Windows

IoT The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other com ...

, 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 daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

s from

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

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'' ...

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

. 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

" starting with the release of embedded editions of Windows 10.

Enterprise

Windows 10 IoT Enterprise branded editions,

version 1809 Windows 10 October 2018 Update (also known as version 1809 and codenamed "Redstone 5") is the sixth major update to Windows 10 and the fifth in a series of updates under the Redstone codenames. It carries the build number 10.0.17763. Version hist ...

and older, are binary identical to their respective Windows 10 Enterprise 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 ' ...

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, 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, 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 Electronics, electronic (Analogue electronics, analog or digital electronics, digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for ...

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 si ...

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, MIPS, SuperH and x86 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 A Pocket PC (P/PC, PPC) is a class of personal digital assistant (PDA) that runs the Windows Mobile or Windows Embedded Compact operating system that has some of the abilities of modern desktop PCs. The name was introduced by Microsoft in 200 ...

), ''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 Centers. In 2010, ''Windows Mobile'' was replaced by '' Windows Phone 7'', 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 ...

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 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 API. Windows Embedded Standard 2009 includes Silverlight,

.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 Media Player 11, 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 Microsoft Base