Windows 9 is actually revealed as Windows 10

Microsoft is officially unveiling the name for the next release of Windows today: Windows 10. While the software maker had referred to Windows 10 as codename Windows Threshold internally, today’s official naming puts any rumors of Windows, Windows TH, Windows X, Windows One, and even Windows 9 to bed. It’s simply Windows 10, marking a jump from the mixed reception of Windows 8.

Described as Microsoft's "most comprehensive platform ever," Windows 10 will offer a tailored experience for all hardware across a single platform family. And it turns out that's intentional. Microsoft's Joe Belfiore pointed to the millions of customers still using Windows 7, and said the company wants to make their transition to Windows 10 much more comfortable than the unfamiliar leap to Windows 8 two years ago. "We want all these Windows 7 users to have the sentiment that yesterday they were driving a first-generation Prius, and now with Windows 10 it's like a Tesla."

"Windows 10 will deliver the right experience on the right device at the right time," said Microsoft's Terry Myerson. "Windows 10 will run on the broadest types of devices ever." You can expect a unique user interface depending on what you're running Windows on; images shown at the event line up with leaks that have surfaced in recent weeks. It's basically a combination of Windows 7 and 8 that borrows design elements from each of Microsoft's two most recent operating systems.

The "Metro" start screen and Microsoft's traditional Start Menu have been combined; no longer is the screen one huge grid of tiles for desktop users. "The tiles and icons that are shown are a blend of classic apps and new universal apps," Belfiore said. But Live Tiles are still here and can be resized to a user's preference. More than anything else, Microsoft is working to make everything feel way more cohesive. "In Windows 8 when users launched a modern app, it sort of had a different environment," Belfiore said. "We don't want that duality. We want users on PCs with mice and keyboards to have their familiar UI."

There's a new universal search in the start menu that pulls in results from the web, and Microsoft is also talking up its "task view," which helps users master Windows' multitasking features. It looks fairly similar to Expose in OS X, and Microsoft outright admitted it's not an earth-shattering addition. But it is intended to speed up your productivity across the entire operating system. "It illustrates for Windows we have to address a breadth of users," Belfiore said, moving on to show a big improvement to the command prompt: it now supports paste.

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Corwin said:

Big ugly tiles seems to be the 'IN' thing. I used to enjoy visiting the Sports Illustrated website for news on American sports which we obviously get very little of here. Now it is full of these huge picture tiles and much more difficult to navigate.

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Humanity has risen! said:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview

Download the preview here

Honestly I don't understand why anyone would want those big ugly tiles there, which on top of that are just an excuse for Microsoft to push for more of their vertically integrated services. I think there would be arguments for another lawsuit, I'm not sure that other would be providers of software or walled gardens like Steam are happy about it.

I mostly hope they disabled the stupid hot corners, on my laptop I still haven't found out how to completely disable them and they're incredibly irritating.

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wolfing said:

I use Clasic Shell and it has an option to disable the corners.

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Corwin said:

Big ugly tiles seems to be the 'IN' thing. I used to enjoy visiting the Sports Illustrated website for news on American sports which we obviously get very little of here. Now it is full of these huge picture tiles and much more difficult to navigate.

Click to expand...