Upgrading to Windows 10 will free up some precious storage

How would you like to get some GB back?

Windows 10 has a lot of welcome improvements, but there's at least one that might not be immediately obvious: it can take up way less space than past versions of the OS.

That means that upgrading to Windows 10 could provide you with almost 15GB of additional storage, depending on a number of factors, Microsoft wrote on the Windows Blog.

For one thing Windows 10 features enhanced compression that uses a new algorithm and evaluates your device's memory, compressing as many system files as possible without impacting your performance.

That alone can free between 1.5GB (on 32-bit systems) and 2.6GB (on 64-bit) across mobile, laptop and desktop devices with Windows 10.

Shaping up

On top of that Windows 10 no longer requires a separate recovery image to reset your system to factory settings. These generally come preinstalled by manufacturers, and their absence can free up another 12GB.

That advantage only applies to tablets, laptops and desktops, though, and not phones, which already don't use hefty recovery images.

"Through the capacity savings of system compression and recovery enhancements, Windows devices can be lightweight and highly mobile, yet, when you need it, have the full capabilities of the Windows OS," the team's post reads.

As long as the new compression techniques and the lack of recovery images don't cause extra problems for Windows 10 users down the line, this is a nice improvement to an OS that already looks like it's shaping up to be great.

Introducing Windows 10 Editions

Windows 10 is coming this summer in 190 countries and 111 languages. Today, we are excited to share more details on the Windows 10 Editions.

We designed Windows 10 to deliver a more personal computing experience across a range of devices. An experience optimized for each device type, but familiar to all. Windows 10 will power an incredibly broad range of devices – everything from PCs, tablets, phones, Xbox One, Microsoft HoloLens and Surface Hub. It will also power the world around us, core to devices making up the Internet of Things, everything from elevators to ATMs to heart rate monitors to wearables. No matter which Windows 10 device our customers use, the experience will feel comfortable, and there will be a single, universal Windows Store where they can find, try and buy Universal Windows apps.

Introducing Windows 10 Editions

As in the past, we will offer different Windows editions that are tailored for various device families and uses. These different editions address specific needs of our various customers, from consumers to small businesses to the largest enterprises.

Windows 10 Home is the consumer-focused desktop edition. It offers a familiar and personal experience for PCs, tablets and 2-in-1s. Windows 10 Home will help people do great things, both big and small. With it, they will be more productive and have more fun thanks to a long list of new innovations: Cortana, the world’s most personal digital assistant; the new Microsoft Edge web browser; Continuum tablet mode for touch-capable devices; Windows Hello face-recognition, iris and fingerprint login; and right out of the box, a broad range of universal Windows apps like Photos, Maps, Mail, Calendar, Music and Video*.

We are also bringing the Xbox gaming experience to Windows 10, giving games and gamers access to the Xbox Live gaming community, enabling the capture and share of gameplay and giving Xbox One owners the ability to play their Xbox One games from any Windows 10 PC in their home.

Windows 10 Mobile is designed to deliver the best user experience on smaller, mobile, touch-centric devices like smartphones and small tablets. It boasts the same, new universal Windows apps that are included in Windows 10 Home, as well as the new touch-optimized version of Office. Windows 10 Mobile offers great productivity, security and management capabilities for customers who use their personal devices at work. In addition, Windows 10 Mobile will enable some new devices to take advantage of Continuum for phone, so people can use their phone like a PC when connected to a larger screen.

Windows 10 Pro is a desktop edition for PCs, tablets and 2-in-1s. Building upon both the familiar and innovative features of Windows 10 Home, it has many extra features to meet the diverse needs of small businesses. Windows 10 Pro helps to effectively and efficiently manage their devices and apps, protect their sensitive business data, support remote and mobile productivity scenarios and take advantage of cloud technologies. Windows 10 Pro devices are a great choice for organizations supporting Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) programs and prosumer customers. Windows 10 Pro also lets customers take advantage of the new Windows Update for Business, which will reduce management costs, provide controls over update deployment, offer quicker access to security updates and provide access to the latest innovation from Microsoft on an ongoing basis.

As we announced earlier this year, for the first time ever, we are offering the full versions of Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Mobile and Windows 10 Pro as a free and easy upgrade for qualifying Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 devices that upgrade in the first year after launch.** Once you upgrade, you have Windows 10 for free on that device.

