Pentagon CIO wants staff to upgrade to Windows 10 on their home devices

By Jonathan Keane Published April 18, 2016

Windows 10 has so much “baked in security” that the Department of Defense’s CIO Terry Halvorsen thinks DOD employees should definitely be using the operating system on their personal devices as well.

The Pentagon is currently updating all 4 million of its official devices to the latest version of Windows by January of next year, and Halvorsen is such a fan that he’s encouraging employees to move over to the OS at home.

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“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,” Halvorsen said in a press call last week, adding that he plans to issue this guidance to employees.

“We’re going to put out some guidance to our employees in general — it’s not an endorsement of Windows 10 or Microsoft specifically — listing what the characteristics of Windows 10 would give you if you put it in your home system,” said the CIO, who has cited security as the No. 1 reason for using the OS. “That’s as close to an endorsement as I can get for a software product.”

Microsoft’s deal with the Department of Defense to upgrade its systems to Windows 10 has been a boon for the company in trying to push its enterprise packages. Halvorsen added that the department is on track to complete the upgrade by the January 2017 target.

Windows 10 continues to be pushed hard by the company both for individuals and enterprises with the July 29 deadline approaching for the free upgrade for Windows 7 and 8 users.

This friendly relationship between the Department of Defense and Microsoft exists even though the company isn’t exactly on friendly terms with the government in other areas: Microsoft is currently suing the government over practices pertaining to search warrants for data and the right to notify customers.

Former Contributor

Jonathan is a freelance technology journalist living in Dublin, Ireland. He's previously written for publications and sites…

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