Windows 10: What's coming

[David Baxter PhD]

Microsoft unveils preview of a new Windows
By Woody Leonhard, Windows Secrets
October 2, 2014

At a much-anticipated event held in San Francisco, Microsoft vice president Terry Myerson unveiled the official Technical Preview of the next Windows.

The presentation packed several surprises, not least of which is the new operating system?s name: Windows 10.

Depending on how you look at it, either Windows 10 is such a leap forward that there just couldn?t be a Version 9, or Microsoft is making a not-so-subtle attempt to distance itself from Windows 8.

Joining Myerson on stage, Microsoft VP Joe Belfiore rousingly demo?ed some of Windows 10?s new features. (You can see the entire presentation on YouTube.) Keep in mind that this release is the Windows Technical Preview ? it represents the final product but is certainly far from complete. If you want to do your own preview, sign up for the Windows Insider Program (site) and you, too, can try this early version of Windows 10. Here?s what you?ll find:

A new Start menu: This change from Windows 8 is an obvious no-brainer. No one was going to accept Windows 10 without a real Start menu; Microsoft got that message loud and clear from its customers.

In the new Start menu, the left half looks much like Windows 7?s. But the right half is a pastiche of scaled-down Metro tiles. Both sides are customizable; you can click-and-drag or pin/unpin both menu items and tiles till the cows come home. Drag a menu entry from the left side to the right side, and it instantly turns into a Metro tile. Unpin all tiles, and you end up with a Start menu that looks and works much like Win7?s ? at least to a first approximation.

Universal apps: It?s heartening that Microsoft has given up trying to shove Metro apps into our collective faces. Metro apps (aka Full-screen apps, Immersive apps, Windows 8 apps, Windows Store apps, Modern apps, and who knows what else) are now called ?Universal? apps. Whatever you want to call them, they?re not the full-screen monstrosities found in Windows 8. Universal apps will now run on the standard desktop in their own floating, resizable windows (think Stardock?s ModernMix).

That?s an excellent compromise between the Desktop and Metro sides of Windows 8. If the Universal app concept carries through the way Microsoft envisions, developers can write apps that run inside their own windows on the Windows 10 desktop and on Windows phones and tablets ? or on watches, refrigerators, servers, drones, or whatever. Obviously a Universal app will need some modifications for different platforms, but the inner workings ? specifically, the API calls ? should be consistent (if not identical), no matter where the app finds itself. It?s a grand idea, though whether it?s practical remains to be seen.

Platform smarts: Not available in Preview, but shown in a conceptual video, Windows 10 will determine whether you have a keyboard and a mouse. If Win10 finds a keyboard, it takes you directly to the desktop. (It?s not clear yet whether, in this mode, the Metro Start screen disappears entirely.) If Windows 10 detects that a device has no attached keyboard ? or if the keyboard is detached (think convertible tablet PC) ? Win10 asks permission to take you to the Metro Start menu. It?s a slick idea Microsoft calls ?Continuum.? It might go a long way toward reducing the headaches we?ve had with Windows 8.

Multiple desktops: With Windows 10, you can run whatever you like on one desktop, then flip over to another desktop and run something different. (You can add virtual desktops to Windows as far back as XP with third-party apps such as Dexpot [site].) That?s a great feature for people like me, who tend to work on one project and then suddenly shift to another one.

On-screen application snapping: This gets better in Windows 10; up to four programs can be snapped into the corners of the screen. Metro, uh, Universal apps can be snapped just like standard programs. There?s also a new Task View icon that makes it easy to see and switch among running programs ? or different desktops.

What?s missing? A few features I expected to see in Windows 10 didn?t make it into the Windows Technical Preview. For example, Cortana, the Windows phone assistant, is currently missing but will most likely show up eventually. Internet Explorer 12 isn?t in Preview, and there?s no Notification Center, either. Expect the final Windows 10 to have a Notification Center that?s almost as good as the one on your phone.