Windows 10 Enterprise builds on Windows 10 Pro, adding advanced features designed to meet the demands of medium and large sized organizations. It provides advanced capabilities to help protect against the ever-growing range of modern security threats targeted at devices, identities, applications and sensitive company information. Windows 10 Enterprise also supports the broadest range of options for operating system deployment and comprehensive device and app management. It will be available to our Volume Licensing customers, so they can take advantage of the latest innovation and security updates on an ongoing basis. At the same time, they will be able to choose the pace at which they adopt new technology, including the option to use the new Windows Update for Business. With Windows 10, Enterprise customers will also have access to the Long Term Servicing Branch as a deployment option for their mission critical devices and environments. And as with prior versions of Windows, Active Software Assurance customers in Volume Licensing can upgrade to Windows 10 Enterprise as part of their existing Software Assurance benefits.

Windows 10 Education builds on Windows 10 Enterprise, and is designed to meet the needs of schools – staff, administrators, teachers and students. This edition will be available through academic Volume Licensing, and there will be paths for schools and students using Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro devices to upgrade to Windows 10 Education.

Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise is designed to deliver the best customer experience to business customers on smartphones and small tablets. It will be available to our Volume Licensing customers. It offers the great productivity, security and mobile device management capabilities that Windows 10 Mobile provides, and adds flexible ways for businesses to manage updates. In addition, Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise will incorporate the latest security and innovation features as soon as they are available.

There will also be versions of Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise for industry devices like ATMs, retail point of sale, handheld terminals and industrial robotics and Windows 10 IoT Core for small footprint, low cost devices like gateways.

Moving forward

We are making strong progress with Windows 10, and we are on track to make it available this summer. And because we have built Windows 10 to be delivered as a service, this milestone is just the beginning of the new generation of Windows. Starting this fall, customers can expect ongoing innovation and security updates for their Windows 10 devices, including more advanced security and management capabilities for businesses.

Customers will continue to help us create Windows 10 even after this summer’s initial release, thanks to the 3.9 million and growing Windows Insiders who are helping us build and test Windows 10. We are grateful for this invaluable feedback that is helping us offer the best Windows ever – for businesses and consumers – across all devices. You, too, can join the Windows Insider Program today and begin experiencing Windows 10.

We are incredibly excited about the innovation in Windows 10 that will be delivered through these editions. 

Cortana will be available on Windows 10 at launch in select markets. Windows Hello requires a specialized, illuminated infrared camera for facial recognition or iris detection or a finger print reader which supports the Windows Biometric Framework. Apps and services may vary by market.

Microsoft announces Windows 10 editions

Windows 10 will be released to the general public this summer.  And today, Microsoft has announced the various forms that the new operating system will take.  Windows 10 is intended to work on many different types of equipment, including traditional personal computers, tablets, phones, the Xbox One and other devices you might not have considered, like elevators, medical equipment and appliances.  Therefore, Microsoft has split the operating system into different editions to match the hardware.

Windows 10 Home is the version intended for most personal use computers, including desktops, laptops and even some tablets.  It will include new features, like Cortana, the digital personal assistant and the Edge browser.  The Home edition will have a touch mode called Continuum for use with touch-capable devices.

The next version is called Windows 10 Mobile, designed for phones and smaller tablets.  It will  include the Continuum mode for phones, which will allow you to connect a small device to a larger screen.

The third version is Windows 10 Pro.  Microsoft did not include much detail in the differences between this edition and the Home version, but it seems the emphasis will be on security.  This version will have access to a new service from Microsoft called Windows Update for Business, which will allow IT professionals more control over deployment of security updates.

All three of these editions will be available as upgrades from qualifying and corresponding editions of Windows 7, 8 and 8.1.  This upgrade will be available for one year from the launch date of Windows 10.

Three other version will be released also.  They are Windows 10 Enterprise, Windows 10 Education and Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise.  The Enterprise editions will be available for business customers through Microsoft’s Volume Licensing service.  Again, security  and pace of deployment seem paramount concerns that are addressed in these two forms of the operating system.  The Education edition will be targeted at schools, both staff and students, and there will be methods to upgrade a Windows Home or Pro version to the Education version through Academic Volume Licensing.

Virtual reality overshadows smartphones at the biggest mobile show of the year

HTC's Vive, Samsung's Gear VR, and others take center stage at MWC

It was a banner year for Mobile World Congress (more commonly known as MWC to attendees), the annual conference for all things mobile related. The GSMA, the organization that puts on the show every year, will surely release attendance numbers and other data in a few weeks, but I have no reason to suspect there were fewer people here than last year’s 85,000 attendees. Those thousands of attendees weren’t disappointed: this year’s show was the most exciting and interesting MWC in years, and not in the ways that you might expect.
All of the usual things we've expected to see at MWC were here in force this year. There were major smartphone announcements that will be important for the millions of people buying new phones over the next few months. Massive show floor booths housed countless infrastructure companies and business solutions providers with names most people have never heard of but are worth billions of dollars. And of course, there were plenty of smartwatches of every kind. So many smartwatches.


