Windows 10 Preview
By Wayne Maruna

    I'm writing this article on 3/31/15 on a computer that is running Microsoft's new Windows 10 operating system – or more precisely, Windows Ten Technical Preview, Build 10041.  Win10 has not yet been released to the public or to Microsoft's manufacturing partners as I write this.  However, Microsoft has made an advance copy of its operating system freely available to anyone prepared to install it on a spare computer, a virtual machine, or on a spare hard drive.  They are doing this to solicit feedback from the user community, in order to anticipate and resolve any issues that might otherwise not reveal themselves until product release.  It is a welcome strategy.

    If you purchased a Windows-based computer in the last two and a half years, you most likely bought a machine running Windows 8 or 8.1.  Prior to that, Windows 7 was Microsoft's flagship operating system.  So you may well ask, why Windows 10 and not Windows 9.  Good question, one to which Microsoft turns a deaf ear.  It matters not.

    The hardware in the computer I installed Win10 on is mostly seven years old in calendar years, which is like 49 years old in dog years, and about 102 in computer years.  Still, when I installed Win10, it correctly identified all hardware devices and appropriate drivers save for an obscure sound device.  When I asked Win10 to update the orphan device, it searched its data base back at the mother-ship and quickly found and installed the missing driver, and all was well.  I was pretty impressed.  And because I had signed in with my Microsoft account, it loaded the desktop wallpaper I use on my main machine.  Even more surprising, it found and installed my networked printers. I'm not used to Windows doing that much right at one time.

    When I describe Windows 8 to someone who is unfamiliar with it, I like to say there are two sides to Win8.  There is the more familiar Desktop side, and there is what I call the Tile Side.  That side is made up of a collection of tiles of varying sizes.  Clicking one of these 'live tiles' takes you to an application (software program). Microsoft initially called these 'metro apps' until a major German retail partner, Metro AG, took umbrage, at which point they changed the name to 'Modern apps', which meant nothing to most people, so they changed the name yet again to 'Universal apps', as if that were more meaningful. The latest news is these tile apps are now to be referred to as simply ‘Windows apps’. Branding has never been Microsoft's strong suit.

      Perhaps the biggest gripe people had with Win8 was the removal of the familiar 'Start Menu' which was where you found the list of applications to click and run. When you clicked where the Start button should be, you were transported to the Tile Side, where you had to find and click the appropriate tile. What resulted was not Universal Apps, but Universal Frustration in a user community not keen on having to take a walk on the Tile Side.

    So what's different about Win10 from Win8? For starters, there is a return of the Start Menu, more or less.  Clicking the Start button brings up a semi-transparent two sided start menu, with the left side being much like the ones in Windows 7, Vista, and XP, displaying ‘Windows Desktop Applications’, while the right side of the menu consists of those 'Windows App’ tiles.  

Win10 Preview Start Menu

    To the right of the Start button is a big search box, Microsoft's attempt to influence you into using their Bing search engine so they can collect the referral pennies that might otherwise go to Google or Yahoo or another default browser search engine.  Just right of the search box is the 'Task View' button.  This is new. Win10 provides for multiple desktops, so you can fill up one desktop with application windows, and click the Task View icon to switch to an alternate desktop where you might have more apps running.  I suspect this feature will be more appreciated by business users than home users.

    Speaking of web browsers, one thing the Win10 Technical Preview does not include is any demonstration of Microsoft's new web browser, which is being called Project Spartan. It is not clear at this time whether Win10 will ship with Microsoft's existing Internet Explorer web browser as well as the new Spartan browser, or if Spartan will totally replace I.E.  

    I loaded a handful of commonly used 3rd party programs onto Win10, and everything worked just fine. As far as I could tell, Win10 is mostly just a re-imagined Win8 which addresses common customer interface complaints, though surely there must be more substantial enhancements under the hood.

    Microsoft has revealed that current owners of Windows 8 or 7 will be offered free upgrades to Win10 when the time comes, redeemable only within the first year of its release.  Just how Microsoft will deliver that upgrade is unclear, as is just what versions of Win10 will exist, and how an upgrade might differ for non-business owners of the various versions of Win7 or 8 (Basic, Starter, Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, etc.)  Also unclear is a release date for the new operating system, though the latest speculation suggests  'summer' of 2015, perhaps as early as June. For most users, I don't see a sense of urgency.  I doubt we'll see people queuing up to be first in line for an upgrade, as they might for the next iPhone.  There is too much risk in upgrading a current system.  I think people will sit back and see what befalls the early adopters.  In fact, many may choose to leave their current systems alone and only get Win10 with a new machine. I can only say that what I've seen with the Technical Preview looks encouraging.

4/23/15 update - I am currently running build 10049, updated from build 10041 discussed above.  The update took several hours to install - at least ten, as I recall.  I recently learned this was due to the inclusion of multiple language packs.  I have found build 10049 to be a good deal buggier than 10041, though it does include Project Spartan, which has worked OK for me.  And as of yesterday, Microsoft has released build 10061, which now includes the Mail and Calendar apps that were missing from earlier builds.  Just a couple of problems - Microsoft acknowledges an issue with Mail and Calendar that causes every typed letter to appear twice.  And if that were not enough, a bug now exists that prevents desktop apps from launching from the Start menu.  Sigh. A reasonable person might ask why they bothered to send out build 10061. Bugginess seems to be increasing with each new build.  A cynic might suggest that this is Microsoft's inevitable march to achieve total bugginess before final release.