Microsoft's latest Windows 10 preview offers up a good look at what
the company is planning for the future of laptops and PCs. While Windows
8 was never received well by consumers or businesses, Windows 10 aims
to make things a lot more familiar. We saw the new Start Menu when
Microsoft released its first Windows 10 preview back in October,
but things are changing rapidly. There's more built-in apps, user
interface changes, and a whole new touch mode designed for 2-in-1
laptops and tablets.
Windows 10 is still a work in progress, but Microsoft is soliciting
feedback and changing parts of its operating system before it ships
later this year. While the company demonstrated a number of new features
and apps during its Windows 10 event last week, not everything is in
preview straight away. A number of new apps will debut in the coming
months, and Microsoft plans to more rapidly roll out new builds of
Windows 10 to testers.
Until then, let's take a look at what's new in the second major Windows 10 preview.
A new Start Menu for a new Windows
The look and feel of Windows 10 might be the key to its success or
failure. With Windows 8, Microsoft swayed too far to adapting its
operating system for tablets. It resulted in software that has largely
confused the masses, but Microsoft is clearly fixing those mistakes in
early preview versions of Windows 10. It’s still very much a work in
progress, but the most noticeable addition is the return of the Start
Menu. In the latest Windows 10 preview it’s clear to see what direction
Microsoft is taking. Windows 10’s Start Menu mixes legacy desktop
applications with the new modern Windows 8 apps by surfacing Live Tiles.
You can turn them off if they’re or annoying, or keep them around if
you want to quickly glance at the weather, news, or various other
information.
While previous previews allowed you to resize the Start Menu freely,
Microsoft has added a fullscreen option now which lets you expand the
menu to make it look similar to the Start Screen found in Windows 8. The
big difference is the presence of the taskbar at all times, which is a
welcome improvement to enhance navigation between apps. There are some
subtle changes elsewhere that help with app switching. In the past
Microsoft has used a flip 3D feature to present a visual view of all
applications currently running on a system, and the company is bringing
it back, kind of. Swiping in from the left on a large tablet or a 2-in-1
will activate the new apps view, and it’s easy to use a mouse and
keyboard or touch to select the app you want. In Windows 8 you had to
navigate into the corners and activate a side menu with a mouse, and it
was a rather irritating experience the more you used it.
Those navigation changes extend to the Charms menu
in the latest Windows 10 preview. It is gone and has been replaced by a
notification center if you swipe from the right. Mousing into the
corners on the right does nothing, but you can access the notification
center (or Action Center as Microsoft calls it) from the system tray in
the lower-right. It’s a bizarre change right now and lacks convenient
access to settings like Wi-Fi or display brightness for laptops and
tablets. Microsoft is balancing that with quick toggles for settings,
but it feels like this particular area of Windows 10 needs some big
improvements and is a very early form of what will eventually ship.
Either way, the removal of the awkward Charms menu is an improvement,
providing its replacement is tweaked heavily to keep some of the
convenience of accessing settings and features like broadcasting via
Miracast or DLNA.
Design changes hint at the future of Windows 10
Microsoft’s design tweaks in Windows 10 and its built-in apps signal
the direction of how this operating system will eventually ship. There’s
lots of changes in the latest Windows 10 preview, and it appears that
even Microsoft isn’t sure on exactly how Windows 10 will look in its
final form. Some built-in apps have a hamburger menu, while the new beta
version of the Windows Store has a mysterious back button for
navigation. Microsoft is clearly testing the feedback on both, but it’s
likely that the hamburger menu method will win out to help
app developers easily port their apps from Android and iOS and adapt
them for larger displays and form factors.
There’s even some transparency coming to Windows 10. While Windows
Vista first introduced Microsoft’s Aero glass interface with see-through
windows and a transparent taskbar, Windows 10 appears to be returning
to parts of that interface. Microsoft’s official press images for
Windows 10 include screenshots of a transparent Windows 10 Start Menu,
and Xbox chief Phil Spencer briefly showed the changes in a future build
of the OS on stage at a press event last week. The transparent menu
isn’t available in this current build — unless someone discovers a way
to enable it — but we’re expecting to see it debut in later previews.
Similarly, there’s also a new login screen that you can enable from
the registry, round profile pictures, and even an improved calendar and
clock for the taskbar that’s also available from a registry tweak. Icons
have also been tweaked and look a lot more modern, and perhaps a little
too colorful at times. Microsoft is also finally combining the control
panel and separate settings app into a single app that looks a lot
easier to use. The control panel still exists, but Microsoft is clearly
pushing people to use the settings app as a replacement.
Apps, apps, and more apps
Apps are the all-important feature of any modern operating system,
and the latest preview of Windows 10 doesn’t disappoint. While Microsoft
is developing a new universal Outlook mail app for phone, tablets, and
PCs running Windows 10, that app isn’t ready for preview just yet.