Again, you must remember we?re still very early in Windows 10?s development cycle. Windows Technical Preview is designed only to give testers an idea of the broad pieces in Windows 10. Kudos to Myerson for putting Preview out for comment ? something I can?t recall Microsoft seriously attempting since Windows 95.

If you play with the preview, keep in mind that the user interface can change before the final release. Also, the Metro side has not been touched as yet. Myerson stated that the consumer side of Metro will appear in early 2015 and that developers will get a dose of ?Universal-app? religion at the April 2015 Build conference. The final Windows 10 release will ship sometime later in 2015.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

What?s new ? and expected ? in Win10, build 9926

What?s new ? and expected ? in Win10, build 9926
By Woody Leonhard, Windows Secrets
January 28, 2015

Microsoft?s Jan. 21 Windows 10 presentation revealed all sorts of new information about the next version of Windows, reportedly shipping this fall. Two days later, build 9926 arrived.

Here?s an overview of what you can see in the current Win10 Tech Preview ? plus what?s likely to dribble out over the summer.

If you haven?t been following Windows 10?s progress or need a refresher, I recommend reading the Oct. 2, 2014, Top Story, ?Microsoft unveils preview of a new Windows,? and the Oct. 23, 2014, Windows 10 article, ?Windows 10 Tech Preview now at build 9860″.

Winning back Windows users? hearts and minds
If you missed Microsoft?s two-and-a-half-hour dog-and-pony show, there?s an excellent 12-minute YouTube recap, put together by blogger Bavo Luysterborg (better known as Bav0).

The Windows 8 debacle?s impact on Microsoft is abundantly clear in the presentation. CEO Satya Nadella stated that the grand goal of Windows 10 was to make PC users not just want to use Windows, but to love using the OS. Lofty statements are expected at press conferences, but the announcement that really caught everyone?s attention was the use of Windows 10 and ?free? in the same sentence. Operating Systems VP Terry Myerson declared ?we will be making available a free upgrade to Windows 10 to all devices running [Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1].?

Most surprising, however, was the statement that all Windows 7 users will get a free upgrade for a year after Win10?s release ? and once they?ve upgraded, all future changes to Windows 10 will be free. There is, of course, some ambiguity I?ll discuss at the end of this article. (Has Microsoft taken another lesson from Apple, or it is a sort of unspoken apology to those who bought Windows 8?)

Taking in the new user interface
If you?ve followed Win10?s development at all, you already know that the next Windows incorporates a variant of the Windows 7 Start menu ? so desperately missed in Windows 8. Figure 1 shows a new Start menu that combines Win7?s quick-access list with Win8?s tiles.


Figure 1. Windows 10's Start menu melds elements of Windows 7 and Windows 8.

The Start menu in Windows 10 Preview build 9926 clearly needs work; it?s missing drag-and-drop reorganization, custom menus, and so forth. But you get a good feeling for the overall design.

Presumably, we?ll be able to move and manage entries in the left column. The tiles on the right can be moved, removed, and reorganized under custom headings. You can also add new tiles. As in the original Metro Start screen, the tiles are ?live? ? they can automatically update bits of information displayed within the tile.

Universal ? aka Metro, aka Modern ? apps become more useful in Windows 10. No longer confined to running full-screen, they now peacefully cohabit the desktop, running in their own resizable and manageable windows (see Figure 2).


Figure 2. In Windows 10, a native Universal app can run in its own resizable window on the desktop.

If you?re a fan of Windows 8?s Metro Start screen ? I know there are at least two of you out there ? Win10 won?t disappoint you. Clicking the four-headed arrow at the top of the Desktop Start menu expands the menu to full-screen. It?s a workable compromise to the Desktop/Metro interface dilemma.

If you?re skeptical, give the January Win10 Preview a try. Again, the Start menu isn?t complete, but I think you?ll be comfortable with the overall structure.

