I’ve said this before, and I will reiterate it now. Windows 8, in general, is not perceived in a positive light. Not necessarily because of the lack of features, or even due to the touch first interface, but because from the start people did not buy into the paradigm. We can argue over why that was, and the specifics are likely different for every individual. But a big part of that was that Windows, which has had a familiar interface since Windows 95, had changed dramatically in look, feel, and general use. The traditional mouse and keyboard PC and notebook is a big part of the Windows user base, and especially at the beginning, Windows 8 did not cater to that crowd. While there were certainly improvements to the desktop, it was not enough to overcome the negative feelings of many users in regards to being productive on their PC. I say this as a fan of Windows 8.1, and I say this despite the positive review from this site. Windows 8 was an OS that worked, but had a steep learning curve that many people did not want to bother learning.

One of the biggest issues facing Windows 8 was just how much people liked Windows 7. Windows 7 was seen as the savior to Vista, and fixed many of its issues. But a lot of the initial problems with Vista were due to a major change in the driver model as well as the security model, which caused a lot of compatibility issues with older programs which expected administrator rights, as well as many hardware devices needed driver updates. With Windows 7, all of those changes were in the rear view mirror, allowing 7 to be a tweak of the overall UI and functionality rather than a rebuild of the OS from the ground up. With Windows 8, the move to touch first caused another dramatic upheaval. This time, rather than incompatible programs and hardware, we got a new Start Screen, a new runtime in WinRT, and a new app model with the Windows Store. For reasons that will never be made clear, the familiar start button was even removed, with the designers relying on hidden functions such as the hot corners to navigate around the OS with a mouse and keyboard. Luckily this change was reversed for Windows 8.1, with the start button returning, even if it still opened the Start Screen. With the Windows 8.1 Update, the system was made much more usable for a mouse and keyboard with the return of the menu bar to close apps, rather than dragging them down off the screen, and several other changes as well which brought the balance back somewhat to cover both touch interfaces as well as the mouse and keyboard.

Windows 8 at launch in October 2012

With Windows 8, Microsoft tried out an operating system which would work with a single interface across a breadth of hardware, from small form factor tablets, up to 30” monitor desktops. While they certainly succeeded in creating an interface that worked across all of those platforms, it was not ideally suited to any of them. With the tablet mode, the new Start Screen worked very well, and the charms menu and app switcher were fairly easy to use. But many of the settings and programs would be on the desktop, where touch only worked sparingly. Some desktop applications, such as Office, were created with a touch mode to increase the size of the onscreen elements, but overall the experience was subpar. Similarly, on the desktop, the touch interfaces were not ideal, and the hot corners certainly had issues especially on multi-monitor systems.

Windows 10 Technical Preview at launch

But now we come to Windows 10. Windows 10 is ditching the “One Interface to Rule them All” mentality, and moving to a more user friendly model of a single store across all platforms, and multiple interfaces to the same OS depending on the current usage model. We have not seen all of this in practice as of yet in the Technical Preview, but Microsoft has demonstrated their solution to this change in input mode with a feature they are calling Continuum.

The goal is that those that are on a keyboard and mouse based system will have the traditional start menu and desktop, with apps in windows, but if you are on a touch based device, or if you go on a 2-in-1 from keyboard to touch, the system will switch to the Windows 8 style start screen with full screen apps.

One of the keys to having this experience is an app model that allows a developer to target this different user interface paradigms. Microsoft’s solution to this is Universal Apps.

Universal Apps and the Windows Store

We just got done discussing why a single user interface for the OS across multiple devices is not always the ideal solution, so of course the obvious question with Universal Apps is why would you want it with the app model instead? Thankfully this is not the case although the term Universal App might lead people to believe they are attempting to have a single app target all of their platforms. The truth of the matter is that Universal Apps are Universal in the sense that they share a common app store.

