Microsoft has set a July 29 release date for Windows 10, which includes features that may make this version of the operating software more appealing to business users than its predecessor.
Rumors have been swirling around a July release date for Windows 10 since April. Microsoft released a “technical preview” to a small group of testers last fall.
“Windows 10 is a new generation of Windows designed to empower you to do great things,” Terry Myerson, Microsoft’s vice president of operating systems, said Monday in a news release. “Windows 10 starts to deliver on our vision of more personal computing, defined by trust in how we protect and respect your personal information, mobility of the experience across your devices, and natural interactions with your Windows devices, including speech, touch, ink and holograms.”
According to Microsoft, the new OS will run on an unprecedented array of machines, including desktops, laptops, phones, and tablets, “Internet of Things” devices that power homes and business offices, and computer servers in data centers.
It will be a free upgrade for users who have bought a computer in the past six years or so, powered by Windows 7 or later, or tablets running Windows 8.1.
Windows runs on more than 90% of the world’s computers, according to NetMarketShare, but as CNET reports, critics see Microsoft and its products as a “tech titan in decline” and its goal with Windows 10 “is both to repair the damage done by the ill-received Windows 8 and to convince consumers that upgrading is worth the time and effort.”
That may be easier to accomplish with business users. David Johnson, an analyst with Forrester Research, told Wired that businesses were slow to adopt Windows 8 in part because the interface was somewhat difficult to use. Windows 10, among other things, includes a new interface that brings back the popular Start menu.
“I think that Windows 10 will be adopted — as an IT standard,” Johnson said. “It solves a lot of the shortcomings and challenges that enterprises had with Windows 8.”