Windows 10 is the product of the Microsoft’s innovative engineering and the feedback of 5 million Windows Insiders who tested the preview builds and provided over more than 800K pieces of feedback to the company to help them build a better product. In return, Microsoft is happy to provide them a free copy of Windows 10 Preview build under the Windows Insider Program.
“Right now we’re releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10“. That was the statement from Jerry Nixon, Microsoft’s developer evangelist, speaking at Microsoft’s Ignite conference. Is this the end of Windows?
Windows 10 brings back the favorite Start menu – quite same as the Start menu that has always greeted you on pressing the Start button in previous versions of Microsoft’s operating system. But it’s not the very same as can be expected – it’s redesigned to serve the purpose of two: the Start menu of Windows 7 and its predecessors as well as the Start screen of Windows 8.
Microsoft Edge (code named Project Spartan) replaces venerable Internet Explorer in the new Windows. Internet Explorer has lost its charm in last some years and Edge attempts to keep up the Microsoft’s idea of completely refreshing the Windows experience. It’s based on a brand-new rendering engine that improves performance and brings distinctive sharing functionality.
Cortana comes to desktop with Windows 10. It’s the Microsoft’s answer to Apple Siri and Google Now – a personal digital assistant that sits around the corner ready to help you. It’s implemented as a universal search bar that sits next to Start button and replaces Windows’ embedded search feature.
Virtual Desktops are integrated directly into Windows 10 to provide a native virtual desktop experience as offered by many other OSs and tools like Linux and Mac OS X. It can be used to group or arrange apps to ease app management and improve productivity. It also provides better privacy because only the active apps present in the current virtual desktop is shown as active in the taskbar.
Windows 10 offers a revamped version of the Action Center that’s more like the notification bar of mobile operating systems. It’s part of the Microsoft’s dream of “Windows everywhere” – it’s a unified notifications area that will show notifications from apps as well as system across multiple devices.
Continuum is a feature designed for 2-in-1 aka hybrid devices, like Microsoft Surface, that allows a convenient shift between desktop and tablet mode. Windows 10 will move easily between keyboard/mouse and touch/tablet as it detects the transition and switches to the new mode. You can also enable the tablet mode on regular desktops if you prefer the tablet experience.
Windows 10 comes with unified apps that are going to work everywhere the new Windows works. Windows 10 supports the broadest family of devices – from PCs, tablets, 2-in-1s, mobile phones to Xbox, the Internet of Things, Microsoft Surface Hub and Microsoft HoloLens. To that end, Microsoft is proclaiming universal apps that’ll exists side-by-side on PCs as well as mobile devices.
Windows 10 comes with various security innovations. It brings many additional ways to secure your device data and sign-in to the desktop. It tries to make computing more personal and make users feel a great sense of trust on the go across all of their devices. Device Guard is a security feature that allows organizations to lock down devices as an advanced malware protection technique. It works by blocking anything except the trusted apps (the apps signed by vendors, Windows Store or the organization).