If Microsoft is going to have Windows 10 succeed on desktops, laptops, tablets, phones, and even Xbox One, they need developer buy-in. A platform without apps is not much use to anyone. With the Universal App, they can bridge all of their platforms with a single App in the store. Under the hood, each app is created with a common framework of code, as well as multiple user interfaces in order to tailor the experience to the correct device type. Below is a screenshot of Visual Studio – Microsoft’s developer tools – with a new Universal App about to be created.

Visual Studio Showing a Universal App Project

As you can see, there is a shared portion of code, and then a project for the UI for Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1. Xbox One is not available yet, but should be added in a future release of Visual Studio.

A close up of the projects

But you may be wondering why any of this is necessary. Windows has the largest selection of applications of any system ever. That is of course true, and the Win32 framework has served both Windows and its users well over the years. But with the new WinRT framework there are some big advantages. First, it can be written to in multiple languages including HTML. WinRT supports C++/CX, C#, VB.NET, and HTML scripting with JavaScript and TypeScript. The security model for WinRT apps is a lot different than Win32, with all WinRT apps running in a sandbox mode for higher security. Unlike apps written in .NET, WinRT is native code, which should result in better performance. Contracts and Extensions are also new to WinRT, and allow apps to share data while still being in a sandbox. One of the biggest advantages of WinRT is that it is DPI aware, and can automatically scale apps appropriately based on screen size and screen resolution. Here, as we know, Win32 apps can struggle even though there are solutions in place.

Adobe Touch WinRT (left) vs Adobe Reader Win32 (right) on HiDPI display

One of the biggest disadvantages of WinRT is that it is only available on Windows 8 and newer devices. With Windows 8 struggling in the market as compared to Windows 7, the user reach of a developer targeting WinRT apps in the Windows Store would be for a subset of the total user base. With Windows 7 having over 50% of the desktop OS market share to itself, this is going to be an issue.

With Windows 10, Microsoft is certainly targeting Windows 7 users. If they can convince them to upgrade to the latest version of the operating system, then the new environment will have a much larger target base and will hopefully encourage developers to target the Windows Store. We have not heard of any upgrade promotions or pricing yet, but this is one of the biggest advantages Apple has had over the years. Their user base generally upgrades the OS at a much faster uptake than Windows. This allows developers to utilize newer APIs in the latest versions of their operating systems and keep the platform progressing. Microsoft has already had to deal with people being stuck on Windows XP, and they must be wanting to avoid that with Windows 7.

Since we are discussing Universal Apps and their advantages, one of the biggest advantages is the Windows Store. With Microsoft hosting the entire download and purchase of all WinRT apps, having user settings and apps sync from one device to another is much easier. One of the greatest experiences with Windows 8.1 is signing into a new PC for the first time. When you log in with your Microsoft Account, the system asks you if you would like to copy the devices and apps from one of your other devices, or if you want to start with a clean machine. If you choose a previous machine, all of the settings, wallpaper, Start Screen layout, and Windows Store apps are synced to the new device. In the case of Windows Store apps, the app itself is listed on your Start Screen, but it is not downloaded until the first time you select it. This avoids a situation where you will significantly delay the initial login time with a massive download, as well as avoid filling the available storage with apps you may not need on that particular device.

Windows Store on Windows 8.1

Also, like modern tablet and smartphone OSes, WinRT apps from the store are automatically kept up to date by the store. This avoids a lot of the issues with viruses and malware attacking an older version of a product since in theory it will not be around any longer.

The one thing missing from this are the older Win32 apps on the desktop, because they are not available in the Windows Store. Prior to Windows 10, desktop apps could be listed in the store, but the store would then link to the developer’s website to allow you to purchase and install the app. With Windows 10, rumors are that desktop apps will also be available and managed through the Windows Store. Assuming this does happen, then this will be a major boon to users. Desktop apps should in theory also be able to be kept up to date using the Windows Store which should cut back on the number of outdated pieces of software targeted by malware.

