SHOULD YOU UPGRADE TO WINDOWS 10?
On Wednesday, Microsoft launched its newest
operating system for PCs, tablets and hybrid devices. As part of this launch,
users running licensed versions of Windows 7, Windows 8 and 8.1 are eligible for
a free upgrade over the internet. The question that then arises is...
The simple answer is “YES“. If you intend to
stay with the Windows ecosystem on your PC and tablet, then upgrading to
Windows 10 is a no brainer. After the upgrade, you stand to get all the
security updates and patches to the operating system and as it gets updated
over time, you will also get new features.
That said, if you're not tech savvy, and are
comfortable with your existing version of Windows, you could wait it out for a
while. Microsoft has allowed consumers until 29 July, 2016 to avail of the free
upgrade.
IF I CHOOSE TO UPGRADE, WILL WINDOWS 10 RUN ON
MY OLD MACHINE?
The new OS is designed to work on systems that
run Windows 7 and 8. As a minimum requirement your machine will need to have
a... 1GHz processor 1GB RAM for 32-bit, or 2GB for 64-bit 16GB hard drive space
for the 32-bit OS, 20GB for 64-bit OS DirectX 9 graphic card or later with WDDM
1.0 driver 1024x600px display an internet connection, and a Microsoft account All
computers built in the last few years meet this criteria, but it should be
noted that the specs listed above are the absolute minimum requirement.
Techtonic recommends better hardware for a smoother experience.
BUT WHAT IF I DON'T LIKE WINDOWS 10?
Well, Microsoft lets you try it out for a period
of one month. At any time, during this period, if you don't like the OS, you
can revert to the previous version of Windows on your device. You can choose to
go back to Windows 10 anytime later during the one-year free offer.
WHAT'S
NEW
EDGE
Edge, which replaces Internet Explorer 11, is a
completely redesigned, minimalistic web browser, with very few controls in the
main window.
What you do get is a “Reading Mode“ for
distraction-free reading. When enabled, it strips off all the multimedia
content from the web page, leaving you with just the main image and article
text.
You can also use the “Make a Web Note“ button in
Edge to take a screenshot of a web page, highlight text, make annotations and
share it via e-mail.
Alternatively, you can hit its “Share“ button to
send a web page as a screenshot or a link via e-mail without leaving the
browser.
You can also select text, right-click and “Ask
Cortana“ to look-up topics in a sidebar without leaving the current tab. However,
this feature will become visible only after Cortana is rolled out for our
region. That said, IE 11 still exists in Windows 10 for compatibility with
certain websites.
MAPS
The Maps app is powered by Here, which has by
far been one of the best features on Windows Phones. Now, you get the same
functionality on your desktop, laptop or tablet. You can download maps by
region and country for offline use. The app lets you bookmark locations, search
for directions and places of interest. You can also view maps at an angle
in 3D, though this will increase data usage.
PHOTOS
The new Photos app is a spruced up gallery that
displays all the photographs on your PC as well as on OneDrive
chronologically as “Collections“. The main draw of Photos is its auto-enhance
feature and its built-in editing options. You can select “Enhance“ and allow
the app to improve your picture or manually tweak the brightness, colour
saturation, highlights and shadows; you can select a photo filter; straighten,
remove red eye, add a blur effect and more.
Like in Edge, you can share snapshots via e-mail
from within the app itself.
MAIL AND CALENDAR
The changes in the Mail and Calendar apps are
subtle. They do not launch as full-screen applications like they do in Windows
8. Additionally, as you resize Mail, it adjusts its preview panes automatically
to provide a best-fit and view of the inbox and e-mails. Controls and settings
are more intuitively placed, so you can perform simple actions with minimum
clicks. Apart from your Outlook account, you can add your Exchange, Gmail,
Yahoo!, and iCloud accounts. You can also manually add POPIMAP accounts to Mail.
You can switch to the Calendar app from within
Mail and vice versa. The main improvement to the former is its support for
Gmail and iCloud calendars and the ability to show concise daily weather info.
GROOVE MUSIC, FILM & TV
These are not completely new apps they exist
on Windows 8 as Xbox Music and Xbox Video. But the biggest additions are native
support for FLAC lossless audio files and the MKV video format. Both sport
a user interface that is designed to work intuitively with a keyboard or via the
touchscreen, and integrated with OneDrive for access to your personal
multimedia content that's stored online.
In Groove, you can quickly browse through your r
personal collection by album, artist, songs, etc; create new playlists, add
tracks into existing lists, and more. Videos are simply stored across the
Movies, TV and Video categories.
There is an option to sign in to the Store to
purchase music and rent videos as well, but currently this functionality is not
available in India.
1 START
The Start menu makes a reappearance in Win 10.
From here, you can access “Most used“ and “Recently added“ apps. Under “Life at
a glance“, you will find tiles for the calendar, e-mail, browser, photos and
the weather apps.
The new improved Start menu also has icons for
File Explorer, Settings, Power and “All apps“ that gives you an alphabetical
listing of everything on your computer. You can `pin' the apps you use most
often to your Start menu to appear as `live' tiles. You can also customize the
look, size and even create groupings of apps for easier access.
2 CORTANA
The one big feature in Windows 10 is Cortana
Microsoft's personal digital assistant, much like Apple's Siri. But users in
India won't have immediate access to it as it is still being updated with local
content.
Cortana can be accessed from the search box
that's right beside the Start menu. When available, you will be able to type
your queries, or use voice co to type your queries, or use voice commands, and
it will display results from the PC, web, and OneDrive. It will provide you
with your schedule for the day, along with time-, people-, and location-based
reminders. Its Notebook feature will allow you to configure and customize your
Win 10 experience under heads such as finance, meetings and reminders,
restaurants, sports, travel and weather. As of now, you can only use Win 10's
basic search feature to look for apps, files, settings and query the internet.
3 MULTIPLE WORKSPACES
The new OS has a feature called Task View, which
is found right beside the search box. So, when working on multiple projects
using different apps and programs users can create more than one desktop on
their screen to keep things neatly organized.
4 ACTION CENTER
Win 10 sports a notification area called the
Action Center. Swipe inwards on the right side of the screen (or click the
message icon in the system tray) and you can view alerts for new devices,
system messages, e-mail, and notifications from your social apps. They will
remain there till you swipe them off the screen. At the moment, these
notifications are not accompanied with quick tasks such as reply , delete, etc.
The Action Center also gives you quick access to settings such as Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth, Note, Rotation lock, Location, and more.
5 CONTINUUM
The Action Center includes a “Tablet mode“
toggle that lets you switch to a keyboard-less mode. Here, Windows 10 adjusts
the user interface a bit. For instance, apps will open in full-screen, like
they do by default in Windows 8 and the virtual keyboard pops up each time you need
to input text.
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Savio D'Souza & Ashutosh Desai
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TOI 1AUG15
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