Microsoft has announced that the next version of its operating system (OS) will be called Windows 10.
There was no live stream of the announcement, but publications such as The Verge ran live blogs from the event.
Speaking in San Francisco, California in the US, Windows head Terry Myerson told journalists and bloggers that the new OS would run on all the platforms currently supported by Microsoft.
This includes smartphones, tablets, and desktop PCs.
It was rumoured that the new OS would be called Windows 9, or keep its code-name “Threshold”, but Myerson said that the new Windows was built from the ground up and it wouldn’t be right to call it Windows 9.
“Unfortunately, Windows One has been done,” he said.
Rumoured features
As has become the norm for big launches, the announcement of Windows 10 was preceded by a number of leaks demonstrating the features of the OS.
These included a new start menu that looks like a hybrid between the classic start menu and the new live-tiled start screen, a unified notification centre, and multi-desktop support.
Details about the features were leaked in the videos embedded above and below.
Joe Belfiore, head of the Windows product definition and design team demonstrated some of the new features, saying that they tried to find a balance between Windows 7 and Windows 8.
“We want all these Windows 7 users to have the sentiment that yesterday they were driving a first-generation Prius, and now with Windows 10 it’s like a Tesla,” Belfiore was quoted as saying.
Among the new features demonstrated was the ability to resize the tiles on the Start Menu, and change the size of the menu itself.
There is also a universal search from the start menu which includes web results.
He also demonstrated new windowing and task management features, including the ability to run “Modern UI Style” applications in windows on the desktop.
Previously, these types of applications either ran full screen or snapped to the edge of the display with something else (such as the desktop) taking up the rest of the screen space.
Pricing and availability
It has been rumoured that a preview version of Windows 10 will be made available soon, but the launch of the operating system is only expected around April 2015.
Myerson confirmed this, saying that they would launch the Windows Insider Program, a technical preview build for laptops and desktops, from Wednesday, 1 October 2014.
He refuted the launch rumours somewhat saying that Windows 10 would launch towards the middle of 2015, after Microsoft’s Build conference for developers.
There were also rumours that the upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 10 will be free, but Microsoft did not mention pricing during the announcement.
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I hope there will be an option to turn the start menu off..I don’t want it back. I am used to not using a start menu, I use the Search to open everything that is not located on my taskbar. I just want them to give me the ability to have windows search integrated into the taskbar.