First Nation solar farm plans
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Israeli strike played down
Full Trump jury seated
World's largest election 
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Warriors ready for Round 2
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Rockets live to fight on
Hilton teams up with Sia
Swift still 'can't forgive' Kim
Grimes to ‘cap the disarray’
Microsoft previewed the new version of Windows last week. You know, the version that comes after Windows 8. Guess what they’re calling it. Go ahead, guess. I’ll wait.
Nope. The new version of Windows is Windows 10.
This means that instead of having a new, incrementally better version of Windows by the end of this year, we won't have a new version of Windows until mid-2015. And once again, I have never known Microsoft to make a due date. So there's no real guarantee that mid-2015 is realistic or that what we see in the preview (which reviewers say is pretty rough around the edges) is what we will get in the actual release.
The reports I've read and the pictures of the preview I've seen indicate that yes, it will be more Windows 7-ish, with the familiar desktop interface and Start Menu, and less Windows 8-ish "tile world." (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/17/technology/personaltech/reconciling-the-2-worlds-of-windows-8.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)
With Windows 8, Microsoft introduced the Start Screen to replace the Start Menu. Honestly, that’s not a terrible idea on a phone or a tablet, but lots of folks who use desktop computers either never moved past Windows XP or never embraced the Start Search concept in Windows 7. Those people and others who just want to get work done freaked out when they couldn’t figure out how to open a program in Windows 8.
A few third-party Start Menu replacements, like the beautifully implemented Classic Shell (http://www.classicshell.net/) and the annoying Start8 (http://www.iobit.com/iobitstartmenu8.php) are so popular that Microsoft finally relented. Windows 10 will have a Start Menu. But it’s not your father’s Start Menu! The Start Menu in the Windows 10 Preview includes both programs like you’re used to and the new Modern apps. This should make it easier to toggle between the old and new environments. Read Microsoft’s somewhat breathless announcement here: http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2014/09/30/announcing-windows-10/
Modern apps can run in Desktop windows
A truly irritating feature of the Modern apps in Windows 8 is their insistence on taking up the whole screen. This drives power users of previous versions of Windows to distraction. We are used to having more than one window open at once. There are ways to have more than one app displayed in Windows 8, but this feels kludgy, and it’s complicated.
Windows 10 will run Modern Apps in a window on the Desktop. You can move those windows around, you can resize them, and you can have more than one window open. This giant improvement gets us back --- finally --- to the way we were able to do things in the last century. It’s a welcome development.
You can try the Windows 10 Preview
Microsoft has made Windows 10 Technical Preview available free to advanced computer users who want to try this pre-release version. This link will take you to the download page: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview-iso. The conventional wisdom is that Windows 10 will run on any machine capable of running Windows 8 or 8.1. Please review the system requirements before you install Widows 10. And please do not install the new Windows on your only computer. This is test software and you can completely foul up your computer. More here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview-faq#faq=tab0.
It should be an interesting next twelve months. Or eighteen months. Or whatever number comes after eighteen.
Do you need help with your computer? I'm here to help you and your home or business computer get along!
Cate Eales runs Computer Care Kelowna (http://computercarekelowna.com/) a mobile service helping home users and businesses get along with their computers. To arrange an appointment phone her at 250-764-7043. Cate also welcomes your comments and suggestions. Send email to [email protected].
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