The Windows Store is a key piece of Windows 10. Universal Apps can be made available for multiple platforms through the store, and, if the rumors are true, even desktop apps will be available through the store. This should make the Out Of Box Experience (OOBE) very good for users with a Microsoft Account. The WinRT framework has not yet had the killer app written for it, so hopefully with Windows 10 the framework will be expanded to allow for more powerful apps to be created.

Business Features

It is no secret that a lot of businesses got stuck on Windows XP, and partly due to things like IE6 and intranet sites and apps that would only work on that platform. As we discussed, the changes to the Windows Vista’s security model made a lot of corporate apps stop working, and the changes to the driver model and minimum hardware requirements for Vista meant that existing computers could not necessarily be upgraded from XP. This was a major problem for Microsoft. Getting companies to buy into a new way of doing business does not always work out. If it was difficult to get a business to upgrade to Windows 7, you can imagine how difficult it would be to have that same business upgrade to Windows 8 with its entirely different look and feel.

Windows 10 is more than Windows 8.1 with a Start Menu, although at first glance that seems to be the case. Microsoft has put some major effort into adding features to Windows 10 specifically aimed at the business crowd.

The first change, is of course the Start Menu, which is back. The Windows 8 Start Screen was a major pain point with business, so this alone is a big benefit. Having a familiar look and feel to the OS is key to keeping workers productive, and the thought of having to train the workforce for Windows 8 was not very appealing. The previously discussed WinRT apps being able to be used in a window is also a nice feature to keep productivity up. But these changes are fairly cosmetic, and it is the features under the covers that should really help businesses, and consumers as well, to buy into Windows 10.

As many of us are aware, having to do a clean install of Windows, and then re-load all of your settings, applications, and devices, can be quite painful. Windows 10 is going to offer an in-place upgrade for users of Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1. The upgrade will preserve apps, data, and device settings from the original install of Windows to allow for a smoother transition. On my desktop PC, I performed an in-place upgrade to view the results. Although it was extremely slow to complete (I have about 200 GB of apps and data on my main SSD so the upgrade took well over an hour) the result was exactly what was promised. All of my apps on the desktop were still in place, and I was able to get right back to where I was with Windows 8.1.

While not the first version of Windows to support an in-place upgrade, Microsoft is promising Windows 10 will be the best in-place upgrade yet. With Windows on as many devices as it is, there are likely to be some problems, but my one computer worked fine even though this is far from the release version of the software.

At the same time, Windows 10 will support the traditional wipe and install approach. My experience with this method is even more positive than the in-place upgrade. Booting off of a USB drive and installing Windows 10 on an unformatted SSD ended up taking about five minutes. Although Windows 8.1 installs are likely as fast, it is still impressive when you remember back to installing Windows 9x/XP.

Microsoft System Center dashboard sample

Microsoft is also building new runtime configuration tools to transform devices from their off-the-shelf state to fully configured business devices without having to image them. Since these tools are not available yet, I have not seen them but this may be a quicker way to set up multiple machines rather than having to manage images and driver packages for a multitude of different types of hardware. This can also allow choose-your-own-device type scenarios, with the provisioning tied to Mobile Device Management (MDM) services. Of course, traditional wipe-and-load deployment will also be supported, and Microsoft has a bevy of tools to help with this including the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and System Center Configuration Manager.

Speaking of MDM, this is also a major new feature coming to Windows 10. Windows 8.1 offered some MDM abilities, and Windows 10 is expanding the feature set. This will allow MDM to configure Windows 10 for things such as Enterprise Data Protection policies, support for managing multiple users, full control over the Windows Store, VPN configuration, full device wipe and encryption, and more. This will allow many more businesses the ability to have device management. While Microsoft and other companies have long offered configuration management tools such as Microsoft System Center Configuration Management, the software is complex and requires a significant investment to set up and keep up to date. With Windows 10 offering comprehensive device management with MDM, this will allow companies to use the much less complex MDM tools such as Microsoft InTune.

