Windows IoT, formerly Windows Embedded, is a family of

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

s from

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

designed for use in

embedded system An embedded system is a computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is ''embedded'' as ...

s. Microsoft currently has three different subfamilies of operating systems for embedded devices targeting a wide market, ranging from small-footprint,

real-time Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...

devices to point of sale (POS) devices like

kiosks Historically, a kiosk () was a small garden pavilion open on some or all sides common in Persia, the Indian subcontinent, and in the Ottoman Empire from the 13th century onward. Today, several examples of this type of kiosk still exist in an ...

. Windows Embedded operating systems are available to

original equipment manufacturer An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...

s (OEMs), who make it available to end users preloaded with their hardware, in addition to volume license customers in some cases. In April 2018, Microsoft released Azure Sphere, another operating system designed for IoT applications running on the Linux kernel.

The IoT family

Microsoft rebranded "Windows Embedded" to "Windows IoT" starting with the release of embedded editions of Windows 10.

Enterprise

Windows 10 IoT Enterprise branded editions, version 1809 and older, are binary identical to their respective

Windows 10 Enterprise Windows 10 has several editions, all with varying feature sets, use cases, or intended devices. Certain editions are distributed only on devices directly from an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), while editions such as ''Enterprise'' and ''E ...

editions – Long-Term Servicing Branch (LTSB), Current Branch for Business (CBB), Semi-Annual Channel (SAC), and Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) – but are licensed exclusively for use in embedded devices. This brand replaces the Embedded Industry, Embedded Standard, and "For Embedded Systems" (FES) brands/subfamilies. Plain unlabeled, Retail/Thin Client, Tablet, and Small Tablet SKUs are available, again differing only in licensing. Starting with

version 1903 Windows 10 May 2019 Update (also known as version 1903 and codenamed "19H1") is the seventh major update to Windows 10 and the first to use a more descriptive codename (including the year and the order released) instead of the "Redstone" or "Thres ...

, Windows 10 IoT Enterprise has become its own unique edition, and is no longer 100% binary identical to its respective Windows 10 Enterprise edition. It now contains a minor change that allows the use of smaller storage devices, with the possibility of more changes being made in the future. In addition, starting with the LTSC edition of version 21H2, Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC will gain an extra five years of support compared to Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC. * ''Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2015 (value based pricing):'' ** SKU 6EU-00124 - Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2015 LTSB - High End Edition (Intel Core i7 , Intel XEON , AMD FX) ** SKU 6EU-00125 - Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2015 LTSB - Value Edition (Intel Core i3/i5 , AMD R-Series, A10, A8) ** SKU 6EU-00126 - Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2015 LTSB - Entry Edition (Intel Atom/Celeron , AMD E1, E2, A4, A6) * ''Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2016 (value based pricing):'' ** SKU 6EU-00034 - Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2016 LTSB - High End Edition (Intel Core i7 , Intel XEON , AMD FX) ** SKU 6EU-00035 - Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2016 LTSB - Value Edition (Intel Core i3/i5 , AMD R-Series, A10, A8) ** SKU 6EU-00036 - Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2016 LTSB - Entry Edition (Intel Atom/Celeron , AMD E1, E2, A4, A6) * ''Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2016 (category based pricing):'' ** SKU 6F6-00036 - Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2016 CBB - High End Edition (Intel Core i7 , Intel XEON , AMD FX) ** SKU 6F6-00037 - Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2016 CBB - Value Edition (Intel Core i3/i5 , AMD R-Series, A10, A8) ** SKU 6F6-00038 - Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2016 CBB - Entry Edition (Intel Atom/Celeron , AMD E1, E2, A4, A6) ** SKU 6F6-00036 - Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2016 SAC - High End Edition (Intel Core i7 , Intel XEON , AMD FX) ** SKU 6F6-00037 - Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2016 SAC - Value Edition (Intel Core i3/i5 , AMD R-Series, A10, A8) ** SKU 6F6-00038 - Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2016 SAC - Entry Edition (Intel Atom/Celeron , AMD E1, E2, A4, A6) * ''Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2019 (value based pricing):'' ** SKU MUT-00013 - Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2019 LTSC - High End Edition (Intel Core i7 , Intel XEON , AMD FX) ** SKU MUU-00005 - Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2019 LTSC - Value Edition (Intel Core i3/i5 , AMD R-Series, A10, A8) ** SKU MUV-00005 - Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2019 LTSC - Entry Edition (Intel Atom/Celeron , AMD E1, E2, A4, A6) * ''Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2019 (category based pricing):'' ** SKU 6F6-00036 - Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2019 SAC - High End Edition (Intel Core i7 , Intel XEON , AMD FX) ** SKU 6F6-00037 - Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2019 SAC - Value Edition (Intel Core i3/i5 , AMD R-Series, A10, A8) ** SKU 6F6-00038 - Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2019 SAC - Entry Edition (Intel Atom/Celeron , AMD E1, E2, A4, A6)

Mobile

Windows 10 IoT Mobile also known as Windows 10 IoT Mobile Enterprise; Unsupported as of January 14, 2020. A binary equivalent of

Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise Windows 10 has several editions, all with varying feature sets, use cases, or intended devices. Certain editions are distributed only on devices directly from an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), while editions such as ''Enterprise'' and ''E ...

licensed for IoT applications. The successor to Embedded Handheld.

