On July 29, Microsoft released its anticipated Windows 10 operating system to the masses. Unlike past rollouts of new OS versions like Windows 7 and Windows 8, Microsoft's offer of a free upgrade to Windows 7 and Windows 8 users made it possible to seamlessly switch to the newest OS in a matter of a couple hours or less.

I took advantage of this upgrade July 30. Thus far, through several days of using the new OS, Windows 10 is a great improvement over Windows 8, and its updated counterpart, Windows 8.1.

The first thing to note was the ease of the actual upgrade process. In all, the upgrade was fully installed in less than two hours.

Before upgrading, I was somewhat concerned that certain programs I used on Windows 8.1 would need to be reinstalled. Not only were they all there, the commonly used ones I had left on the taskbar upon upgrading greeted me upon first startup for Windows 10. Microsoft Office programs were likewise on the computer as normal.

Aesthetics

Visually, Windows 10 is extremely refreshing and intuitive, but longtime Windows users also won't have any trouble navigating the more streamlined taskbar and navigation windows.

For better or worse, the last few years of Windows have been chiefly defined by controversy about the Start menu, and how Windows 8 eschewed the iconic, bottom left-corner feature from Windows 7 and before. The full-screen Start menu from Windows 8 has met its merciful end, and a more traditional Start menu has taken its place in Windows 10.

While it's still not the classic, mouse-over, rightward-expanding Start menu that many people grew up with on PCs, it's an incredible improvement over the confusing, sprawling screen that greeted the user in the two incarnations of Windows 8.

The Windows 10 Start menu still incorporates the tiles for programs and other Windows features that were seen in Windows 8, which is consistent with Microsoft's branding across its mobile operating systems. However, the tiles are not overbearing, and the initial view only brings up tiles like email, weather and a Web browser.

To the left of the tiles is where the new Start menu shines, displaying the user's most used programs, an easy link to the computer's File Explorer and an "All apps" feature that shows all the computer’s programs in one scrollable column, along the lines of the "All programs" option Windows 7 and its counterparts in past Windows OS versions.

A new browser

After upgrading, the most curious new addition I saw was preloaded onto the taskbar, and could easily be mistaken for an Internet Explorer logo. But the lowercase “e” is clearly different at second glance. It's the logo of Microsoft Edge, the new browser that Microsoft hopes can win the respect of the tech community after years of being outshined in quality by Mozilla's Firefox and Google Chrome.

Like the rest of Windows 10, Microsoft Edge looks excellent. However, it doesn't rise far enough above its main rivals to likely make a difference. It boasts a streamlined reading mode that filters out autoplay videos and ads from news sites and other articles, but Firefox unveiled the same functionality a couple months ago, and Apple's Safari browser has a similar feature.

In my limited time trying out the Edge browser, it's seemed buggy at times, and the reading mode was inoperable on regular news articles on popular sites on occasion.

Edge has also garnered some controversy. When upgrading from Windows 7, 8 or 8.1, Edge becomes the default browser on the new OS, regardless of what browser your prior default was. Mozilla CEO Chris Beard wasn't exactly happy with this development.

While the process to change the default browser does require more steps than previous Windows versions, it's fairly straightforward. When I opened up Chrome for the first time after upgrading, I was immediately shown a screen telling me exactly how to change the default to Chrome on Windows 10.

Voice-activation

Cortana, Microsoft's voice-activated answer to Android's Google Now and Apple's Siri, is prominently featured in Windows 10, just to the right of the Start menu. The area used for Cortana also functions as the OS' search bar for files, programs or searching on Microsoft's Bing engine.

Like Google Now, Cortana allows the user to pick a variety of interests and topics relevant to them, and will show the user information cards based on those interests when clicked on. The voice-command feature seems to be useful and stacks up well compared to its competitors.

Also like Google, Microsoft appears to be in the business of collecting a whole lot of data from its consumers. However, there are ways to limit what's collected in the new OS.

Windows 10 is not an operating system without faults or bugs. But it is an operating system that stands above its recent predecessors, and its free-upgrade offer will make sure that home and business users experience that improvement.