Of course, one of the biggest concerns for any business is security. Windows 10 is also adding new features here which should result in security for both identity protection, and information protection. Identity protection is a major concern for IT departments, and as such they often employ password policies which are complicated and create user confusion, and of course extra support calls for forgotten passwords. One way in which Windows 10 is addressing this is by building in additional choices for multi-factor authentication. With Windows 10, the device itself can be one of the two factors for authentication. A second factor can be a PIN, password, or a biometric. So, effectively, a password will not be required if that is acceptable by the company's security policy. Also, Microsoft will also be allowing a smartphone to be one of the choices in multifactor authentication, and the phone will be able to connect over Bluetooth or Wi-FI to the PC to act as a remote smartcard. The technology powering this multifactor authentication is fairly familiar stuff to IT departments: a cryptographically generated key pair generated by Windows, or a certificate from an already established PKI system.

Also with identity management, Windows 10 will also offer Azure Active Directory in addition to Microsoft accounts and traditional Active Directory accounts for single sign-on.

Information Protection is also a huge concern for business. Microsoft created Bitlocker for on-device encryption to protect data files at rest, but of course if the device is running, Bitlocker cannot protect data. To address this in Windows 10, Microsoft is leveraging some of their existing technologies (ie Azure Rights Management and Active Directory Rights Management) to protect data. Microsoft is calling the new implementation Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and the new solution separates corporate and personal data and protects the information by having the files encrypted on their own. Microsoft is claiming DLP will allow corporate data to be protected without any additional work by the end user – you will not need to switch modes or change apps – which should drastically improve the ability of companies to keep track of their data and prevent it from leaking out in the event someone emails it to the incorrect recipient. Windows Phone will also support these features, which may or may not help adoption of Microsoft’s smartphone OS in the enterprise.

Windows 10 will also support policies to restrict which apps have access to corporate data. Policies will also be available to control VPN functions, including constant connectivity and which apps have access via VPN. These app-allow and app-deny lists will support both desktop and universal apps, and can be managed by MDM infrastructure.

As an attempt to keep malware at bay, Windows 10 can only allow trusted applications to be run on it. That trust can come from Microsoft, or from OEMs and organizations. A company can sign apps themselves if they wish, choose apps signed by particular software vendors, apps from the Windows Store, or all of the above.

And finally with business related features, the Windows Store will be able to function as a licensing portal for volume app purchases. Organizations can create custom stores, which can show approved apps from the Windows Store alongside company-owned apps.

Windows 8 was going to struggle with enterprise adoption for more reasons than just the start screen, but clearly Microsoft is trying to push a set of services that will entice their enterprise and business customers to try out Windows 10. A lot of the focus on the Technical Preview has been in regards to new features for business, and there is a lot to digest here.

New Desktop Features

While all of the consumer focused features have not been announced, there are a lot of changes coming in addition to the Start Menu and WinRT apps running in a Window. Some long requested features are now making their way into the Technical Preview which should delight many power users. As the preview continues, we expect to see more coming. Let us go through a few now.

Virtual Desktops

Multiple desktops has long been requested by the Windows community, and perhaps to make amends for Windows 8, Microsoft is finally adding them to Windows 10. By clicking on the Task View button, users can select the Add a Desktop option to create a new desktop, or if you love the keyboard you can hit WIN+CTRL+D.

Once multiple desktops are created, you can switch among them using the task view button, or by using the keyboard shortcut WIN+CTRL+LEFT or RIGHT. If you have an app open on another desktop, the icon will appear on the task bar on all of the desktops with a small box under it. Clicking on the icon will, by default, switch you to the other desktop and display that app.

I’m not sure if I love this implementation or not, but I’ve not been a user of multiple desktops previously either. I would think that I would want the taskbar for each virtual desktop to only display the active apps on that desktop. Since this is just the technical preview, and this is a first generation feature, it is likely that this may change before the final release.

Console Improvements

The Console is something that has not really been improved upon in Windows for many years. Somewhat strangely, copy and paste was never something that could be done with the traditional keyboard shortcuts, nor would copy even be available with a right click menu. This is one of the many things coming to the console for Windows 10.

