WORLD
Windows 10 and its long list of features will be a free upgrade — for some
Baku, January 22 AZERTAC
Microsoft just took another big step toward the release of Windows 10 — and revealed it will be free for many current Windows users.
The company unveiled the Windows 10 consumer preview on Wednesday, showcasing many new features in the latest version of the operating system that powers the vast majority of the world's desktop PCs. It also surprised the tech world with an ambitious take on virtual reality, called Windows Holographic, powered by a new kind of device called the HoloLens.
The developer preview has been available since Microsoft first announced Windows 10 in the fall, but it was buggy, limited in scope and very light on new features.
Windows 10 will be free for existing Windows users running versions of the OS, going back to Windows 7. That includes Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and Windows Phone. Microsoft specified the Windows 10 upgrade would be free for the first year of release, but users would need to pay for it after that. However, Microsoft will support the upgrade for the "lifetime of the device," according to the announcement.
"We want to make Windows 10 the most loved release of Windows," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said at the event. ""We are going to have services everywhere. But when it comes to Windows, we're not bolting on apps."
One of the biggest announcements was a new web browser for Windows 10, codenamed Project Spartan. It'll be the primary browser in Windows 10 and will be available on PCs, tablets and phones.
Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of the Operating Systems Group, Joe Belfiore, showed off some of the new features in Windows 10. Microsoft had already announced it would bring back the much-missed Start Menu, but Belfiore revealed it would also have a full-screen mode that includes more of the Windows 8 Start screen. He also said Windows machines would go back and forth between to two menus in a way that wouldn't confuse people.