Everything We Know About Windows 10

Free, Surface Hub, Cortana and Hololens

UPDATE: We've updated the story to include more info on Microsoft's PC gaming initiative and talked more about the tweaks to Windows 10.

Microsoft held a Windows 10 press conference today and revealed a massive amount of details from the upcoming OS

and much more. After many rumors, Microsoft confirmed that Windows 10 will be free to Windows 8.1, Windows 7 (SP1) and Windows Phone users...for the first year. The company views it as an incentive for users to quickly jump on board to the Windows 10 platform. Microsoft believes this will solve one of its biggest OS issues for developers, and that is OS fragmentation. Beyond the initial year, however, customers will be paying $119.99 for the Home Edition, $199.99 for the Pro Edition and $99.99 to upgrade from Home to Pro.Cortana
Another rumor that Microsoft confirmed is that Windows 10 will include Cortana, which the company is pitching as the platform's personal digital assistant. In short, Cortana is based off the character from the Halo games and is Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s Siri. With Cortana, Microsoft is saying "she" is really tailored for the PC experience and you will be able to use voice commands to search for locally stored files or files on your One Drive account. These file types will include documents, pictures, music, and more.In the live demo that Microsoft gave on stage, Cortana was able to provide information on the weather, flight information, and more. What’s quite impressive about Cortana is that her voice sounds extremely realistic, much more so than either Apple’s or Google’s equivalents. Microsoft is also saying that Cortana will be able to get smarter and learn about you. For instance, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore asked her what she thinks the Super Bowl score will be. Knowing that Joe is from Seattle, she jokingly said that the Seattle Seahawks would win in dominating fashion. If you’re a little creeped out by this, you’ll be able to clear some of her history about you. She will also be able to tell you more about any particular web page you’re browsing and you’ll be able to right-click on words to get definitions and more.
For our hands-on with Cortana by way of the Windows 10 Technical Preview, check out our feature right here.Microsoft Edge
To go along with Cortana, Microsoft is also creating a new browser. Codenamed Project Spartan, Microsoft's new browser will use a new rendering engine and will support note taking with either a stylus, a mouse's on-screen cursor or a person's finger. Project Spartan will also let you click on words/phrases and leave comments. You'll then be able to share pages with your comments on them on the various social media outlets. Project Spartan will also enable saving web pages to view offline, much like the Get Pocket app.
Since the presentation, we've learned that Project Spartan is actually called Microsoft Edge, a browser that will be on the cutting edge of the latest web technologies. In brief, Edge does have "Make a Web Note," which allows users to draw and type on any web page. There's also a Reading View mode that temporarily eliminates all the flashy stuff so that users can focus on the text.We take Microsoft Edge for a spin, which can be read right here.Gaming
Microsoft wants to push gaming with Windows 10. "We will treat gaming on Windows 10 with as much passion as on Xbox One," said Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft's Xbox division. In addition to supporting DirectX 12, which the company vaguely stated will run up to 50 percent faster than DX11 equivalents, the company announced that users will be able to stream Xbox One games to any Windows 10 PC over a local network. This includes Windows 10 tablets/convertibles. Currently, the build that the company is using only supports 30fps/720p streaming, but Microsoft hopes to up that to 60fps/1080p by the offical release date of Windows 10.

Microsoft also revealed the Xbox app, which will allow you to capture and record the last 30 seconds of gameplay in any PC game, much like Nvidia’s ShadowPlay feature. This includes games from Steam, Uplay, or Origin. In addition, you’ll be able to cut and trim the beginning and ends of clips and share them with your Xbox Live friends on the Xbox app. When we asked if there were plans to integrate the Xbox friends list with Steam’s friends library, the company said it certainly wasn’t against it and said it was in talks with Valve.

Currently, the software only records the last 30 seconds of gameplay, but when we asked if there were plans to be able to up the time limit, the company said that was possibility down the road.

Microsoft also announced that Fable Legends would no longer be Xbox-exclusive, and will come to PCs. Even better, PC gamers and Xbox One owners will be able to play together online. This is a start of a strategy in which Microsoft envisions cross-platform play. The company confirmed that Xbox achievements will be making their way to PC titles as well.

Another sector that Microsoft said it was interested in improving in the PC gaming space pertains to battery life. With gaming laptops becoming more popular, Microsoft says it's working on optimizing the OS for gaming battery life.
The Start Button
Beyond the gaming stuff, Microsoft went over a multitude of other OS updates. Windows 10 will work across a wide variety of devices including phones, tablets, desktops and laptops, and would even eventually come to the Xbox One in some form. Power desktop users worrying that their OS will be compromised with a mobile OS (a la Metro) needn't worry, because the Start button is indeed back. There is, however, a tablet mode where the start button opens up and shows many more touch-friendly icons, but unlike Metro which was quite in-your-face, users can ignore this altogether if they so desired. Other features include the melding of the control panel and settings menus. The company said looking at the data, users were confused by which tool did what.
4K ScalingOne of the biggest issues with current versions of Windows is 4K scaling. Everything either looks too tiny, or certain programs aren't optimized for the resolution and look blurry. Microsoft said it is working hard to solve this issue both internally and with third-party developers. Considering that 4K seems to be a mere stepping stone for UHD panels at this point, Microsoft also told us that Windows 10 will support 8K.

The company's various software suites will be getting updates as well. Outlook will be getting Microsoft's popular ribbon tool, allowing you to properly compose and format letters from your email client. Power Point will support hardware acceleration for fancier transitions. Microsoft is also introducing a new photo-organizing tool, which will collect your images and categorize them by location and time. This photo tool can also enhance images automatically to remove red-eye, and delete duplicate images.

The company also announced Surface Hub, which is a Windows 10 PC integrated into an 80-inch 4K TV with a mic, cameras, and touch screen. Using it, you'll be able to use a stylus to draw on PowerPoint presentations, etc. The Hub is being designed for enterprise in mind and will cater to professionals who use Skype video conferencing.
Hololens
Microsoft’s last announcement was arguably the most exciting: Hololens. Many suspected that Microsoft would release a head-mounted display for VR to compete with Oculus Rift/Project Morpheus, however the company opted to go the augmented reality route. Hololens is a head-mounted display, but unlike VR headsets, the Hololens grants you full vision of your surrounding with a clear glass overlay in front of your eyes. In the glass, you’ll have a video feed that beams on to it in real time. The end result is you looking at virtual objects lying around your real living room space. Furthermore, you’ll be able to use the company’s new HoloStudio program to easily build 3D models with your hands. Microsoft is calling it the best print preview for 3D printing out there.

We got a chance to try the headset and can say we walked away incredibly impressed. Expect a more detailed write-up on it soon. There’s still a lot that we don’t know. For instance, we don’t know how it will interact with Windows 10 PCs considering it is it’s own dedicated, wireless device. We will say that we were pleasantly surprised by it and like VR, it has the potential to be transformative if it’s pulled off right. While no release date was given, Microsoft told us that it would come out during the Windows 10 launch timeframe.

With all that said, when is Windows 10 releasing? The company says it will launch on July 29. As of early July, the schedule shows that a first wave of Windows 10 devices will arrive in August followed by another wave in September. 
What did you think of Microsoft’s various announcements? Let us know in the comments below. We also have a number of articles that have been written since this article's original published date"The New Settings 'App' in Windows 10Windows 10 Start Menu: The DetailsWindows 10 Vs. Windows 8.1: The Major DifferencesThe Top 7 Reasons To Upgrade to Windows 10

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