Core

Windows 10 IoT Core is considered by some to be the successor to

Windows Embedded Compact Windows Embedded Compact, formerly Windows Embedded CE, Windows Powered and Windows CE, is an operating system subfamily developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows Embedded family of products. Unlike Windows Embedded Standard, which is base ...

, although it maintains very little compatibility with it. Optimized for smaller and lower-cost industry devices, it is also provided free of charge for use in devices like the

Raspberry Pi Raspberry Pi () is a series of small single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in association with Broadcom. The Raspberry Pi project originally leaned towards the promotion of teaching basic ...

for hobbyist use.

Core Pro

Windows 10 IoT Core Pro provides the ability to defer and control updates and is licensed only via distributors; it is otherwise identical to the normal IoT Core edition.

Server

Windows Server IoT 2019 is a full, binary equivalent version of

Windows Server 2019 Windows Server 2019 is the ninth version of the Windows Server operating system by Microsoft, as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It is the second version of the server operating system based on the Windows 10 platform, after ...

, intended to aggregate data from many 'things'. Like the IoT Enterprise variants, it remains identical in behavior to its regularly licensed counterpart, but differs only in licensing terms. It also is offered in both LTSC and SAC options.

Embedded family

Embedded Compact

Embedded World 2014 Windows Embedded Industrial PC

Windows Embedded Compact (previously known as Windows Embedded CE or Windows CE) is the variant of Windows Embedded for very small computers and

s, including

consumer electronics Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic (analog or digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usually r ...

devices like

set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of sign ...

es and video game consoles. Windows Embedded Compact is a modular real-time operating system with a specialized kernel that can run in under 1 MB of memory. It comes with the ''Platform Builder'' tool that can be used to add modules to the installation image to create a custom installation, depending on the device used. Windows Embedded Compact is available for

ARM In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between th ...

, MIPS,

SuperH SuperH (or SH) is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computing (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) developed by Hitachi and currently produced by Renesas. It is implemented by microcontrollers and microprocessors for embedded systems. At t ...

and

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was introd ...

processor architectures. Microsoft made available a specialized variant of Windows Embedded Compact, known as

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants. Its origin dated back to Windows CE in 1996, though Windows Mobile itself first appeared in 2000 as Pock ...

, for use in mobile phones. It is a customized image of Windows Embedded Compact along with specialized modules for use in Mobile phones.

was available in four editions: ''Windows Mobile Classic'' (for Pocket PC), ''Windows Mobile Standard'' (for

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

s) and ''Windows Mobile Professional'' (for PDA/Pocket PC Phone Edition) and ''Windows Mobile for Automotive'' (for communication/entertainment/information systems used in automobiles). Modified variants of Windows Mobile were used for

Portable Media Center Portable Media Center (PMC) is a portable media player (PMP) platform developed by Microsoft. Announced at the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and released in early 2004, it was originally positioned as a competitor to Apple's iPod. All it ...

s. In 2010, ''Windows Mobile'' was replaced by ''

Windows Phone 7 Windows Phone 7 is the first release of the Windows Phone mobile client operating system, released worldwide on October 21, 2010, and in the United States on November 8, 2010. It runs on the Windows CE 6.0 kernel. It received multiple large upda ...

'', which was also based on Windows Embedded Compact, but was not compatible with any previous products. ''Windows Embedded Compact 2013'' is a

real-time operating system A real-time operating system (RTOS) is an operating system (OS) for real-time applications that processes data and events that have critically defined time constraints. An RTOS is distinct from a time-sharing operating system, such as Unix, which m ...

which runs on ARM, x86, SH, and derivatives of those architectures. It included

.NET Framework The .NET Framework (pronounced as "''dot net"'') is a proprietary software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It was the predominant implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) until bein ...

, UI framework, and various open source drivers and services as 'modules'.

Embedded Standard

Windows Embedded Standard is the brand of Windows Embedded operating systems designed to provide enterprises and device manufacturers the freedom to choose which capabilities will be part of their industry devices and intelligent system solutions, intended to build ATMs and devices for the healthcare and manufacturing industries, creating industry-specific devices. This brand consists of

Windows NT 4.0 Embedded Windows NT 4.0 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 3.51, which was released to manufacturing on July 31, 1996, and then to retail ...

