Microsoft announced its new iteration of its desktop and tablet operating system this Tuesday, titled Windows 10: “Windows 10 will deliver the right experience on the right device at the right time,” said Microsoft’s Terry Myerson.
Design-wise, Windows 10 borrows elements from Windows 7 and 8, with Microsoft smartly deciding to listen to the outcry from users and re-implement the Start menu in the desktop version of the software. In the lower-left of the desktop, the Start menu is present, as it has been in every version of Windows since 3.0. However, the Start menu’s been updated to reflect the Metro design language introduced in Windows 8, specifically in the much-lamented Start screen. What’s more, Windows apps will now run in a resizable window on the desktop, as opposed to the forced fullscreen mode in Windows 8. Searching in the Start menu works differently now as well, allowing users to perform web searches right from it as well as local file searches. Microsoft’s also introduced an OS X Expose-like multitasking view that allows users to switch between multiple desktops for different purposes (work, home, etc.). Oh, and command prompt now supports paste.
Microsoft hasn’t abandoned the ideas introduced in Windows 8 completely. On tablet-laptop hybrid devices like the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro, the Charms bar will activate in a new mode called Continuum when users take it out of the keyboard housing for tablet use. If apps are launched in windowed mode while the keyboard is connected, and later the keyboard is detached, Windows will prompt users to resize apps in fullscreen mode.
Rumors of a new version of Windows had been mounting for the last several months. Internal codenames like Windows TH, X, One, and 9 were thrown around internally, though for whatever reason, Microsoft decided to jump ahead two version numbers. Perhaps it was so they could leave Windows 8 in the dust all the more quickly. During the keynote, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore said they wanted Windows 7 users “to have the sentiment that yesterday they were driving a first-generation Prius… and now with Windows 10 it’s like a Tesla.” It’s telling that Windows 8 was nowhere in that analogy, as Microsoft seems to have wisened up to the multitude of complaints users had about their last operating system.
Windows 8 was Microsoft’s attempt to gain tablet marketshare by optimizing the interface for use with Surface devices. However, the operating system took a radical usability departure from past versions of Windows by jettisoning the Start menu in place of a new Start screen, a solution that really only worked for a small percentage of tablet users. By forcing the change onto the desktop version of the operating system, Microsoft alienated a huge portion of enterprise customers, as well as home users who weren’t used to navigating in such a different way than they were used to. Compromising on the changes they made to Windows 8 was ultimately the smartest move Microsoft could have made with Windows 10.
Its refinements may be the way for Microsoft to get more users to upgrade to the latest version of Windows and to put a dent in the tablet market.
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