The Windows 10 event has now concluded, and the internet is still reeling from the megatons Microsoft dropped today. Terry Myerson and Joe Belfiore went into great detail about the vision for Windows 10, across mobile, internet of things, and even Xbox.
And of course, that insane HoloLens announcement, which you can read more about on XboxMAD.net in it’s own feature soon.
Below is a summary of all the biggest Windows PC and mobile related take-aways from the event!
Windows 10 is a free upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users
At least for the first year. Windows 8 struggled to gain traction due to the divergence in UX it presented. Windows 7 users, even Windows XP users refused to budge in protest at Microsoft’s multi-coloured tiles and disconnected desktop experience.
It’s already widely known that Windows 10 will see the return of the classic start menu, albeit with some ‘modern’ flavourings. As a fig leaf to a consumer base distrustful of Microsoft, Windows 10 will be a free upgrade from Windows 7 and Windows 8 for the first year. This should help ensure the OS gains the traction it needs to attract those all-crucial app developers.
Windows 10 – Continuum
Windows 10 will see a vast expansion of Microsoft’s efforts to bring touch screens to the Windows user experience and vice versa. Windows 8 presided over a disconnection between ARM-capable ‘modern’ apps and the powerful, but old, desktop environment, which both confounded and frustrated users when it shipped a few years ago.
Windows 10 will rectify this. As mentioned previously, Windows 10 will utilize a feature dubbed ‘Continuum’, which will detect and respond to changes in hardware scenarios. For example, if you disconnect the Surface Pro 3 keyboard – continuum will ask whether you want to switch to tablet mode. Windows then become full screen, even desktop ones, and will react to the same swipe gestures Windows tablet users have become accustomed to. Snapping windows has also become more intuitive, delivering suggestions in the empty space when snapping another app.
The demonstration showed a far more polished version of what Microsoft initially presented in the Technical Preview, and gives the impression they’ve finally got the convergence of mouse and touch spot on.
The Action Centre and Cortana
Cortana makes the leap from Phone to PC in Windows 10. Although the interface was ‘in development’ code, Windows chieftain Joe Belfiore impressed with Cortana’s new functionality, and W10’s new action centre. Similarly to what’s already available in OSX, the action centre will sync notifications between all Windows 10 devices, whether it’s emails or IM’s, tweets and so on. Many of these notifications will also be actionable.
Joe Belfiore demonstrated Cortana’s voice-recognition capabilities, dictating an email in response to an actionable notification. Joe also emphasised that Cortana isn’t just copy/pasted from Windows Phone – but instead recognises a whole host of PC specific actions.
The Cortana window will transform to reflect queries asked of her. Whether it’s indexing files, taking dictation, etc. It brings an additional layer of multi-tasking to your productivity.
Windows 10 for phones
Noted previously by Nokia, all Windows Phone 8 handsets are Windows 10 ready, and we caught a glimpse of what it will look like at the event. Windows 10 will present phone users with full screen backgrounds, rather than the peep-through backgrounds we get currently (although it seems likely that Microsoft will keep both as a feature). There are various other improvements in tow, such as expandable action centre quick settings, icons in the settings menu (thank you Jesus) and a detachable software keyboard. The keyboard now allows for voice dictation in any text field.
We also caught a glimpse of Office for Windows 10, which finally brings Office up to parity with iPad and Android. Outlook for touch was demonstrated heavily, allowing users to intuitively swipe left to delete and swipe right to flag. Outlook couldn’t have come sooner for a heavy user like myself, the stock WP8 mail app leaves a lot to be desired.
Microsoft also committed to releasing new flagship devices when Windows 10 for phones launches later this year.
Windows 10 apps galore
Windows 10 will feature hefty integration with Xbox One, allowing for game streaming, cross platform play and game DVR for any Windows game. Click here for a summary of all gaming related news from the event.
Windows 10 will also include various other pre-installed applications and improvements over existing ones. The photos hub will now curate and manage your photographs naturally utilising the data the images are tagged with. Duplicates and blurry shots will be omitted automatically, making lazy photographers such as myself that bit lazier. The app will also benefit from a hugely polished interface.
The People Hub is being removed from Windows Phone, in favour of an improved People app from Windows 8.1. The app will behave similarly to Outlook.com’s People web application and the app from Windows 8, aggregating your contacts from various social networks, and allowing you to link profiles to unify information in one place.
OneDrive got a shout via the new Music app, which will support the widely rumoured cloud-storage for music feature.
All these apps will benefit from Cortana integration on PC, and see further refinements and announcements down the line.
A new web browser, ‘Project Spartan’
Widely leaked, Project Spartan got it’s full reveal during the event, bringing light weight, refined web browsing to all Windows 10 devices (although no word on Xbox yet). Whilst Spartan evidently won’t replace Internet Explorer (due to its necessity for legacy apps and systems), it will be the bundled browser with Windows 10.
Detailed initially by The Verge, Spartan will indeed get the capability to ink, annotate and share web pages easily and intuitively. It will also feature full Cortana integration, granting additional insights into websites you’re visiting. If you’re on a restaurant that Bing has parsed information for. Instead of hunting around a pretentious hipster flash website, Cortana will give you menus, phone numbers and other information she’s privy too right in the side bar, in addition to directions and travel information.
The reading list app from Windows 8 will also be integrated, allowing you to save readable versions of articles and web pages for offline viewing.
The future
Microsoft have come out swinging in response to beleaguered Windows Phone market share, persistent assault from Google and Apple on the OS front and decades of nay-sayers cynicism. The event represents the beginning of a convergent future for Microsoft, who may have finally beat its competitors to the market with a truly ubiquitous device experience.
If you want to sign up to receive the W10 preview, you can do so here. New builds will be up soon with the latest version.
Watch this video from Joe Belfiore summing up some of the awesome features Windows fans have to look forward to, and hit up the comments to share your thoughts.
Jez C (MSFTY) is a games journalist, Executive Editor at Windows Central. They contributed 39 articles to ICXM in 2015, focused on game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: now leads Xbox coverage at Future plc’s Windows Central as Executive Editor.