Windows 10 – Release and Review
The much awaited date of 29th July has come and gone and the Windows 10 operating system is not officially available to all. However, it was available for the last couple of months and for beta testing since last year. The final built is out in the market and the users can get this new version of Windows.
With Windows 8, Microsoft tried to incorporate something new. Microsoft realised the importance of touch screen and accordingly made changes to the Windows 8 version. However, it was not effective enough and the OS had problems with the traditional keyboard and mouse based controls. Windows 8 was almost a fiasco for Microsoft. The company did away with the traditional start menu but this affected the acceptability of the OS among the users. Users since Windows 95 are used to using the Start Menu and have been quite familiar with it. An attempt to eliminate it created problems for Microsoft.
This is evident from the percentage of the computers that run Windows. Still 70 percent of the computers use Windows 7 and Windows XP while only 25 percent run Windows 8. Microsoft also subsequently released Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.1 Update hoping that it will change the fortunes but could not succeed much. In the mobile market, Android and iOS dominated and Windows 8 had very limited acceptability.
Microsoft then decided to change the game and declared that they will be releasing the ‘Last Version’ of the Windows OS in Windows 10. According to the company, it will be the last Windows version and henceforth only the updates will be released for Windows 10. Unlike earlier when the company would release a newer version of Windows every few years, there will not be any new version after Windows 10. Existing users of original Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 can get their operating systems updated to Windows 10 for free for the next one year.