On the other hand, Microsoft killed off the much-maligned, clumsy-to-use Charms bar (all together now: Hurray!) and replaced it with Notification ? a popup window (see Figure 3) with general system notifications at the top and various shortcut buttons at the bottom. (In this build, the window is, in places, still called Action Center.) Soon, Windows 10 machines will interact with their users just as with nearly every Android and iOS device.


Figure 3. In Win10, the dysfunctional Charms bar is replaced by the far more useful Notifications.

There are lots of other changes in Win10?s interface (many of which appeared in build 9860), including multiple desktops, multi-monitor support, and window-snapping to the four corners of the screen.

Cortana takes up residence on your desktop
If your PC doesn?t have a microphone, I recommend going out and buying one. Launched on Windows Phone, Cortana is Microsoft?s digital-assistant answer to Apple?s Siri. Cortana, however, is a bit more refined: running in the Win10 Search box (shown in Figure 1), she responds to both speech (?Hey, Cortana!?) and keyboard entry. Voice input is enabled by clicking the search box, clicking the three-bar icon in the upper-left corner of the search window, and then selecting Settings. When you give Cortana a search task, she?ll look on the local system, in OneDrive, and out on the Web (see Figure 4).


Figure 4. You can chat with Microsoft's digital personal assistant, Cortana, in the Win10 Search window.

Cortana isn?t the all-knowing, all-seeing app Microsoft?s ads would have you believe, but I find her surprisingly clever and useful ? if still very buggy in build 9926. (Tip: Don?t pause after saying ?Hey, Cortana.?) But then, I also like Siri and even use Google Voice from time to time. There?s a battle between the next generation of digital assistants brewing, and that?s good for all of us.

(Cortana has an interesting backstory [YouTube video]; she evolved from the central AI entity in the Halo games.)

Significant changes coming to ?Universal? apps
Among the Windows 8 users I know is a near-unanimous consensus: the built-in Metro/Modern/Universal apps are dreadful. Metro Mail, Calendar, People, Videos, Music, and so on are so horribly deficient, almost no one wanted to use them.

That should change ? at least a little bit ? with Windows 10. Mail is being rewritten and relabeled (groan) Outlook. That will make Microsoft?s tenth different mail app. Unlike the Metro-based Mail, however, demos of the new Universal Outlook look almost as good as, say, Gmail on the Android or iPad. Yes, there?s a chance that Microsoft?s going to make a native mail app that people will actually use ? but don?t hold your breath.

Other Universal apps are going through major facelifts. For example, the new Photos app in build 9926 is buggy and not especially capable, but it looks workable. The new Maps app lets you download maps for offline use ? Microsoft is catching up with Garmin, circa 2001. Videos, Music, Messaging, and People will reportedly all be enhanced. We?ll have to wait and see; it?s a low bar.

For gamers, the real Win10 surprise is Xbox. According to the presentation, the shipping version of Windows 10 will let you stream Xbox games from an Xbox One device to your PC. Many hardcore gamers were puzzled as to why you?d do this, and it isn?t clear to me whether the stream will come through Win10?s new included Xbox app. But Microsoft?s Xbox chief promoted this capability as a really big deal.

(In another Windows 10 announcement, Microsoft showed [YouTube video] Office for Windows 10 on tablets. It looks as good as Office on the iPad or Android.)

Continuum coming ? but only on Surface for now
Continuum is Microsoft?s answer to the problem of attaching and detaching keyboards on portable, convertible PCs. As shown in the presentation, when you detach a keyboard, Windows 10 will ask for verification that you want to switch into Tablet Mode (i.e., apps open in full-screen, the Start menu expands to full screen, and so forth). When you reattach the keyboard, a second popup asks whether you want to leave Tablet Mode.

