What Windows 10 means for you

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Category: Industry News

Published on Monday, 26 January 2015 22:14

Written by Christian Dunn

On Wednesday 21st Microsoft took the wraps off the latest Windows 10 Technical Preview known as the Consumer Preview. Microsoft described Windows 10 as "the first step to an era of more personal computing" that would allow your apps, services and content to move with you across devices, seamlessly and easily.  The webinar showed the future Microsoft envisions where the same operating system can seamlessly work across all our devices.

So what does this really mean for you? I have pulled apart the key features in the latest preview to break it down for you.

What Windows 10 shows is that Microsoft is listening and this is apparent in the changes they have introduced.  The first and most important note is that they want you to have it and fast. This means that Windows 10 will be free for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users to upgrade in the first year.

The most disliked feature in Windows 8 was the removal of the start menu and it's replacement Metro screen.

In Windows 10 when you login you go straight to the desktop and now you get a start menu, with some extra features.

The new start menu, shown below now combines a traditional start menu with a pane of tiles to your favourite applications. Remove all the tiles and you will have a traditional start menu. Add more tiles or expand the pane to full screen and you will have the normal metro tile interface, now it's your choice.

 This is obviously great for desktop and laptop users but Windows 10 has a few more tricks up it's sleeve. If you switch to tablet mode, disconnect your keyboard or are on a tablet device like a surface the start menu will switch to a full screen touch friendly version more reminiscent of the Windows 8 Metro screen, shown below.

Notice the search box next to the start menu in the above screenshots. This is not an ordinary Bing search anymore. The clearest indication of how Microsoft is bringing their 'one operating system' vision for all devices to Windows 10 is the introduction of Cortana. Cortana is Microsoft's version of Google Now or Siri, a personal assistant who can perform tasks, assist you in finding things on your machine and on the web.

You are probably used to notifications on your Android or IOS phone or tablet. Now Windows 10 also includes a notification pane with a small control panel at the bottom providing quick access to the latest features.

Did you get confused in Windows 8 between which options were found in the right hand pane, what happened when you swiped out from the left and the traditional control panel? Microsoft is finally bringing these together. The right hand pane is gone. You can still swipe in apps from the left and swiping down will still close them but now everything is back in the start menu, or in the case of the notification pane above, in the taskbar near the clock.

Similarly Microsoft has realised how the switch between full screen apps and windows desktop applications confused everyone. Now apps open in windows just like applications as shown below. You can resize these full screen, access settings from the android style menu in the top left corner or close them just like a normal program. 

While less dramatic the explorer window has also had an upgrade with a cleaner look and a more functional layout. You will notice the frequent folders and recent files sections that appear in the default Quick Access view making it easy to find that document you had open an hour ago.

One new treat for the power users is multiple desktops. We all know how difficult it gets when we have a screen full of all your applications. Now without any third party application you can create multiple desktops and spread your work across them appropriately, easily launched and actioned from the taskbar.

This is also extended by showing you each application you have open in a new task view above the desktops so you can easily switch applications without needing to remember the ALT+TAB trick.

This is by no means the full list of features in Windows 10 and there is an extensive list including such great features as Xbox integration so you can play games on your PC but for most users these are the key things that they rely on every day and they are the items that will make or break Windows 10 and judging by the work done so far Microsoft is on the right track.

Microsoft also decided to throw in some surprises with their Windows 10 release. The biggest surprise was Microsoft HoloLens. HoloLens is Microsoft's answer to Oculus VR. A holographic virtual reality headset that relies on technology baked into Windows 10 and allows developers to build virtual reality applications that can be overlaid with the real world. Will this be the inspiration needed to make virtual reality a reality?