Gadgetory

after months of testing Windows 10 very publicly it's finally officially here it's a free upgrade for most people - but should you upgrade Windows 10 is the realization of Michael's big dream to have a single windows that runs across pcs tablets phones and even the company's Xbox one console right now Windows 10 is mostly about fixing the mess that Microsoft crave Windows 8 one of the first signs of that is the return of the Start menu you know in love it's not just the regular one from Windows 7 instead Microsoft has combined the best aspects of the last two versions of Windows to create a redesign Start menu the live tiles from windows 8 remain but you no longer booted into an entirely different full screen interface there's a traditional list of apps easy access to power options and settings and the ability to resize the menu freely windows 10 is a nice dark theme and it blends in well against laptop screens that usually have black puzzles if you're not a fan of the darkness there are plenty of color options to change the look of the Start menu and taskbar there's even a little transparency effects the finish off the look and feel navigating around Windows 8 was painful with a laptop or PC and Windows 10 is improved massively the annoying hot corners of Windows 8 have gone and Microsoft has removed the weird charms bar in its place is a new Action Center that works as a Notification Center to collect any alerts from apps and provide quick access to a bunch of settings snapping apps has been a popular feature of Windows and Microsoft has tweaked it slightly hear there's a new snap assist feature that makes it a lot easier to find what apps are open to snap them side-by-side there's also a new task View feature that's a lot like Mission Control on the Mac it displays all your open windows and a single screen and you can find what you're looking for quickly it's also a gateway to a new virtual desktops feature yes you can finally create separate virtual desktops without having to install a third-party app it's mainly a power of user feature but it's useful if you want to separate apps on the laptop we don't have a lot of screen space one of the biggest additions to Windows 10 is Microsoft's virtual assistant Cortana it's designed to look and feel like an extension to the Start menu just like the Windows Phone equivalent you can use your voice to search or typing queries manually there's even an option to enable a hey Cortana feature that lets you simply call the questions at your laptop it's perfect if you lean back in an office chair and wants to fire off emails with your voice but I found I mostly use it to demonstrate Cortana to friends and family Cortana also has a helpful overview of your day mixed in with interests like weather news and local restaurants Cortana also has a powerful local search to find your documents on your local hard drive or from the onedrive cloud storage service we have a new version of Windows comes a new browser called edge it might be designed to succeed Internet Explorer but it sticks to the past in a number of ways edges taskbar icon is barely different from Internet Explorer in an effort to keep it similar for the millions of diverse Windows users edges simplified clean and performs well in most cases but there's a few things missing and the lack of features you might expect from a modern browser snapping tabs into separate windows is messy downloads start automatically with no choice of folder and there's no save target ass Microsoft really started from scratch with edge and it shows Microsoft is still included a copy of Internet Explorer in Windows 10 for this very reason edge does have some interesting new features you could draw all over webpages and send a copy to friends and Cortana appears to provide you useful information in clever little ways if you search for something in the address bar like weather then it will immediately show the weather nearby on some restaurant websites it will even appear to provide you directions or opening hours it's not just a neat little trick but it's actually useful when you don't have to search for this basic information mic sauce Xbox app for Windows 10 might be my favorite new feature you can stream Xbox one games to a laptop and just plug in a controller to play it works surprisingly well with no lag even over a Wi-Fi network you can only use it at home on a local network but it's fun if you want to play xbox games in another room where you don't have a TV the Xbox app also has access to Xbox Live and the ability to create party chats from your PC to talk to Xbox one friends a nice little surprise feature the Xbox app is screen recording you can use it to create game clips or even just record regular apps that aren't games at all that's reusable if you want to create screen tutorials and it saves enter buy an expensive four party app to do it the mail and calendar apps both support Google accounts so they're easy to use without an Outlook account you'll also notice that these apps no longer run full screen by default anymore Mike's others changed out with Windows 10 so you can now window these apps and move them around freely and that makes them a lot more usable the most impressive additions are the new stripped-down touch based office apps Word Excel PowerPoint are all available for free and they're a delight to use the speedy and simple with just enough features for basic editing and none of the bloat of the full desktop office apps the new and improved Windows Store has finally combined apps games music movies and TV but there's still a lack of quality apps while most of Windows tends improvements are focused on mouse and keyboard Microsoft hasn't forgotten about the good touch work that went into Windows 8 a new tablet mode in Windows 10 aims to bridge the fullscreen world of Windows 8 with the traditional way use of Windows PC it's perfect for two-in-one convertible laptops and prompts allow you to switch easily between using a mouse and keyboard and flipping the hardware into a tablet mode so should you upgrade if you can deal with a few oddities here and there and you're frustrated with Windows 8 then by all means up right now but if you depend on your Windows computer on a daily basis and it's working fine for you you should probably hold off until everything's a little bit more polished I've run into a variety of issues where my download folder takes 30 seconds to load my audio stops working or apps like mail just randomly break and crash some of the problems aren't critical but they can certainly be frustrating I like the direction Microsoft is taking with Windows 10 accepted feedback and ideas from his customers along the way it feels like the best way to shape windows into something that people enjoy using rather than they have to use Windows 10 is a great fix to the problems of Windows 8 and it's clearly the version of Windows we'll all be using for many many years as a Microsoft moves to regular updates instead of major versions every few years it feels like the cycle of good and bad version of Windows could finally be over Microsoft might have just pulled that off Windows 10 is good and it's here to stay and that's very exciting