Windows XP Embedded Windows XP, which is the next version of Windows NT after Windows 2000 and the successor to the consumer-oriented Windows Me, has been released in several editions since its original release in 2001. Windows XP is available in many languages. In ...

, Windows Embedded Standard 2009 (WES09), Windows Embedded 7 Standard (WES7, known as Windows Embedded Standard 2011 prior to release), and Windows Embedded 8 Standard. It provides the full

Win32 The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is Microsoft's core set of application programming interfaces (APIs) available in the Microsoft Windows operating systems. The name Windows API collectively refers to several different platform implementations th ...

API. Windows Embedded Standard 2009 includes

Silverlight Microsoft Silverlight is a discontinued application framework designed for writing and running rich web applications, similar to Adobe Inc., Adobe's Run time environment, runtime, Adobe Flash. A plugin for Silverlight is still available for a v ...

.NET Framework 3.5 Microsoft started development on the .NET Framework in the late 1990s originally under the name of Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS). By late 2001 the first beta versions of .NET 1.0 were released. The first version of .NET Framework was r ...

Internet Explorer 7 Windows Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) (codenamed Rincon) is a web browser for Windows. It was released by Microsoft on October 18, 2006, as the seventh version of Internet Explorer and the successor to Internet Explorer 6. Internet Explorer 7 is pa ...

Windows Media Player 11 Windows Media Player (WMP) is the first media player and media library application that was developed by Microsoft for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on ...

, RDP 6.1,

Network Access Protection Network Access Protection (NAP) is a Microsoft technology for controlling network access of a computer, based on its health. With NAP, system administrators of an organization can define policies for system health requirements. Examples of system h ...

, Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer and support for being managed by

Windows Server Update Services Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), previously known as Software Update Services (SUS), is a computer program and network service developed by Microsoft Corporation that enables administrators to manage the distribution of updates and h ...

and System Center Configuration Manager. Windows Embedded 7 Standard is based on

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearly ...

and was previously codenamed Windows Embedded 'Quebec'. Windows Embedded 7 Standard includes Windows Vista and Windows 7 features such as

Aero Aero is a Greek prefix relating to flight and air. In British English, it is used as an adjective related to flight (e.g., as a shortened substitute for aeroplane). Aero, Ærø, or Aeros may refer to: Aeronautics Airlines and companies * Aero ...

SuperFetch Windows Vista introduced a number of new I/O functions to the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. They are intended to shorten the time taken to boot the system, improve the responsiveness of the system, and improve the reliability of dat ...

ReadyBoost ReadyBoost (codenamed EMD) is a disk caching software component developed by Microsoft for Windows Vista and included in later versions of Windows. ReadyBoost enables NAND memory mass storage CompactFlash, SD card, and USB flash drive devices t ...

Windows Firewall Windows Firewall (officially called Microsoft Defender Firewall in Windows 10 version 2004 and later) is a firewall component of Microsoft Windows. It was first included in Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1. Before the release of Windows ...

Windows Defender Microsoft Defender Antivirus (formerly Windows Defender) is an anti-malware component of Microsoft Windows. It was first released as a downloadable free anti-spyware program for Windows XP and was shipped with Windows Vista and Windows 7. It has ...

address space layout randomization Address space layout randomization (ASLR) is a computer security technique involved in preventing exploitation of memory corruption vulnerabilities. In order to prevent an attacker from reliably jumping to, for example, a particular exploited f ...

Windows Presentation Foundation Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a free and open-source graphical subsystem (similar to WinForms) originally developed by Microsoft for rendering user interfaces in Windows-based applications. WPF, previously known as "Avalon", was initia ...

, Silverlight 2,

Windows Media Center Windows Media Center (WMC) is a defunct digital video recorder and media player created by Microsoft. Media Center was first introduced to Windows in 2002 on Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE). It was included in Home Premium and Ultimate ...

among several other packages. It is available in

IA-32 IA-32 (short for "Intel Architecture, 32-bit", commonly called i386) is the 32-bit version of the x86 instruction set architecture, designed by Intel and first implemented in the 80386 microprocessor in 1985. IA-32 is the first incarnation o ...

and

x64 x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit version of the x86 instruction set, first released in 1999. It introduced two new modes of operation, 64-bit mode and compatibility mode, along with a new 4-level paging mo ...

variants and was released in 2010. It has a larger minimum footprint (~300 MB) compared to 40 MB of XPe and also requires

product activation Product activation is a license validation procedure required by some proprietary software programs. Product activation prevents unlimited free use of copied or replicated software. Unactivated software refuses to fully function until it ''determin ...

. Windows Embedded 7 Standard was released on April 27, 2010. Windows Embedded 8 Standard was released on March 20, 2013.

