Microsoft today unveiled Windows 11 SE, a variant of its latest operating system aimed at the education sector. It will only be installed on entry-level laptops for children and teenagers. It also competes with Chrome OS found on Chromebooks.

Overview of Windows 11 SE

Windows 11 SE includes Microsoft Office, including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote and OneDrive. The office suite can also be used offline as part of the Microsoft 365 licence. Microsoft has also limited some of the multitasking features, including reducing the number of applications that can be displayed on the screen at the same time. There can only be two side by side. The Microsoft Store is also disabled.

In addition, Windows 11 SE automatically launches applications in full screen mode, which makes sense considering that most PCs that will run this operating system will have small 11-inch screens. It also removes access to the “This PC” area in File Explorer by default, as this is an area that most students don’t need to access when working on school assignments. Another feature is that Windows 11 SE is backed up to the cloud, according to Microsoft. This means that all locally saved documents will be duplicated in the cloud to have a copy/backup.

Several laptops in the works

Microsoft adds that Windows 11 SE designed with Windows Autopilot in mind, with Intune for Education providing a simple and secure cloud management solution allowing IT administrators to deploy and manage Windows 11 SE PCs anywhere. Windows 11 SE devices also update automatically, with policies that can be set to ensure that these updates only take place outside of school hours.

Several laptops running Windows 11 SE will be released by the end of the year. There will also be other models in 2022. These include a Surface Laptop SE and models from Acer, Asus, Dell, Dynabook, Fujitsu, HP, JK-IP, Lenovo and Positivo.