Windows 10 product family
Windows 10 was shown off again by Microsoft on January 21st (January 22nd in Malaysia), this time with more features introduced. The company promised that this January build will be available in a week’s time. Looks like Microsoft is ahead of schedule and on January 23rd 1pm Eastern Time (January 24th 2am Malaysian Time), it has released January’s build 9926 of the Windows 10 Technical Preview.
While Windows 10 is supposed to unify the desktop and phone operating systems into one, in reality, they’re really different systems, though sharing the same kernel. During the presentation two days ago, Microsoft said that the ‘Windows 10 for phones’ build it was showing off, will only be available for testers to download in February.
This marks the release of the fourth preview build of Windows 10. When is was first available, 6.4.9841 brought a significant feature departure from Windows 8.1, namely the return of the Start menu, a Task View virtual desktop button, a dedicated Search button, improved snapping behavior, and windowed Metro/Modern apps.
Build 9860 came on October 21st, introducing two, Fast and Slow update channels. There is also a new notification center window of past pop-up notifications.
Less than a month later on November 12th, build 9879 dropped, and this version is a larger update than the previous, with the ability to hide Task View and Search buttons, a new three-finger gesture on trackpad to launch the Task View mentioned, and the removal of OneDrive file placeholders, in favor of selective sync instead.
But the current update that’s just released, build 9926, is the biggest update yet, arguably a larger jump from the initial Windows 10, than Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 build 9841. We’re talking about a new phone OS, customizable Start menu, improved Action Center that syncs across devices, universal apps, touch-first Office apps, improved Maps, and Photos apps, Continuum user experience, Xbox integration, and of course, Cortana. Read all about it on our earlier coverage here.
According to Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet, there are two features announced two days ago that are not available on this build, namely the new “Project Spartan” browser, and the updated Music app that can play music files remotely stored on OneDrive.
In any case, this is a no-brainer for tech enthusiasts to download and test. It is available now as an update for existing Windows Insiders, but this January build is also available in the ISO format. To get started, visit Windows 10 Technical Preview’s download site here. You can read more about this release by Gabe Aul here, or just watch Joe Belfiore showing us around the new Windows 10 below.
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