Windows 10: 11 Big Changes
Microsoft is being more open and transparent with customers with Windows 10. Take a look at some of the most appealing features in the upcoming OS.
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With Windows 8, Microsoft made bold changes, such as replacing Windows 7's familiar Start menu with a tiled, touch-friendly Start screen. But bold isn't always synonymous with successful. Unfortunately for Microsoft, many longtime Windows users hated the OS's new look.
With Windows 10, which was introduced as a technical preview Sept. 30, Microsoft's making changes again. When the final version of the OS finally hits the market next year, it will include a revamped Start menu, virtual desktops, and a host of other features designed to show the company's continued investment in the desktop UI.
In the short term, Microsoft wants to compel upgrades from the Windows XP, Vista, and 7 users who've resisted Win 8's touch-centric UI. If the company's successful, Windows 10's shift back to mouse-based navigation will no doubt play an important role. But over the long run, Windows 10's boldest change isn't about new features; it's about philosophy.
Windows 8 suggested Microsoft was somewhat tone deaf to user needs. If this weren't so, the company wouldn't have so massively missed the shift toward mobile devices, and it wouldn't have responded to that shift with Win 8's half-baked, hodgepodge UI. But if Microsoft didn't pay enough attention to users before, the company wants you to know it's listening now.
Terry Myerson and Joe Belfiore, the executive VPs who run Microsoft's OS efforts, emphasized during this week's Windows 10 reveal that the new OS has to address the needs of a massive user base. That's no small task. Enterprises and consumers, knowledge workers and field workers, executives and students -- all of them use Windows, and all of them bring somewhat different expectations and needs when they do so. To assess and serve its diverse base, Microsoft is involving customers earlier and more transparently than ever before, starting with enterprise-oriented PC users. The company not only made the Win 10 preview available earlier and to a larger user base than it has with past Windows previews, but also included an app to solicit and collect user feedback.
Windows 10's final release is at least six months away, so it remains to be seen how well Microsoft implements its new, more inclusive intentions. But the company is off to a good start. Myerson and Belfiore said Windows 10 should provide an unadulterated desktop experience. They also said it should be instantly familiar to longtime Windows users, but packed with productivity-boosting new features that users will organically discover over time. More than a few IT decision-makers have avoided Win 8 due to fears that it will require too much employee training, so if Windows 10 delivers outstanding ease-of-use, enterprise upgrades could follow.
Touch is part of the Windows 10 equation, even on the desktop, but the OS won't attempt "one UI to rule them all," as its immediate predecessor did. Windows 10 will look different on different sorts of devices, even though all versions of the OS will share common app store and device management models. In coming months, Microsoft will discuss consumer-oriented tablet and smartphone versions of Windows 10. But for now, the company hopes this week's enterprise and desktop-oriented preview convinces mouse-and-keyboard users that they aren't afterthoughts.
Even so, Microsoft faces an uphill climb. Overall, Windows remains the dominant PC platform, but both Windows 7 and Windows XP, the latter of which isn't even an actively supported product, have more users than Windows 8 and 8.1. According to Web-tracking firm Net Applications, Windows 8 and 8.1 combined for only 12.3% of PC users in September. That's down a surprising 1.1 percentage points compared to August, and the largest month-over-month decrease the OS has suffered yet. Windows 8/8.1 has less market share than Windows Vista did at the same point in its release cycle -- which is pretty damning, given that Vista is generally considered the exemplar of Windows flops.
Other recent data indicates Microsoft is feeling pressure at both ends of the market, with Apple computers outselling flashy Windows 2-in-1s at the high end, and Chromebooks eating into Windows territory at the low end. Windows 8 and 8.1's recent downward trend might reverse itself in the near future, thanks to upcoming ultra-slim hybrids with new Intel processors, as well as a growing number of budget devices that undercut Chromebook prices. But it's clear Microsoft's current flagship OS just doesn't have enough appeal; as Myerson said Tuesday, it's time for a new Windows.
Going forward, Microsoft's revenue models will rely less on Windows licenses and more on the software and cloud services that Windows users run. To maximize these new streams, Microsoft needs as many users as possible on its newest platforms. Windows 8 and 8.1 have failed to advance this strategy, but will Windows 10 do the trick? Check out 11 of the biggest changes in the preview build, and let us know what you think in the comments.
Microsoft confirmed in April that the Start menu would be coming back, but the Sept. 30 preview event offered the first look at how the feature will work. In Windows 10, the Start menu has two columns. On the left, users will find a list of frequently used apps, shortcuts to Documents and Pictures folders, and a link to an "all apps" view. The right side features a collection of user-selected Live Tiles. These tiles can be resized and moved around, which effectively makes the right column a smaller, more malleable version of the Win 8 Start screen. Users who aren't interested in Live Tiles can simply elect not to pin any to the Start menu. In fact, the entire Start menu is customizable. Users can make the columns tall and thin or short and wide, for example.
In Windows 10, Microsoft moves most of the Start screen's functionality into the new Start menu. Nevertheless, the Start screen is still a part of the new OS. PC users won't see the tiled UI unless they activate it, since their machines will boot to the desktop by default.
However, 2-in-1 devices are a different story. Because these devices can be used as both notebooks and tablets, they must be able to gracefully switch between UIs. To make these transitions smoother, Windows 10 includes a new feature called Continuum that automatically detects whether the device is attached to a keyboard and prompts the user to choose either a touch-centric or a keyboard-centric experience. Continuum is still in early stages -- so early that it's not included in the just-released preview build.
