firm's resident Windows experts, said in some report he co-authored.

Microsoft's Windows 10 Pro occupies the middle ground concerned with the consumer-grade Home and the corporate-level Enterprise in features, functionality and price. Because Enterprise versions of Windows haven't been there for computer makers, Pro - sometimes, like in Windows 7, tagged Professional instead - may be the most popular pre-installed OS on new business PCs. (Corporations typically re-image new pc's with Enterprise upon receipt of the devices.)

But although Pro or Professional features long history in business settings, Microsoft will make numerous decisions rolling around in its Windows 10 migration campaign to split up Pro and Enterprise much much more, pushing them apart. In Kleynhans' view, the gap has become unbridgeable.

The straw was Microsoft's on-the-fly changes to Windows 10 support.

In 2010, the Redmond, Wash. developer announced a six-month support extension for Windows 10 1511, the November 2015 feature upgrade, "to help some early enterprise adopters which might be still finishing their transition to Windows to be a service." In February, Microsoft added versions 1609, 1703 and 1709 - released in mid-2016, within April and October of 2017, respectively - for the extended support list, giving each Couple of years of support, not the normal 18.

"Some customers have requested an extension box to the standard Eighteen months of support for Windows 10 releases," a Microsoft executive said during that time.

There was a catch: Only Windows 10 Enterprise (and Windows 10 Education, to correct version for private and public school districts and universities) qualified with the extra the regular few months of support. Users running Windows 10 Pro were still required to upgrade to one successor SKU (stock-keeping unit) within Eighteen months to continue receiving security patches and also of bug fixes.

Windows 10 Enterprise 1709, along the lines of, and its free "supplemental servicing," will exhaust support in October 2019. But Windows 10 Pro 1709 runs out of support on April 9, 2019.

"The the one thing that that really surprised me in regard to the added support," said Kleynhans inside the interview, "was the point that it didn't apply at Pro. I think till telegraphed the fact that, for businesses, Pro is currently being dead-ended."

As the six-month support extension ended aided by the 1803 feature upgrade, a bed that began reaching some people late a few weeks ago, in the report Kleynhans co-wrote with Gartner colleague Michael Silver, the duo clarified that they believe Pro is viewed by Microsoft to provide a second-class citizen.

"Customers currently using Windows 10 Pro should pursue to monitor Microsoft's life cycle announcements because they will eventually really have to budget for Windows [10] Enterprise as Windows [10] Pro gets more 'pro-sumer' and small-business oriented," they wrote at a six-item list of recommendations.

Another component Microsoft's current Windows 10 support strategy, something the manufacturer has labeled "paid supplemental servicing," seemed to be out of bounds with regard to running Windows 10 Pro. The added support, which Microsoft will sell having an undisclosed price, comes available only to Enterprise and Education customers.

Paid supplemental servicing adds A year to the Eighteen months provided at zero cost.

"The extensions and paid support option only sign up for the Enterprise and Education SKUs," Kleynhans and Silver said for their report, "Plan and Pay off Short Windows and Office Support Cycles By considering Microsoft's February 2018 Announcements," which was published by Gartner recently. "Customers using Windows 10 Pro will still see support end after 18 months. In this way, Microsoft is further reinforcing the fact that it expects enterprise customers to move to the Enterprise edition of Windows 10."