In late October of 2012, Microsoft debuted Windows 8 after a whopping 1.2 billion hours of user testing. Then-Windows chief Steven Sinofsky said upon its release, "This is the best release of Windows ever."

The tech world and consumers didn't agree. Before the start of 2013, Sinofsky had left Microsoft.

Less than a year later, the tech giant released Windows 8.1, aimed at addressing some of the biggest complaints with Windows 8, most notably the absence of the company's iconic bottom-left corner Start button.

Now, by naming its new operating system Windows 10 and introducing a variety of new, forward-looking features, Microsoft is attempting a clean break with its recent, maligned past. The company revealed the OS and a number of other features and products Jan. 21.

Microsoft is offering the OS to a sizeable amount of the PC-using population at no cost. For the first year Windows 10 is available to the public, it will be available as a free upgrade to current Windows 7 and 8 users.

Perhaps the overarching theme in Microsoft's newest Windows system is its integration among various devices with its Continuum feature.

One of the chief criticisms of the Windows 8 era — along with the similar Windows RT system for tablets — was that the two operated as a "desktop OS for tablets and a tablet OS for desktops." When touchscreen laptop sales stagnated in 2013, Microsoft's roll of the dice essentially crapped out. Now, not only will many of the company's Surface tablets run Windows 10, so can Xbox One gaming systems.

"Bringing all the different assets into one tightly-knit set of capabilities and devices is what they have to do, and it looks like they're doing it," International Data Corportation analyst Al Hilwa told The Washington Post.

Windows 10 will also feature a new browser, code-named "Project Spartan" at the moment. While the company's Internet Explorer browser maintains a majority market share according to some metrics, it has been widely criticized for years as being slow, prone to crashes and bugs, and far more difficult to use than competitors like Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome.

Spartan will feature an integrated Siri-esque Cortana platform, allowing customized options and features based on search history and browsing habits as well as voice activation. It takes cues from Firefox and Chrome with a new, clutter-free Reading Mode that also allows users to save text-only versions of pages for offline use across devices.

However, Internet Explorer will not be going away immediately. Microsoft Vice President Joe Belfiore said upon the product debut that the full beta version would be available to Windows 10 testers sometime in the first half of the year. IE will also be included on Windows 10, but it will likely be only for use with enterprise applications.

Yet, the most headline-grabbing and futuristic reveal on Jan. 21 was Microsoft's virtual-reality headset, HoloLens. Thus far, it's received glowing reviews by the tech world.

Described as a "new headset that allows interaction with holographic images, enabling people to play video games, build 3-D models and hold immersive videoconferences with colleagues" by The New York Times, the device specializes in augmented reality, displaying 2-D and 3-D images to a user in addition to the environment already present.


Windows 10 is likely to debut in late 2015. If Windows 10 ends up suffering the unlikely same fate as Windows 8, Microsoft has made sure that it won't be because of a repeat of past mistakes.