After revealing Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro and Windows RT (WinRT) as the first editions in which the next iteration of its desktop, notebook and tablet operating system (OS) will be available, Microsoft has announced yet another variant: Windows 8 Enterprise edition.

According to a blogpost on Microsoft’s official The Windows Blog, Windows 8 Enterprise boasts all the features and capabilities of Windows 8 Pro, along with a set of premium features designed especially for big corporates.

First amongst these is Windows To Go, a fully manageable corporate Windows 8 desktop contained on a bootable flash drive (Windows 8 on a USB stick). This feature enables IT firms and businesses to provide contingent staff with access to its corporate info and programmes,  without compromising on security since they can do their work without installing anything on their own PCs.

DirectAccess is another feature specific to Windows 8 Enterprise, allowing remote desktop users to access resources inside their corporate network, without having to launch a separate VPN first. Users will be able to connect to and access resources on the company’s internal network as long as they are connected to the net.  

BranchCache allows users’ PCs to cache files, websites and other content from central servers, so that this content is not repeatedly downloaded across the wide area network (WAN). This is intended to boost network performance as well as minimise network bandwidth.

Amongst the numerous other features Windows 8 Enterprise users will have access to is AppLocker, which assists firms in restricting the files and applications that certain users or workgroups are allowed to run.

In related news, Microsoft made Windows 8 Consumer Preview available last month, which is the pre-release beta version of Windows 8.