Earlier today in San Francisco Microsoft officially announced the next Windows version, previously codename Windows Threshold, and surprised just about everybody by naming it Windows 10 (and not Windows 9 as were expected).
While nothing was said about pricing or upgrade paths Microsoft said that a technical preview will be made available tomorrow (1 October ) and the final release (RTM) is planned to late 2015.
Windows 10 will be fully backwards compatible with old apps and it will be possible to run the ”Metro”-apps in desktop mode. It will be scalable on screens from 4 to 80 inches. ”Windows 10 will deliver the right experience on the right device at the right time” said Microsoft’s Terry Myerson.
Joe Belfiore also said tha the command prompt will allow you to use keyboard shortcuts, along with copy and paste.
As have been a public secret for some time now, the start menu returns but in a revamped form. Now it’s a combination of the “Metro” start screen (from Windows 8) and the traditional start menu (from previous Windows versions). The start menu now features a new universal search in the start menu that pulls in results from the web.
”The tiles and icons that are shown are a blend of classic apps and new universal apps […]In Windows 8 when users launched a modern app, it sort of had a different environment, we don’t want that duality. We want users on PCs with mice and keyboards to have their familiar UI.” Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore said.
We will keep updating the blog with more information about Windows 10.