Microsoft is pulling out all the stops to make sure that Windows 10 is the best desktop operating system since Windows 7, and that means adding features straight from the Windows Phone.
The company recently released a new build for the operating system, and guess what? It is packing the much talked about Action Center.
The Action Center is similar to the notification center found in Android and iOS devices. In fact, it is the same thing, just with a different name since this is Microsoft we're talking about here.
At the moment, the Action Center in Build 9860 of Windows 10's Technical Preview only allows for basic notifications, so hardcore users will have to wait until the next build update for anything substantial.
"This build is focused ONLY on enabling basic notifications -- quick actions and cleaner UI will come later," says Microsoft. "You'll see notifications from the system and apps -- from new emails and invites to IMs, Facebook posts and more -- all in one place, so you don't miss a thing. Click on the new Action Center icon in the notification area of your taskbar to check it out."
Windows 10 is not the first operating system to have a notification center, as Apple already did this with OS X. However, a notification center is still a notification center no matter where it is, and none is too different from the other.
We can say for a fact that, after a few hours of using the Action Center, it works really well. We haven't yet come across any problems, but some users have. We've seen one user in particular complaining about missing text in the UI and the inability to search using the search bar.
Apart from the Action Center, Build 9860 also added the ability for users to move apps from one monitor to the other, and an animation for switching between desktops.
To top it off, the over one million Windows 10 Technical Preview users now have the option to choose how quickly they get build updates. Choosing fast means that there's a higher chance for bugs, while slow is just the regular timing.
We'd love to see what else Microsoft adds from the Windows Phone platform, and how similar both will be when the end product arrives later in the year.
