Windows 10 features and upgrade information, Microsoft Windows blog upgrade answers for windows 7 8.1 and windows 8.1 phone users
Microsoft just announced the release of Windows 10 which will be a free upgrade for PC Windows 7 and 8.1 users and Windows 8.1 phone users. There will be no cost to keep it current going forward.
One of the new features, Cortina, is on my Windows Nokia Lumia 630 phone that I have been using for about 6 months. So far this has been one of my favorite cell phones in over 20 years.
From To Market News January 21, 2015.
“What’s new in Windows 10 for PCs? A lot.”
“Coming into today’s Windows 10 event, we already knew a lot about Microsoft’s latest and greatest. The company explained the thinking behind its new OS back in September, and the Technical Preview has been available for months. The core change comes in the form of a revitalized desktop experience — one that puts the best of Windows 7 and 8 into a single package. Windows will also now better match the convertible devices Microsoft is pushing, with a consistent UI across all platforms, but there’s a whole lot more to explore here, including some features detailed today for the first time. Let’s take a closer look.”
“If you’ve been following Windows Phone at all, you’ll know what Cortana is: Microsoft’s take on a personal digital assistant. The mobile version offers features that are a mix between Siri and Google Now, but the PC version has a few added benefits. Cortana plugs into Windows search, meaning if you ask for “PowerPoint slides about the charity account,” it’ll search your computer and OneDrive accounts for relevant files.”
“Perhaps the biggest news, though, even if it doesn’t benefit the majority of Windows users — is that Windows apps will now be universal and run across PC, tablet, phone and even Xbox One. That doesn’t mean PC users won’t be getting new apps as well. Microsoft blazed through a load of new apps for Windows.”
“As early reports suggested, Project Spartan is a new browser for Windows 10, entirely separate from Internet Explorer. Sure there’s a very clean, almost Chrome-like design, and a brand-new rendering engine, but the focus here is on social sharing. You can highlight and annotate websites before sharing them with friends, kind of like having Skitch built right into your browser. There’s also Cortana integration and a reading view that, much like Pocket, lets you read pages offline.”
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From the Microsoft Windows Blog January 21, 2015.
“Today I had the honor of sharing new information about Windows 10, the new generation of Windows.
Our team shared more Windows 10 experiences and how Windows 10 will inspire new scenarios across the broadest range of devices, from big screens to small screens to no screens at all. You can catch the video on-demand presentation here.
Windows 10 is the first step to an era of more personal computing. This vision framed our work on Windows 10, where we are moving Windows from its heritage of enabling a single device – the PC – to a world that is more mobile, natural and grounded in trust. We believe your experiences should be mobile – not just your devices. Technology should be out of the way and your apps, services and content should move with you across devices, seamlessly and easily. In our connected and transparent world, we know that people care deeply about privacy – and so do we. That’s why everything we do puts you in control – because you are our customer, not our product. We also believe that interacting with technology should be as natural as interacting with people – using voice, pen, gestures and even gaze for the right interaction, in the right way, at the right time. These concepts led our development and you saw them come to life today.
Delivering Windows as a Service and a Free Upgrade to Windows 10
Today was a monumental day for us on the Windows team because we shared our desire to redefine the relationship we have with you – our customers. We announced that a free upgrade for Windows 10 will be made available to customers running Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 who upgrade in the first year after launch.*
This is more than a one-time upgrade: once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device – at no cost. With Windows 10, the experience will evolve and get even better over time. We’ll deliver new features when they’re ready, not waiting for the next major release. We think of Windows as a Service – in fact, one could reasonably think of Windows in the next couple of years as one of the largest Internet services on the planet.
And just like any Internet service, the idea of asking “What version are you on?” will cease to make sense – which is great news for our Windows developers. With universal Windows apps that work across the entire device family, developers can build one app that targets the broadest range of devices – including the PC, tablet, phone, Xbox, the Internet of Things, and more.
For our enterprise customers, we’ll continue to support the way many of them work today, with long-term servicing for their mission critical environments. With Windows 10, a best practice we recommend for many enterprise devices is to connect to Windows Update and be kept up-to-date with the latest security and productivity improvements as soon as they are available. You can learn more about our commitment to enterprises here, with much more to come in the following months.”
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