Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is planning to upgrade its 4 million PCs to Windows 10. Now, DoD's chief information officer Terry Halvorsen said he wants the department's employees to also use Windows 10 at home.
Halvorsen said his recommendation is based on the security features of Windows 10 as well as Microsoft's usage of the Azure cloud platform. He added that the department has never before used an operating system that came close to "this much security baked in from the beginning."
"If you're using a computer at home and you're not on Windows 10, you're doing yourself an injustice - you ought to be moving to Windows 10," added Halvorsen.
While the DoD CIO will not officially endorse Windows 10, Halvorsen is planning to issue out-of-office guidance to the department's employees to use the same operating system in their personal devices at home.
Halvorsen stressed that the recommendation is not an endorsement of Microsoft or Windows 10. Rather, he will be listing down the operating system's key features and characteristics that users can get if they install it in their home devices.
DoD's upgrade plan to Windows 10 was announced in February this year. The plan is to have all DoD PCs running on older versions of the operating system to shift to Windows 10 by February 2017.
The one-year plan aims to increase the enterprise security. Streamlining the DoD's IT infrastructure will help them address and contain cyberthreats more efficiently.
One of the key features that was greatly highlighted in Windows 10 is its friendliness with the Azure cloud platform, which enables key U.S. departments and agencies to have "independent clouds" for a more secure integrated communications.
Microsoft has been struggling to convince consumers to switch up to its latest OS, given it has faced several upgrade-related issues in the past. The DoD's recent recommendation will surely help Microsoft in convincing more users across the globe.
The latest OS upgrade is offered free to consumers who are using Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 on their workstations. This free upgrade will end on July 29, 2016.
Microsoft aims to have one billion devices running on Windows 10 by 2017. Apart from the free upgrade, many educational organizations and enterprises have joined the Windows 10 bandwagon, a feat that could help convert more users to the latest Microsoft OS.
