Microsoft strips features from Windows 10 Pro to stop admins blocking Windows Store access

Those features you thought were part of the operating system you bought? They've been removed

Microsoft has come under fire for making changes to Windows 10 Professional seemingly intended to strong-arm businesses - especially small businesses - into spending more to acquire a Windows 10 Enterprise licence.

It follows a string of updates to Windows 10 Professional - under Windows 10, updates are automatically applied - that has stripped a number of enterprise-grade features from the operating system.

Now, Microsoft has retroactively turned off a feature that enabled systems administrators to restrict access to the Windows Store for their networks - to prevent staff from downloading and playing Candy Crush and Kingdom Rush instead of doing their work.

Microsoft has even created a Knowledge Base article for anyone trying to troubleshoot the problem.

Under the title "Can't disable Windows Store in Windows 10 Pro through Group Policy", Microsoft explains: "This behaviour is by design. In Windows 10 version 1511, these policies are applicable to users of the Enterprise and Education editions only." For the record, it's KB3135657.

Long-time respected Microsoft watcher Mary-Jo Foley has obtained a statement from Microsoft that reads: "Microsoft is focused on helping enterprises manage their environment while giving people choice in the apps and devices they use to be productive across work and life.

"Windows 10 Enterprise is our offering that provides IT pros with the most granular control over company devices. Windows 10 Pro offers a subset of those capabilities and is recommended for small and mid-size businesses looking for some management controls, but not the full suite necessary for IT pros at larger enterprises.

"The ability to block access to the Windows Store is typically for organisations who want more control over corporate-owned devices. This fits into the value of Windows 10 Enterprise."

In other words, if organisations want to continue using the feature they thought they'd already paid for, they will have to pay again to upgrade their licence.

Our take:

What makes us most angry is the fact that Microsoft repeatedly tells us they're being "transparent" when they're not.

This is yet another sneaky move to claw more money out of people, retrospectively, using the automatic Windows Update mechanism to make fundamental changes to the software. Those features and functions you thought were part of the operating system when you bought it are no longer there.

Is Microsoft within its rights to do this? Possibly, but really this sort of thing should have been clear on Day One, not through sudden retroactive updates.