Where To Start? Windows 10 Announced For 2015
The return of the Start menu
It's funny how quickly we'll all forget Windows 9. Even today, I'm wondering if it ever really happened. Did we really find lines from our e-mails scrawled across our walls in blood? It seems unlikely that the error alert sound was ever six minutes of inhuman chanting. I only know two people who say they clicked The Forbidden Shortcut and found wasp hives on their doorsteps. We'll forget. It'll all seem like a silly story someone once made up. Kieron's probably fine, just fine, happier as a pillar of salt.
Last night, Microsoft announced Windows 10 for release in 2015. It won't do any of those things.
Windows 10 is made to run across phones, tablets, and PCs, Microsoft explain in a blog post, but it certainly looks like a desktop OS again. The Start Menu's back, for one thing. Huzzah! You'll also be able to bosh these big old Live Tiles into the Start Menu if you really want to create the sort of sprawling monster shown.
Rather than recap everything myself (Windows Store apps working like regular programs, better window snapping etc.) I'll say go read the post or The Verge's blow-by-blow live blog of the announcement event. Or watch the video below with a nice man. But oh! Joy of joys! It'll also add virtual desktops like Linux has had for yonks, multiple desktop views we can switch between to reduce clutter. I've always missed that on Windows but had mixed experiences with third-party programs that add them.
Microsoft don't have much to say about games, but that's fine. The Windows we have works dandily.
No word yet on how much it'll cost. I don't imagine I'll upgrade from Windows 7, going by what we've seen so far, but I wouldn't object if a new PC came with it installed.
Microsoft plan to launch a Technical Preview version this week for those who don't mind potential wonkiness. The rest of us can watch this charming man:
Oh, but what about Windows 9? "It wouldn't be right to call it Windows 9," said Terry Myerson, executive vice president of Microsoft's Operating Systems group. Not after What Happened. How quickly we forget.