Lotus personnel began testing Windows 10 several weeks ago. Don’t ask us what happened to Windows 9 – it is a mystery to us as well. The most startling “new” feature is a return of the familar Start menu. This time though the start menu is small living tiles that present information much like Windows 8.1 style in a more Windows 7 sort of way.
Cortana – Intelligent Personal Assistant
The most significant feature will be the inclusion of Cortana which is similar to Apple’s Siri. Cortana which is currently available on Windows Phone 8.1 is an intelligent personal assistant that has limited conversations with you, and learns about your preferences. This personal information will be stored in a database called the Notebook. Fortunately you will be able to edit the Notebook if you feel that Cortana knows a little too much about you. Right now in testing Cortana is very limited but that is expected to improve as the back-end databases and connections to data continue to be developed. Rumor is that Cortana is currently being tested in the next versions of Office for desktop and mobile platforms. Let’s all hope it is not Clippy the annoying animated paperclip revisited.
Integration
Other features include deeper integration with Microsoft XBox and “HoloLens” technology. While we don’t see an business application for XBox, but we can eventually see business applications for HoloLens later. It will become important as adoption of virtual 3D worlds expand.
Free
This is one of the most surprising features of Windows 10 – for many it will be a free upgrade. Users of Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 will be allowed to upgrade to Windows 10 for free up to one year after it is released. We haven’t seen details of the upgrade program, yet. With Windows 8 low-cost upgrade that was offered to Vista and Windows 7 users only allowed in-place upgrades unless you received a waiver from Microsoft. Fortunately we were able to secure waivers for some that decided to clean install versus in-place upgrade.
Microsoft is also promoting Windows 10 for use on devices. They are offering a free fully-functional copy of Windows 10 to developers that purchase the ultra-small computer Raspberry Pi2. This could lead to Windows 10 on TV set top boxes, etc.
Request a Demo
Initial impressions are very good, but being a private early test of the software it does have many technical issues. Some have reportedly began using it in limited production environments with good success, though we never recommend using beta software in a production environment. If you are curious to see the next version of Windows please contact us to arrange for a demonstration.