Instead, there’s a new Maps application and a touch-friendly version of
OneNote. The OneNote addition gives us the first look at how touch
versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint will work. It’s all very similar
to the iPad version of Office, with a collapsable ribbon and formatting
controls that work well with a mouse and keyboard or touch. This looks
like a good example of how to build the perfect Windows 10 app. It’s
fast, responsive, and resizes well to be a fullscreen app or one that’s
windowed, which is something other apps lack right now during the
preview.
Getting developers to rework existing Windows 8 apps for Windows 10
might be a challenge. Some apps I tried were clearly designed to run
fullscreen and not in a windowed mode, and one even asked me to "unsnap"
the app before it would work, which meant running it fullscreen only.
Given the lack of developer enthusiasm for Windows 8, this could leave
some apps not optimized for Windows 10. However, the fact you can resize
apps freely now may convince developers to adopt Microsoft’s new modern
apps as an alternative to the aging legacy desktop apps.
Microsoft is also previewing its new Xbox app as part of this new
Windows 10 build. While SmartGlass exists to interact with Xbox Live and
Xbox consoles, this new Xbox app feels a lot more geared toward gamers.
In future preview versions and the final app, you’ll be able to stream Xbox One games from a console to a Windows 10 laptop,
tablet, or PC and control them using an Xbox One controller connected
via a micro USB cable. That’s a pretty powerful feature on its own, but
Microsoft is also adding in game DVR capabilities to capture clips from
PC games and the ability to chat over Xbox Live. I’ve found the app is
particularly useful if you’re trying to matchmake in games like Destiny,
as it’s quick to search for gamertags and message players. There’s even
an option to invite someone to a party, although that’s not fully
functional yet. This Xbox app feels like the star of the Windows 10
show, and it’s a must for Xbox One fans.
Interestingly, Microsoft is replacing calc.exe
(the traditional Windows calculator) with a modern calculator. This
cements Microsoft's vision of universal apps as a replacement for
desktop-only apps, but it also hints that the company may do this to
other system utilities. Perhaps a modern version of MS Paint is on the
cards, or even a fresh update to Solitaire. Notepad could also do with
some modern love, but it still exists in its usual form right now.
Cortana
also makes an appearance in this preview version of Windows 10. The
digital assistant sits on the taskbar as part of a search box, but
dynamically changes into the Cortana icon based on the number of apps
that are open on a system (to make way for more taskbar space). As you’d
expect, Cortana works almost identically to its Windows Phone variant.
You can ask the same questions or set reminders, and there’s even a "Hey
Cortana" option to trigger the assistant and search at any time. I was
skeptical of having Cortana on PC, but I’ve found myself using the "Hey
Cortana" option a few times to search when I’m not seated directly in
front of my laptop and want some quick information like the weather or
news. In future builds, Cortana will be closely integrated into the upcoming Spartan browser, a replacement for Internet Explorer.
Tablets and Continuum
We’ve looked at how Windows 10 runs on 8-inch tablets, and it’s very
similar to how it works on a desktop PC, but there’s a key "touch mode"
in this latest preview that activates some interesting changes. For
2-in-1 laptops and tablets with removable keyboards, Microsoft is
calling this feature "Continuum." It’s all based on the idea that you
can disconnect a keyboard or flip over your laptop screen to turn it
into a tablet, and the user interface adapts to be a lot more
touch-friendly. There’s a notification that triggers when you disconnect
the keyboard on a Surface Pro 3 asking you to enter touch mode. You can
dismiss it or click it to enable the mode, and all apps are immediately
maximized (for traditional apps) or fullscreen (for modern apps). The
usual snapping from Windows 8 is still here, and you can organize apps
alongside each other.
I like some aspects of this mode, but, like some other parts of
Windows 10, it’s still a work in progress. Exiting out of the mode makes
apps windowed, and you often lose the position of your desktop apps. On
my laptop I often use apps maximized, but occasionally I’ll float some
around and bunch them up. To lose that carefully constructed arrangement
is annoying, and Microsoft will have to find a compromise that works
better. Either way, it’s a good approach, and there’s even a new
fullscreen toggle on the top part of modern apps that makes the taskbar
disappear and makes an app truly fullscreen. The implementation feels a
little early, but it’s encouraging to see Microsoft adopt fullscreen
controls that are easy to understand and activate.
The future
Future preview versions of Windows 10 should demonstrate an even
clearer path towards the final version of Microsoft’s new operating
system. An improved Xbox app is on the way, alongside preview versions
of Office apps and Microsoft's upcoming Spartan browser. All these
additions should give us a better look at how Windows 10 will work once
it ships later this year.
Microsoft is clearly incorporating feedback at every opportunity, and
we suspect there will still be some significant design tweaks and
changes that make Windows 10 feel a lot more complete. Microsoft appears
to have finally got things right here, and Windows 10 makes a lot more
sense to those who are used to the days of Windows XP and Windows 7.
It’s more familiar and modern, with a focus on improving the ways people
actually use Windows today. We’ll keep a close eye on Microsoft’s
progress to shipping Windows 10 later this year, so stay tuned to The Verge for continued Windows 10 coverage in the coming months.
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