Windows 10 Announced

Windows 10 Products

In an exclusive event yesterday, Microsoft announced the next version of Windows. Windows 10 will take the best from Windows 8 and combine it with the things that everyone loved from Windows 7 to create one operating system for all device types. Windows 10 is designed to be able to adapt to the type of device it is running onĀ from smartphones and tablets to laptops and desktops.

In the video above Joe Belfiore, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s’ Operating Systems Group, shows how Windows 10 will reintroduce the ‘Start Menu’ that was so sorely missed in Windows 8 and expand it to include ‘Live Tiles’ from Windows 8’s Metro/Modern UI start screen. He also shows how ‘Store Apps’ will no longer be forced to run in full screen mode within the Modern UI screen, but will simply run windowed on your normal desktop, and can be resized to suit your requirements.

Also demonstrated is the improved ‘Window Snap’ feature which will allow four windows to be snapped into position, rather than the current two. The ‘Task View’ button is also shown which will allow easy switching between running windows. This isn’t actually a new innovation: the ability to quickly switch between running windows has been available since Windows 98, and personally I would like to see ‘Flip 3D’ from Windows 7 returned.

Finally, we are shown how Windows 10 will support multiple desktops. In the example in the video Joe explains how this would be useful for switching between a work and home layout. This makes different arrangements of tasks more manageable by having each group of running windows in their own space.

Windows 10 will be available to retail customers at some point mid to late 2015. However, for those who are more adventurous, the Technical Preview version is available to download from today. Details on how and where to get it are in the video.