Photo Employees gathered at the Microsoft Windows 10 booth at the Ani-Com & Games fair in Hong Kong. Credit Bobby Yip/Reuters
Windows 10, the next version of Microsoft's operating system, arrives on Wednesday, and it will have a familiar look and feel to the more than one billion people who have touched a Windows computer in the last two decades.
That is a stark change from the last time Microsoft made a big revision to its operating system, in 2012 with the release of Windows 8 — a release that didn't go so well. Many customers were confused by the flurry of changes that were designed for so-called hybrid devices that doubled as PCs and tablets. Microsoft's chief executive, Satya Nadella, said last year that the company "got a few places wrong in Windows 8."
With Windows 10, Microsoft is offering something of a throwback to the earlier versions. The software also comes with an enticing price tag for users of Windows 7 and 8: free. But perhaps more than anything, there are a handful of new features that might make users consider making the switch.
The Trusty Start ButtonPhoto Clicking on the Start button brings up groups of tiles that can be tailored to your preferences. Credit Microsoft
Back is the classic Start button, the one-touch access to a main menu, including shortcuts to a user's list of apps and documents. Like old times, it can be opened with the click of a mouse or by pressing the Windows shortcut on a keyboard. (The Start button was still available in Windows 8, but some users were confused because it was hidden from plain sight.)
Microsoft made efforts to modernize the Start menu with a fresh design. Clicking on the Start button brings up groups of tiles that can be tailored to your preferences. For example, I easily created a group of tiles labeled "Productivity" and pinned some of my most frequently used software for work, including apps for email, web browsing, Twitter, a calculator and Microsoft Wo rd. Removing unwanted apps from the group is easy — you just choose to "unpin" the tile.
For longtime Windows users, the more intimidating part to get used to will be tablet mode. With hybrid tablets, such as the Microsoft Surface, you can detach the keyboard from the screen and switch into a different software interface optimized for tablets. In tablet mode, apps consume the entire screen; the tiles of the Start section are enlarged to be easier to see and touch.
Fortunately, interacting with Windows 10 on a touch screen is generally the same as with most modern touch-enabled devices. Pinch outward to zoom in, swipe up to scroll down, swipe left to pan right. And even in tablet mode, the trusty Start menu remains there to remind yo u this is still Windows you're dealing with.
A Virtual AssistantPhoto For now, Microsoft's virtual assistant, Cortana, will primarily live on computers and tablets. Credit Microsoft
A new addition right next to the Start button is Cortana, Microsoft's virtual assistant. A user can do a search by typing in a query or speaking a command into the microphone. Saying commands like "Remind me to buy milk on Tuesday" sets up a reminder notification that will alert you on that day, and "Schedule meeting tomorrow at 3 p.m." creates an appointment in your calendar.
On other questions, like finding a place to eat, Cortana often falls back to doing searches on Bing.com, Microsoft's search engine, which is less proficient than Google's search engine. In tests, Cortana generated mixed results. Asking Cortana to look up a place to eat nearby retrieved a list of Bing search results for the term "Find me place s to eat nearby," which included the website places-to-eat-near-me.com, as opposed to showing a list of restaurants. (By contrast, the same query on Siri, Apple's virtual assistant, brought up Yelp listings of popular restaurants within half a mile from me here in San Francisco.)
On the other hand, Cortana did respond adequately to some other commands, like "Show me showtimes for 'Trainwreck,'" which loaded a schedule of movie theaters showing the movie nearby.
A big hole in Cortana is the mobile phone experience. Cortana is built in to Windows phones and the problem is, you probably don't own one. To date, Microsoft's Windows Phone platform has 3.5 percent market share in the United States, according to Kantar Worldpanel.
Microsoft says that Cortana will eventually be available as an app on devices running Google's Android and Apple's iOS mobile software. For now, though, Cortana will primarily live on computers and tablets, limiting its usefulness.
It's difficult to imagine that while on the go, people will yank a Windows tablet or computer out of their bag to ask Cortana to schedule a calendar appointment or create a reminder. In addition, the idea of using a voice assistant on a stationary computer in a typical office environment, where colleagues will overhear you over their cubicle walls yapping to Cortana, seems off-putting. As a result, in its current state, Cortana is a promising start, but it's far less useful than its direct rivals, Siri and Google's Now, which are widely available on smartphones worldwide.
More Built-In SecurityPhoto The Windows Hello feature allows users to log in using fingerprint recognition. Credit Microsoft
Microsoft has made some bold promises about improvements to security in Windows 10. Chris Hallum, a senior product marketing manager for Microsoft, said in an interview that because of all the security enhancements in Windows 10, consumers and businesses won't have to install additional security software to protect their machines. "We include a full-fledged antivirus solution in Windows," he said.
Microsoft has been including these deeper security features since Windows 8. But with Windows XP and Windows 7, far more popular versions of the software, it was practically a requirement to buy and install third-party antivirus software from McAfee or Norton, unless you wanted to be eaten alive by hackers.
Mr. Hallum said Microsoft was taking a multifaceted approach to protecting user identities as well as blocking malicious software. For one, Microsoft Edge, the default browser in Windows 10, includes a feature called SmartScreen, which can identify malicious websites by scanning them for suspicious characteristics. The Edge browser also keeps some add-on software for the browser, like Adobe Flash, up-to-date to safeguard you from the latest vulnerabilities. Another feature, Windows Defender, can identify potentially harmful software you've downloaded and warn you before you run it.
Are you really safe not installing additional antivirus software? As we should all know by now, almost all computer systems have some vulnerability. Still, Charlie Miller, a security researcher, said Wind ows 10's security features should work as well as other antivirus software. He noted that Windows Defender had been a strong security program for some time.
The Upgrade ProcessPhoto Windows 7 and Windows 8 users will receive alerts when they are able to download the upgrade. Credit Microsoft
Beginning Wednesday, Microsoft will be releasing the operating system over the Internet in waves, starting with people who signed up to test early versions of the software as part of its "insiders" program. Later, Windows 7 and Windows 8 users who receive alerts notifying them of the upgrade will be able to download it.
At the time of my testing, ahead of the public release of Windows 10, I encountered a number of bugs. To name just two examples: In one incident, Microsoft's Edge browser blocked me for an entire night from using Google Mail, after mistakenly identifying it as a malicious website — though the next morning I was able to log in. I also had a frustrating time trying to compose a document inside Google Docs, when the Edge browser occasionally failed to detect when I was hitting the space bar; Microsoft confirmed it would fix the issue shortly after release.
Combine the early bugs with the spottiness of Cortana and the fact that third-party app developers are still updating their Windows apps for Windows 10, and the operating system still has a little ways to go before it becomes a solid all-around upgrade. But the improvements to security, along with the familiar user interface, should be reasons to grab this upgrade sooner than later (especially if you're on Windows 7 and lacking up-to-date security tools). The upgrade will be free for up to a year — after that, Microsoft may begin charging for it.
For to-be switchers, Microsoft offers a web tool where users can check if their apps are compatible with Windows 10 before making the switch. If you're eager to get in line for an upgrade, you can reserve a download on Microsoft's website.
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Meet Windows 10, a Throwback With Upgrades in Software and Security
Image courtesy of the W3C 
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