Microsoft pulled Windows 8's search capabilities into the Windows 10 desktop. With a new icon located on the taskbar, users will be able to easily search both local files and the Web without launching any new apps or even opening a new window. Though Microsoft hasn't said so, the task bar search interface will reportedly integrate Cortana, the Windows Phone virtual assistant, before the final version of Windows 10 hits the market. Microsoft also included a search function in the new Start menu. In a similar vein, File Explorer will display recent and frequently used files.
Microsoft hopes Windows 10 will offer a familiar UI while still helping users discover new ways to manage content and be productive. A new "Task View" factors heavily into this goal.
Activated by a button on the task bar, Task View displays all programs that are currently running and works broadly like the "Mission Control" feature in Apple's OS X. This feature should help Windows 10 users multi-task without having to dig through layers of application windows.
Task View also contains virtual desktops, another new Windows 10 feature that's been in OS X for several years. Users will be able to assign specific apps to specific virtual desktops. A user might assign work-related apps to one desktop and personal apps to another, for example. Just as users can use the ALT+TAB keyboard shortcut to toggle among windows in current versions of Windows, Windows 10 will let users use WINDOWS+TAB to shuffle among virtual desktops.
In Windows 8 and 8.1, Modern apps run in full-screen mode, but in Windows 10, they behave just like legacy applications. They can run in floating windows on the desktop, those windows can be resized -- the whole nine yards. Modern apps also include mouse-friendly Close and Minimize buttons in the title bar, just as they do in Windows 8.1 Update.
Windows 7 and 8 both allow users to instantly "snap" application windows into a particular position. Drag an open window to the right edge of the screen, for instance, and the window will automatically expand to occupy the screen's entire right half. Windows 10 beefs up this capability. It allows up to four apps to be snapped together, and users can mix legacy Win32-style apps with new Modern titles. More intriguingly, when one app is snapped into place, Windows 10 will surface a list of suggested apps or documents that users might want to snap into the remaining space. Microsoft execs have said personalized user experiences will be a central part of Windows 10 -- but we'll see if the OS will offer recommendations that users actually want to follow.
Microsoft VPs Terry Myerson and Joe Belfiore said Windows 10 will be compatible with major management products used today. It will also add new capabilities. IT admins will be able to manage smartphones, tablets, and PCs using the same mobile device management platform, for example. Windows 10 will also allow users or administrators to keep personal files separate from work-related ones. This tactic, which is popular among smartphone management vendors, but more novel for PCs, could help in BYOD scenarios by allowing IT admins to secure corporate files without running afoul of employee privacy. Windows 10 will also allow enterprise customers to set up customized storefronts in the Windows Store, which should make it easier to deploy Modern-style line-of-business apps. Microsoft execs said Windows 10 will also improve security. Using containers and data separation at the application and file level, the OS is built to keep data protected even when it leaves the device.
Windows 7 and 8 users can install the Windows 10 preview by signing up for Microsoft's Windows Insider program. Microsoft's Terry Myerson and Joe Belfiore cautioned users against running Win 10 on a primary machine or in production environments; as a preview release, the OS will inevitably have bugs. Nevertheless, Microsoft is giving anyone who's interested unprecedented access to its in-progress ideas. Users can also send feedback to influence how that final polishing occurs. Microsoft has to prove that it can effectively implement the feedback it collects -- but giving users a voice is a good first step.
Rumors have claimed for months that Microsoft plans to merge its three platforms -- Windows, Windows RT, and Window Phone -- into a single platform. CEO Satya Nadella alluded to this plan over the summer, and during the Windows 10 reveal, Terry Myerson made it official: Windows 10 will run on everything from smartphones to 80-inch screens to Internet of Things-themed industrial devices, but it will present a tailored UI for each type of device. Windows 8 tried to too hard to impose a one-size-fits-all attitude, but with Windows 10, Microsoft hopes to avoid this mistake while still getting the benefits that come with a unified platform.
Unlike previous versions, the Windows 10 Command prompt will accept keyboard shortcuts such as CTRL+C. Microsoft's Belfiore admitted that the Command prompt is a niche tool. Nevertheless, he included it in his Win 10 demo in an attempt to illustrate that Microsoft is thinking deeply about its users' various needs, no matter how small.
Terry Myerson and Joe Belfiore made clear that Win 8's desktop relied too much on touch. But even though Windows 10 returns the desktop to its mouse-and-keyboard roots, touch will still have a background presence. Belfiore noted that while many touch functions don't work well on the desktop, some have proved popular. He said Win 8 users with touchscreen PCs enjoy swiping to scroll down Web pages. He also said some users praised the ease with which they can connect to a WiFi network by swiping from the right to summon the Charms menu. The Charms menu itself was one of Windows 8's most controversial and criticized features. Belfiore made clear that Windows 10 won't include Charms, but that some of the menu's features might be integrated elsewhere in the OS.
Terry Myerson and Joe Belfiore made clear that Win 8's desktop relied too much on touch. But even though Windows 10 returns the desktop to its mouse-and-keyboard roots, touch will still have a background presence. Belfiore noted that while many touch functions don't work well on the desktop, some have proved popular. He said Win 8 users with touchscreen PCs enjoy swiping to scroll down Web pages. He also said some users praised the ease with which they can connect to a WiFi network by swiping from the right to summon the Charms menu. The Charms menu itself was one of Windows 8's most controversial and criticized features. Belfiore made clear that Windows 10 won't include Charms, but that some of the menu's features might be integrated elsewhere in the OS.
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