Windows 10 is still some time away, but Microsoft have been steadily releasing information about it, showing off the new features of the operating system, as well as the overall direction that the company has taken in its development. Microsoft are trying to make the operating system more suitable for business and productivity, and they are also revising the general approach to its design, moving away from the “Metro” philosophy for the desktop, at least in the invasive way in which it was used in Windows 8.
On January 21, Satya Nadella is expected to give a presentation about the operating system, going in detail about its features. Other executives from the company will be joining him as well, including Terry Myerson, Joe Belfiore and Phil Spencer.
According to what’s already known about Windows 10, it will have an interface similar to that of Windows 7 and 8, yet with certain drastic changes that are supposed to increase the productivity of the operating system significantly. One of the most noticeable changes is in the Start Menu – it’s now back, and in a revised form that makes use of the new Tiles interface.
The new menu is a combination of the Start Screen from Window 8 and the old design of the Start Menu from previous versions of Windows, which most users are already familiar with. The menu now features tiles, which can show live information about various apps, much in the same way tiles used to work in the Windows 8 Start Screen.
Other new features which users have been excited for include improvements to the Alt-Tab functionality, virtual desktops, and changes to the taskbar that improve productivity and the overall accessibility of the operating system. Microsoft have also regularly been releasing builds that add new features or improve on the old ones, although they have paused that for the time being, and have said that no new builds will be coming out during the holidays. The next one is expected to be released in 2015.
So far, the preview version of Windows 10 has been seeing lots of positive reception, and people have been eager to see the final product once it comes out. Windows 8 was not received very well for various reasons, although it also managed to improve the overall concept of the operating system, according to most critics. Now, in Windows 10, Microsoft seem to have struck that good middle ground between changing the OS too much, and not innovating it enough. The new version is shaping up to be everything that users have wanted from the previous Windows releases, and everyone has been understandably excited about it.