Windows 9 is not here. Windows 10 is. Microsoft skipped Windows 9 to show users just how big of a change Windows 10 is.
Microsoft gave a demonstration of "the best Windows yet" at its press event on Tuesday, where it unveiled Windows 10, a work in progress far from finished. While Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, which weren't received well by Microsoft's wide Windows user base, took a major leap from the familiar into touchscreen territory, Windows 10 is all about going back to basics while incorporating new features to improve productivity.
"We're not building an incremental product," said Terry Myerson, Microsoft's head of its operating systems group. "When you see the product in its fullness, I think you'll agree it's an appropriate name for the breadth of the product family that's coming."
The event on Tuesday was directed largely at enterprise clients, the majority of which opted to stick with Windows 7 than upgrade to the problematic Windows 8. Among the prominent features that Microsoft let business customers have a glimpse of is the return of the Start Menu, a feature that has been long rumored to make a comeback in the next version of the operating system. But Microsoft is not giving up its Metro-style live tiles altogether and makes a place for it on the left of the Start Menu so users can arrange and customize their favorite apps and websites at an easy-to-access place.
Also exciting is the return of the familiar Win32 interface, where users can launch apps, resize them, move them around and close them with one click. In Windows 8 and 8.1, users can launch the traditional desktop apps accompanied with Metro apps that launch full screen and considered confusing for many users to navigate around.
"We don't want that duality," Joe Belfiore, vice president of Windows, said."
"We want users on PCs with mice and keyboards to have their familiar desktop UI-a task bar and a start menu. And regardless of how an app was written or distributed to your machine, it works the way you expect."
To be clear, the Metro apps will still be around, but will only be available as an option instead of being force-fed down users' throats. For example, if a user is using a hybrid device such as Microsoft's Surface Pro 3, the UI shifts into finger-friendly Metro once Windows 10 senses that the tablet is removed from its keyboard docked. When the user puts the slate back to its keyboard to switch into laptop-mode, Windows 10 reverts back to the "new" old desktop interface.
That's one of the new things users can expect on Windows 10. Microsoft is not limiting its new operating system to desktop computers. It will also run on the broadest range of devices, including tablets, smartphones and Internet of Things products.
"From the smallest Internet of Things device to enterprise data centers," said Myerson. "Some of these devices have 4-inch screens, and some will have 80-inch screens. And some don't have any screen at all."
Business users can also expect a few other new productivity features, such as an improved Snap to let them arrange up to four apps in a quadrant on the screen. Windows 10 also adds full support for multiple desktops, a useful feature for users who take multi-tasking to the next level.
Windows 10 is not expected to debut until 2015, but users can download a technical preview of the new platform from the Windows website. Belfiore warns, however, that Windows 10 still has some very rough edges and users should only download the preview if they are PC experts who are comfortable dealing with bugs and glitches.