IE11 Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) is the eleventh, final, and now deprecated version of the Internet Explorer web browser. It was initially included in the release of Windows 8.1, Windows RT 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 on October 17, 2013, and was ...

for this edition of

Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for downl ...

was released in April 2019, with support for

IE10 Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) is the tenth, and by now, discontinued, version of the Internet Explorer web browser and the successor to Internet Explorer 9, released by Microsoft on September 4, 2012, shortly after the completion of Windows Serv ...

ending on January 31, 2020.

For Embedded Systems (FES)

Binary identical variants of the editions as are available in retail, but licensed exclusively for use in embedded devices. They are available for both IA-32 as well as x64 processors. Subfamily is known to include

Windows for Workgroups 3.11 Windows 3.1 is a major release of Microsoft Windows. It was Released-to-manufacturing, released to manufacturing on April 6, 1992, as a successor to Windows 3.0. Like its predecessors, the Windows 3.1 series ran as a Shell (computing), shell ...

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturi ...

to 98,

Windows NT Windows NT is a proprietary graphical operating system produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released on July 27, 1993. It is a processor-independent, multiprocessing and multi-user operating system. The first version of Win ...

Workstation,

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), releas ...

Professional,

Windows ME Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me (marketed with the pronunciation of the pronoun "me"), is an operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is the successor to Windo ...

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...

Professional,

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

Business and Ultimate,

Professional and Ultimate,

Pro and Enterprise, and Windows 8.1 Pro and Enterprise. This subfamily originally simply had Embedded tacked onto the end of the SKU name until sometime around the release of

when the naming scheme changed to FES. Examples of this include Windows NT Workstation Embedded, Windows 2000 Pro Embedded, and Windows ME Embedded. Microsoft changed the moniker for FES products again starting with some

8.1 Windows 8.1 is a release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on August 27, 2013, and broadly released for retail sale on October 17, 2013, about a year after the retail release of its pre ...

based SKUs, simply labeling them Windows Embedded before the Windows version and edition. Two examples of this are Windows Embedded 8 Pro and Windows Embedded 8.1 Enterprise.

Server

Windows Embedded Server FES products include Server, Home Server, SQL Server, Storage Server, DPM Server, ISA Server, UAG Server, TMG Server, and Unified Data Storage Server etc. of various years including 2000, 2003, 2003 R2, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, and 2012 R2 etc.

Embedded Industry

Windows Embedded Industry is the brand of Windows Embedded operating systems for industry devices and once only for point of sale systems. This brand was originally limited to the Windows Embedded for Point of Service operating system released in 2006, which is based on

with SP2. Since, Microsoft has released an updated version of Windows Embedded for Point of service named Windows Embedded POSReady 2009, this time based on Windows XP with SP3. In 2011 Windows Embedded 7 POSReady based on Windows 7 SP1 was released, which succeeded POSReady 2009. Microsoft has since changed the name of this product from "Windows Embedded POSReady" to "Windows Embedded Industry". Microsoft released Windows Embedded 8 Industry in April 2013, followed by 8.1 Industry in October 2013.

Embedded NAVReady

Windows Embedded NAVReady, also known as Navigation Ready, is a plug-in component for Windows CE 5.0. It is intended to be useful for building portable handheld navigation devices.

Embedded Automotive

Windows Embedded Automotive, formerly Microsoft Auto, Windows CE for Automotive, Windows Automotive, and Windows Mobile for Automotive, is an embedded operating system based on Windows CE for use on computer systems in automobiles. The latest release, Windows Embedded Automotive 7 was announced on October 19, 2010.

Embedded Handheld

On January 10, 2011, Microsoft announced Windows Embedded Handheld 6.5. The operating system has compatibility with Windows Mobile 6.5 and is presented as an enterprise handheld device, targeting retailers, delivery companies, and other companies that rely on handheld computing. Windows Embedded Handheld retains backward compatibility with legacy Windows Mobile applications. Windows Embedded 8.1 Handheld was released for manufacturing on April 23, 2014. Known simply as Windows Embedded 8 Handheld (WE8H) prior to release, it was designed as the next generation of Windows Embedded Handheld for line-of-business handheld devices and built on

Windows Phone 8.1 Windows Phone 8.1 is the discontinued third generation of Microsoft's Windows Phone mobile operating system, succeeding Windows Phone 8. Rolled out at Microsoft's Build Conference in San Francisco, California, on April 2, 2014, it was released ...

, which it also has compatibility with. Five Windows Embedded 8.1 Handheld devices have been released; Manufactured by Bluebird,

Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...

and

Panasonic formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Osaka P ...

as listed below.

References

External links

* {{Microsoft Windows family Embedded Embedded operating systems ARM operating systems

The IoT family

Enterprise

Mobile

Core

Core Pro

Server

Embedded family

Embedded Compact

Embedded Standard

For Embedded Systems (FES)

Server

Embedded Industry

Embedded NAVReady

Embedded Automotive

Embedded Handheld

See also

References

Further reading

External links