So far, we know relatively little about the Windows 10 experience for tablet, touchscreen, and hybrid users. It is likely that the Desktop will be removed (or at least made very hard to access) so that touchscreen users only have to interact with the Metro interface. It would make sense if Microsoft made it so tablet/touchscreen users never had to venture out to the Desktop to access the Registry Editor or Control Panel (both of which are hard to use without a mouse and keyboard).
The Cortana digital assistant is making the jump from Windows Phone. Cortana, Microsoft’s answer to Siri, will reportedly be coming to Windows 10. She will probably be accessible from both the Desktop and Metro, but presumably her ability to understand natural language will be more useful for people on the move, or without a keyboard. If Cortana is capable of understanding (and executing) complex filters, she could be a very useful addition to Windows 10. (Imagine being able to say “Cortana, show me all of my photos from my 2011 trip to Mexico.”)
Start screen tweaks. While the Start screen will still look much the same in Windows 10, many of its elements will be tweaked. Live tiles — the big, resizable icons that show updates and notifications — will be reportedly be upgraded, so that you can actually use some features of an app from the tile, without having to open it up. Live folders from Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 may also make the jump to Windows 10.
Notifications. While the leaked Technical Preview has a Notifications tray on the Desktop, I suspect the final version of Windows 10 will have some kind of Notifications panel in the Metro interface as well — probably resembling the Notifications panel from Windows Phone 8.
One Windows: Windows for all, Windows Phone, etc.
Windows 10: Other general updates, tweaks, and rumors
In addition to forward-facing UI changes to the Desktop and Metro, Windows 10 will of course have lots of under-the-hood changes. The most notable so far seems to be one-click upgrading: With Windows 10, upgrading to the next version (Windows 10.1, Windows 11) should be a simple matter of clicking one button.
Will Windows 10 be the last major version of Windows? Coincidentally, the change to a one-click upgrade cycle also suggests that Windows 10 will be the last major version of Windows (at least for a while). Microsoft has been trying to shift its sizable bulk towards a faster release cycle over the past couple of years, so that Windows and Windows Phone can evolve more rapidly — just like iOS, Android, and OS X. One-click upgrades would be a sure sign that Windows 10 is moving away from major overhauls and towards smaller, iterative updates like OS X.
Will Windows 10 be free? There is a persistent rumor that Windows 10 will a free upgrade for Windows 8 and 8.1 users. Most recently, the head of Microsoft in Indonesia reportedly confirmed this with a website called Detik. There is also a rumor that Microsoft will offer some kind of carrot to get Windows XP users to upgrade from their 13-year-old operating system. In both cases, I think it’s wishful thinking that Windows 10 will be free — Microsoft derives a lot of its money from Windows licensing — but it might be heavily discounted in some special cases. At the Windows 10 unveil event, there was no mention of pricing at all.
Updated: The staging site for the Windows Technical Preview download page was discovered over the weekend. As you can see in the screenshot below, there’s no mention of “9″ at all.
Universal Windows apps. In theory, we should begin to see the arrival of truly universal Windows/Windows Phone apps on Windows 10. It still isn’t entirely clear what Microsoft’s vision for universal apps is, but I suspect we’ll hear more about it at the September 30 event. The idea of buying a single app and running it across all of your Microsoft devices (including the Xbox One) is rather sweet, but I think it depends on…
At the Windows 10 unveil, Microsoft made it very clear that it’s working on a single platform that will span every device type and screen size — from 4 inches to 80 inches. Microsoft is all-in on the “universal app” idea, where you find, buy, and update all of your apps from a single location. Because of the common platform, developers will be able to write apps that run on all Windows 10 devices.
Windows 10: One product family, one platform, one store
… the merger of Windows Phone and Windows RT. So far, despite the leak of the Windows 10 Technical Preview a few weeks ago, we know very little about the Metro interface. One possibility is that the Windows 10 Technical Preview is actually just for mouse and keyboard users, and that Microsoft is working on another preview build for mobile devices. This ties in neatly with a rumor that Microsoft is currently working on merging Windows Phone with Windows RT.
Why is it called Windows 10? We saved the best question ’til last. Why did Microsoft skip Windows 9? When asked at the Windows 10 event, Microsoft refused to answer, instead saying something along the lines of: “When you see how awesome Windows 10 is, you’ll see why we called it Windows 10.” I doubt even Microsoft knows why it’s called Windows 10. I really, really hope it has nothing to do with Microsoft wanting to maintain parity with Apple’s Mac OS X.
We’re sure there will also be lots of other underlying improvements to Windows 10 – little tweaks, support for new kinds of hardware, improved high-DPI support — but we won’t discover them until we actually get our hands on the Windows 10 Technical Preview.
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