Windows 10: A blend of Windows 7 and 8

Windows 10: A blend of Windows 7 and 8

Sep 25 2015

windows 10

Microsoft recently revealed the latest version of its OS- Windows 10. With an aim to unify OS for tablets and PC’s because of the growing trend which involves people purchasing a tab along with a lightweight keyboard, Microsoft has made efforts to simplify a few complicated features of Windows 8. It has also introduced a few new features that include voice search, knows as “Cortana”. The “Start” menu is also back, and it functions like it used to in Windows 7. Let us have a look at the new features and updates in detail.

 

Start Menu

Yes, your favourite feature that had been missing from Windows 8 is back in this one. It sits where it used to, the bottom left corner but now its size can be expanded or shrunk to your liking. Live tiles are still alive, and they can be added to the start menu too apart from being increased or reduced in size. Though Microsoft tried to evolve with the times and launch an OS, which gave us insight into the touchscreen world, omitting Start Menu was a mistake that has been rectified now.

Virtual Desktop Space

This is a very interesting feature of Win 10. You can create as many desktops as you want, and each of them will be treated as an individual workspace. This takes multitasking to a whole new level. You can separate a screen that you are browsing on from the one you are currently using to install the latest version of your favourite game. Each virtual desktop will be treated as separate one that will make you feel like you are performing on numerous monitors or screens from a single system.

But, the multiple desktop does not mean that the processing speed of your system will also multiply. Using graphics heavy apps on multiple virtual desktops will make your system lag and cripple its potential to handle apps smoothly.

Cortana

This is Microsoft’s answer to Siri and Google Now. Cortana uses a woman’s voice which means that still there are no men virtual assistants in the OS scene. You can interact with her, and she can save your favourite coffee place, restaurant and bars. She will draw up a map for you to the desired location and also read out the mails for you. She can recognise different voices and can call out your name if you save it.

Cortana is yet not available on Android and iOS, which means you, cannot sync all reminders and alarms to your smartphone that does not operate on Windows. This currently makes Cortana somewhat useless as all its features will be limited to your PC as very few use Windows OS equipped smartphones and tablets.

Edge

After Internet Explorer became the butt of every joke on the internet, Microsoft decided to scrap the name all together. The tech giant has introduced a new browser with Windows 10, and it is called “Microsoft Edge”. New browsers rarely see any success because of the presence of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Apple’s Safari. These 3 currently rule the browser world and a new entrant is going to find it very difficult to survive.

Cortana will extend her services here too, providing you details about weather and other relevant news and information. The browser works seamlessly and matches the speed of the other 3 but, Microsoft currently does not provide any extensions with it, which means you would not be able to hide to those irritating ads popping out of every corner of a webpage. Edge is currently a work in progress, and one should not judge its capability right now. It cannot be compared to Google Chrome right now because it is a fully evolved browser and a lot of time has gone into developing it. That said, it is not advisable that you switch your browser to Microsoft Edge now, wait until the year end and hope they add some new features to it.

Photo App

It does not work like those of Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom but is a simple app that will let you keep all your photos organised. Very useful for people who have thousands of photos and are looking forward to saving all of them in a systematic manner. It can also edit a few bits of a picture, but you will soon realise that mobile apps available for editing do a better job than this one.

Windows Defender

The most annoying feature of this in-built anti-virus security app was the constant upgrades it required. Microsoft has not changed that thing yet, and it will still require an update every 15-20 days, bombarding your desktop with notifications until you turn them off. But, if you are running the standard version of Windows 10, the updates cannot be refused and all its features will be automatically updated.

This is a good feature because up to date security software is going to save your computer from the latest viruses and malware. But, on the other hand, it will consume a lot of your data too which can annoy if you are running short of data.

Microsoft Windows 10 does not surprise you with something extraordinary or something never seen before like Windows 8 did with the introduction of tiles. There is nothing bizarre too as Win 8 created ripples when people came to know about the fact that it did not have a start menu. It seems as if Microsoft has released this one as a mandatory update because it has been few years since the launch of Windows 8. It has taken the good qualities of all the previous versions of the OS and tried to imbibe them into the latest one along with the introduction of a few new features. The new features, sadly, have already been seen in its competitors as mentioned earlier, there is nothing revolutionary about it.

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