Exactly how Continuum will work on specific devices is still unknown. As best I can tell, only Microsoft?s Surface Pro 3 has built-in support for the technology. Apparently, it won?t be easy for other hardware manufacturers to work out the events that will trigger Continuum. It?s also unknown whether there will be Continuum drivers for current convertibles.

Loads of misconceptions about Project Spartan
Microsoft?s new browser, code-named ?Project Spartan,? doesn?t appear in build 9926. Not surprisingly, there?s a lot of misinformation about the app.

Based on the public demos, Spartan looks good ? it?s similar to Google Chrome. (Rumor has it that Spartan might even run Chrome extensions.)

Spartan?s key enhancement is your ability to manage interesting Web content. You can, for example, mark up displayed webpages with either a digital pen or a keyboard and send the annotated pages to other people or post them in OneDrive. Of course, Cortana is built into Spartan; there?s a view that makes reading text easier, and you can save pages offline.

Spartan is a Universal app ? it?ll run on the desktop only inside a Universal-app window. It doesn?t speak ActiveX or support Browser Helper Object modules.

Most important, Spartan doesn?t replace IE. For better or worse, we?re going to have IE around for a long time. (In fact, if Spartan tries to open a page that requires IE, it uses the IE 11 rendering engine.)

As with much about Win10, the details about Spartan are still under wraps. But it seems that Microsoft will give us a more secure alternative to Internet Explorer.

Will HoloLens make Microsoft cool again?
One of the more mind-blowing parts of the Win10 presentation was Microsoft?s new HoloLens technology. Think of it as a third-generation Google Glass. (Google, ironically, has ended its Glass demonstration program; it?s unknown what Google will do with Glass next.)

Despite the name, HoloLens (more info) isn?t a Star Trek?like holographic machine. Unlike Oculus VR (site), it isn?t strictly virtual reality, either. The headset implements a sophisticated form of assisted reality ? a blending of physical and virtual worlds. Essentially, digital images are superimposed on what?s around you, beyond the headset. HoloLens technology places images in the context of what you would normally see.

What?s Windows 10?s connection to HoloLens? The next Windows will have HoloLens APIs ? the routines that apps will call to control the headset.

HoloLens has the potential to radically change the way we use computers. Wired?s Jessi Hempel gives a thorough, first-hand review of the technology, which is due out sometime later this year.

A looming question: Will we be tethered?
As discussed above, Windows 10 will be free to Win7 and Win8.1 users. And, unlike Windows 8, it nicely blends the use of tablet and desktop PCs. So what, you might ask, is the catch?

Microsoft hasn?t explicitly said one way other the other, but based on hints and comments, it seems likely that many Windows 10 users (anyone who doesn?t fall under a corporate volume license) will have to stay tethered to the Microsoft mother ship most of the time. Likely, Microsoft believes that keeping Win10 users continuously updated to the same version of Windows will reduce support issues and costs.

What does that mean? On the plus side, that means you?ll get all of the new updates as soon as they?re available.

On the minus side, you?ll also get all of the new updates as soon as they?re available.

In other words, all updates will be installed automatically, whether you like it or not. If you fear and loathe Microsoft?s Automatic Updates as much as I do, that?s a bitter pill to swallow. Time and again, Microsoft has shown that it?s incapable of reliably patching its own software.

Can it do any better with Windows 10? For the near future, that?s essentially an unanswerable question ? though to Microsoft?s credit, Office 365 depends on a regular phone-home model and has had few updating problems. Still, Windows is a much more complicated system.

It appears that Windows 10 is the operating system Win8 should have been ? and significantly much more. If Microsoft stays on track, we?ll have a successor to Windows 7 we can all live happily with. Let?s keep our fingers and toes crossed.

 

[Retired]

From the way I understand it, the interface of W 10 is expected to be an improvement, leaning toward a classic desktop interface, but not entirely.

In checking the webpage of the startup utility I use in my W 8 computer, Classic Shell, they now have a beta version to support W 10.

I find that quite a relief!