Windows 10 S and Windows 10 in S-Mode

There seems to be some confusion here in what that actually situation is. This is my interpretation of how things stand with Windows 10. I have described how to turn S-Mode off.

Microsoft, in their quest to make there operating system "safer" introduced the concept of "S". Initially this was to be a version in its own right and "lower-end" computers, laptops, desktops and those that were running Windows 10 on ARM achitecture, would have Windows S installed on them. Windows 10S would be the main operating system for this class of computer and it could not be switched out or off.

Devices running on ARM had to use Windows 10S due to their capabilities but those devices using conventional Intel and AMD chipsets could run Windows 10S as well as the "more conventional" versions of Windows 10 such as Home, Pro and Enterprise. However, these "low-end" devices would be limited to 10S and the limitations entailed therein - in that they would only run applications installed from the Microsoft Store. This would be just fine for those users that only wanted to run Office 360 and to browse the Internet using Edge. The futher restriction under Edge is that users would have to use Bing as their search engine and could not install an alternative browser such as Firefox, Chrome and even Microsof Internet Explorer.

The "push-back" resulting in this proposal was that Windows 10 in S-Mode was created and new machines, particularly the inexpensve models, would have Windows 10 in S-Mode preinstalled but the owners would have the free option of switching out of S-Mode to either Windows 10 Home or upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. This switch would be one-way.

It is my understanding that the situation in March 2021 is that computers are being shipped with Windows 10 in S-Mode and Windows 10 S is something of a historical issue.