What is being billed as the last monolithic release of Windows has just hit the streets, and it's an interesting beast. Windows 10 is a mix of the old familiar Windows 7 and the less-than-enthusiastically-received Windows 8, with a few twists thrown in to keep things interesting.
Despite that, it manages to perform reasonably, even on a first-generation Surface Pro tablet.
The first thing you'll notice is that you boot into the desktop, and when you click the Start button, the Start menu is back. But it's a revamped Start menu, with a list of most frequently used apps at the top of the list, a blank space which, it is rumoured, may (heaven help us) be used to promote sponsored apps at some point, then File Explorer, Settings, Power, and All Apps (click it, and you get an alphabetic list of everything installed on your system). To the right, there's a batch of live tiles; you can configure it to include any items you want, and you can size the tiles just as you could in versions of Windows 8.
Cosmetically, Windows 10 is very subdued. Get used to what's called a hamburger menu – three horizontal lines stacked like the bun and meat in a burger, that you click on to get a drop-down menu – as well as flat grey title bars and links that may or may not be highlighted or underlined. It's sometimes confusing, especially on help screens where you're being told to launch something and there's no indication of what to click. I suspect that will get cleaned up in not too long – there are a few of these oddities still lurking, even though I'm working on the build that was sent to computer manufacturers. I've already received several fixes through Windows Update.
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