Microsoft 10 has entered preview mode among some confusion about where Windows 9 went. While Microsoft has been mum so far on what happened to Windows 9, word from people who claim to work at Microsoft is that they want to avoid a few things. First, they thought avoiding the number nine might be a good idea with Windows 95 and 98 and search results. Second, and possibly the better move as marketing goes is that they want people to know that Windows 10 isn’t Windows 8. In other words, Windows 9 sounds like just the next version and Microsoft wants you to know this is like a new, better version of Windows liked you wanted, not just some continuation. Since Microsoft tends to deliver every other operating system as a failure (Windows 98, Vista, Millennium, Windows 8) this seems plausible.

Right from boot up you understand exactly what’s going on here and this is the one area with the most notable changes. Windows now boots directly to your desktop that should be comfortable for Windows 7 holdouts but has enough Windows 8 in it that those users should be comfortable as well. One could easily argue this is what Windows 8 should have been. The start menu has both the Start menu Windows 7 users want alongside the Tiles Windows 8 users like. Finally, they got it right.








In the Taskbar you will notice some new icons and shortcuts to the Windows Store, Search and the new Task View. Task View lets you run up to 4 different desktops all doing something different. Think of it as an improvement on Aero Peek although that also exists. The Show Desktop button in the lower right is missing but currently works if you click on it.





Another big change that stands out is the Touch Keyboard. While it says touch, you can use it with your mouse. While I don’t think any desktop or laptop user would without a touch screen, it’s still nice to see all features available for all devices (tablet, phone, desktop, laptops) but not forced upon you.



While playing, simple question and answers will appear so that you can tell Microsoft what you think about new or changed features.

There are a lot of other small changes, too numerous to list here, that are improvements and will not be huge changes to the average user. A good example is Windows Explorer now being File Explorer. Same location, similar icon and it does the same thing.

I spotted a few issues and some program crashing but overall as previews go, this is stable but I certainly would not run it on an important PC yet.

Other things are those you will not actually “see”. Microsoft has promised to deliver a better operating system to its business (Enterprise) customers. Since these customers are slow to adapt it is important to give them an operating system they want and trust.

So, what’s the bottom line here? Take Windows 7 and mix it with Windows 8 and do it right and you have Windows 10. It looks to me like they are finally going to deliver an enjoyable Windows operating system for everyone. If they continue on the path that they are on, I will be a Windows 10 user.

Now if only Microsoft could break the pattern of getting it right every other operating system.