Since Windows Vista, conhost.exe has been the executable which supplied the command line interface for both the Command Prompt and PowerShell. Microsoft has made some changes to conhost.exe, but at this point cmd.exe has not been changed.

Console settings are now stored in a registry tree under HKCUConsole, with one subkey for each window title. This way, if you adjust the settings of your command prompt, you can save it as a shortcut and take it from machine to machine, where the settings in the shortcut will be transferred to the registry and available. This should please IT people who need to use the command line in diagnosing or troubleshooting many computers, since they can just keep it on a USB drive.

Another new feature is Window resize. In earlier versions of Windows, click and drag to resize the command prompt window would only affect the vertical axis. With Windows 10, you can just click and drag the window wider. Windows will automatically adjust the buffer size if required. If you shrink the console window, Windows will also attempt to shrink the buffer to the smallest size possible. Yes, it’s a small change, but it is a big help to anyone who uses the command line for anything.

Word wrap is also finally available, which is certainly welcome. Also, you can now select text line by line rather than in block mode, which will be very helpful when trying to copy and paste text from the command line. Keyboard editing and selection is also added, allowing traditional selection with keyboard shortcuts such as SHIFT+END.

Also with text selection, the familiar keys of CTRL+C and CTRL+V are now available in the console. No longer do you have to mark the text for selection and then copy it. Avid console users will know that CTRL+C also sends a BREAK command to any running app in the console, and fear not, this has been maintained. CTRL+C will send a BREAK command any time text is not selected. If you hit CTRL+C to copy text, it automatically deselects the text to allow for the same shortcut to be used for BREAK. CTRL+X will be added in the future. There are also additional keyboard commands for Mark mode, which you can enter by right clicking in the console window and choosing Edit->Mark.

The Console is now High DPI aware if a TrueType font is selected for the console window, and Microsoft is leveraging the new per-monitor DPI awareness that came in Windows 8.1 in the event you have two monitors with different DPI levels.

Windows 10 will even introduce transparency to the console Window. CTRL+SHIFT+Plus or Minus will increase or decrease the transparency, or you can substitute the mouse wheel instead of Plus/Minus.

Of course, some legacy applications which utilize the console may not like these changes. You can globally enable/disable these features in the console properties window by choosing the Experimental tab and removing the check box beside “Enable experimental console features”

The console is not something that a lot of users use, but those that use it will welcome these changes. It is almost ridiculous how much attention has been paid to the command line with this release. I for one am very happy to see the improvements.

File Explorer Gains Share Contract

Users of Windows 8 and 8.1 had access to a fantastic feature in the Charms bar – Share. Share is a contract that allows applications to share data among each other. What it does is allows you to easily send a tweet or email about a new recipe that you found, or forward a picture to a friend without leaving the original app. Over the last several years, it has been one of my favorite features of Windows 8, and it was always disappointing that it was not available on the desktop. If you enacted the share charm while on the desktop, the only option was to share a screenshot of the desktop, which is not something that I do very often.

Share Contract with Modern App

The Share contract is now coming to File Explorer, allowing you to share photos with Facebook or Twitter (assuming you have the app installed) or email a document to a co-worker. It will function exactly as it does in Windows 8.1 now, but from the desktop. This should be a very popular feature.

Share available in the File Explorer now along with OneDrive sharing options

Notification Center

While fairly sparse now, the notification center from Windows Phone has made its way to Windows 10. Expect more from this as the preview moves closer to the consumer preview. For now, it is a basic notification window but it does collect notifications from desktop applications as well. As you can see in this screenshot, my Windows 10 VM needs some updates according to my Windows Home Server.

Drop Shadows

This is another small but welcome change. Windows 8 went very flat from a UI perspective. While it seems to be the way that all designs are going now, Microsoft went pretty far and removed the drop shadows from windows. In Windows 8, the selected window is just slightly highlighted. In Windows 10, drop shadows are back, which should be a big help to those with many windows open, and especially with multiple monitors.

Windows 10 Drop Shadows

Closing Thoughts