One of the great big features of Windows 10 is actually an old feature. They've brought back the start bar, which is amazing because nobody liked using the touch interface especially on a desktop or laptop without a touch screen.
One of the great new features in this start bar is the new search functionality which includes Cortana, which is a new speech search function a lot like Siri and Google now, but built into Windows.
Within the start bar you also have the live tiles. You might be familiar with this if you remember it from Windows 8 when you had the full screen live tiles. Now they've included them within the start bar and you can re-size and move them around to your heart's content and fortunately you don't have to go completely full screen tablet mode to use them.
Within the start bar you also have the live tiles. You might be familiar with this if you remember it from Windows 8 when you had the full screen live tiles. Now they've included them within the start bar and you can re-size and move them around to your heart's content and fortunately you don't have to go completely full screen tablet mode to use them.
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They've also included a "windowed mode" for Metro apps, so the apps that normally used to open up full screen and take you away from your desktop now open from within a window just like any other app.
There's a new Action Center which comes with lots of quick buttons at the bottom which are really handy and accessible
Now the file explorer won't look too different to you but one thing Microsoft is trying to push is the OneDrive system, a lot like Drop Box or Google Drive. They're trying to integrate it in with the system and trying to get you to sign up as soon as you install windows.
The control panel has now become the Settings app but if you can't find what you're looking for because it's all a bit strange you can just use the search functionality to search exactly what you want to change
Now technically Microsoft hasn't updated Internet Explorer but they have shipped with a new browser called Project Spartan. This is much leaner, much faster browser, a lot like Chrome and Firefox.
One of the favorite features on Windows 7 and 8 was the snap feature, which allows you to split your screen between two apps. The great thing about the new updated version of this in Windows 10 is you can snap to one side and it will allow you to pick a certain app if you've got several apps open or even span into quarters if you've got really high res display.
To add to this feature they've also included task view which is a lot like Mission control or Expose if you're used to that in the Mac World which basically just gives you multiple desktops which is really useful if you're using this on something with a smaller, lower res screen like a laptop.
To add to this feature they've also included task view which is a lot like Mission control or Expose if you're used to that in the Mac World which basically just gives you multiple desktops which is really useful if you're using this on something with a smaller, lower res screen like a laptop.
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Now as well as all these visual features Microsoft added a few more things under the hood to help make things a little bit easier and a little bit quicker. For you gamers out there Windows 10 will come shipped with Direct x12, which improves battery performance by 50% and can improve FPS by up to 60%. A couple of new formats supported natively in the system are FLAC and the HEVC codec, which is capable of 8k video.
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So now you've seen all these new features; should you upgrade on the 29th of July?
The general rule of thumb is every other Windows is a good one and Windows 8 wasn't great so it must mean this one's good. And if you get it within the first year Windows 10 is free!
The general rule of thumb is every other Windows is a good one and Windows 8 wasn't great so it must mean this one's good. And if you get it within the first year Windows 10 is free!
