Eight things you need to know about Windows 10

Microsoft has announced the next iteration of their Windows OS, dubbed Windows 10. Although availability is still about a year away, the technical preview of the OS is available to try the new features. ET takes a look at some of the biggest changes you can expect

Revamped Start Menu

START MENU has been one of the main features since Windows 95. However, when it was removed in Windows 8, Microsoft got a lot of flak from users. They finally got the start button back in Windows 8.1, but it only showed the new Tiled start screen. With Windows 10, Microsoft has combined the start menu from Windows 7 and Windows 8. You get two panels side by side – the left column shows recent apps and the run/search box (Windows 7) & the right column shows live tiles (like Windows 8).

Overhauled Multitasking

THE SNAP window feature in Windows 8 made it easy to run multiple apps on the same screen without overlapping windows. However, the number of simultaneous windows you could have was limited by your display resolution. With Windows 10, you can snap 4 windows to each corner so that they occupy an equal amount of space. It’s not clear if this will also be dependent on your desktop resolution at the moment, the feature will improve the way you multitask.

Multiple Virtual Desktops

WINDOWS 10 will come with built-in support for creating multiple virtual desktops on a single screen. You can create one desktop for documents, another one for multimedia and have web browser windows open in a third virtual desktop. This lets you run apps in separate desktops and seamlessly switch between them. It’s a feature similar to Apple’s Spaces feature on OS X and is a great help if you have a small display.

Floating Modern Apps



MODERN APPS on Windows 8 are limited to run in full screen mode – there is no option to resize them for multitasking. Windows 10 makes the modern apps more flexible. You will be able to run multiple modern apps as they can be run in a window instead of full screen. This will let you enjoy the modern interface & get more out of the app at the same time.

Universal Store

SO FAR, Windows desktop and Windows Phone come with different store for apps. Now, with Windows 10, Microsoft plans to have a universal app store that will work across devices – desktops, servers or phones. From the details announced so far, all older and existing apps on Windows store will also work with the Windows 10 store.

Touch Optimisation

WINDOWS 10 will be more optimised for touchscreens as compared to Windows 8. The start screen will always show a taskbar and list of folders on the left, a new task view button shows all your running apps in thumbnails and you can switch to any app with single tap. For 2-in-1 devices, when the keyboard is removed, the OS will automatically detect it and change mode to display virtual buttons for navigation and control.

Smart(er) Search

THE REVAMPED start menu has a search bar on the bottom – similar to Windows 7. In Windows 7, you could search the computer for files and apps on the PC using this search bar. However, with Windows 10, the search brings up files on the PC, app on Windows store and if there are no matching results in your computer, a link to launch a browser window with Bing results for your query.



Home View

IN THE explorer Window side bar, a new icon called ‘Home’ is present above the Favorites section. This is essentially the go-to place to view your favorites, recent folders and recently accessed files. This could save time for users to move between folders and open files/apps by accessing them here instead of searching for them via the Start menu.