THIS YEAR SAW AN EXPLOSION OF INTEREST IN VRBut while all of those things have been staples of MWC for a long time, this year saw an explosion of interest in virtual reality, which is more associated with the Game Developer Conference held concurrently in California. It almost felt like there was more VR stuff here at MWC than there was two months ago at CES, which includes a much broader range of technology products.
In some cases, these VR systems require a phone to work. Samsung showed off its latest take on its Gear VR, for instance, which works with the new Galaxy S6 and S6 Edgesmartphones. It’s an improved version of the concept the company first introduced last fall, and it represents what may be the most likely way consumers will first experience modern VR systems.

Other VR systems at MWC, though, were completely phone-free. There were numerous booths filled with small software companies showing demos on Oculus Rift headsets, which need to be plugged into PCs in order to function. That’s not very mobile at all.

There were companies pitching VR headsets for business applications and video chatting, demonstrating that there’s some crossover potential for the technology, which most people associate with leisure and gaming.


MOST ATTENDEES WOULD SAY THE MOST IMPRESSIVE PRODUCT AT MWC WASN'T A SMARTPHONE OR A SMARTWATCHBut most journalists that were here at MWC would say the most impressive thing they saw wasn’t Samsung’s new and greatly improved Galaxy smartphone, or Huawei’s surprisingly impressive take on Android Wear. It was HTC’s Vive, a surprise announcement from a company that until now was entirely focused on mobile devices.

The Vive, born out of a partnership with Valve, is a new VR headset packed with innovative sensors and motion tracking that addresses many of the complaints people have had with other recent VR headsets. It uses lasers to track your location in a space and can prevent you from walking into real-world objects while you’re immersed in a fantasy world. Valve’s Gabe Newell even went so far as to say that "zero percent of people" will get sick using the Vive thanks to its head-tracking capabilities. That’s a bold claim, but it’s a real issue for many people, who get nauseous after just a few minutes in other VR headsets. It’s one of the major hurdles that VR will need to overcome if it’s ever going to get mainstream adoption.

Unlike the Oculus, which uses a traditional gaming controller, or the Gear VR, which relies entirely on head motion and a touchpad on the side of the headset, the Vive works with peripherals that can map your limbs in space and allow you to perform actions such as painting on a canvas. Bringing your limbs into the equation does so much to increase the perception that the virtual world is real; it'd be surprising if other VR headset makers didn't adopt a similar approach.

Perhaps most surprising, since the Vive comes from HTC, is that it doesn’t use a smartphone at all and actually needs to be plugged into a PC in order to function, just like the Oculus.

PERHAPS MOST SURPRISING IS THE HTC VIVE ISN'T EVEN A MOBILE DEVICE

VR’s explosion at MWC this year highlights where we’re at with mobile technology and technology in general. Smartphones are so pervasive, so common, that even major new device announcements from the largest companies in the world don’t engender the same excitement they might have a few years ago. Samsung will surely sell more Galaxy S6 smartphones this year than all of the VR headset makers combined have to date. But for lovers of technology, what’s more exciting: a new smartphone that’s just marginally better than last year’s model or an entirely new experience unlike anything before it? Based on the buzz surrounding HTC’s Vive (which isn’t even a finished product), the answer to that question is clear.




It’s exciting to see shows like MWC act more as platforms for new technology concepts and less for everyday commodity devices. The smartphones, smartwatches, and massive booths filled with infrastructure providers you’ve never heard of aren’t going to go away any time soon. But I have a feeling they will be seeing more competition from futuristic concepts and entirely new ideas as each year passes. And for that, I’m eager to see what will be at MWC next year.

Panasonic's Firefox TVs are now on sale

EVEN PANASONIC ADMITS THIS IS A BETTER INTERFACE

The first TVs running Firefox OS are now on sale. Mozilla announced this morning that six models of Panasonic TVs running its new OS are starting to ship in Europe, with global availability arriving in "the coming months." It's hard to actually find the TVs online, but the two models that did turn up — the 50-inch CX700 and the 40-inch CX680 — were selling for £999 (around US $1,570) and £791 (around US $1,240).

   

Mozilla and Panasonic started working together on these TVs over a year ago. Panasonic finally started showing them in January, and on first sight, they look pretty good — certainly much better than the interface that Panasonic was previously using. Even Panasonic seems to admit this. Through the partnership, Panasonic TV unit director Masahiro Shinada says in a statement, "We have been able to create a more user friendly and customizable TV UI."

 

It's also an important step for Mozilla into the smart TV space, which more and more companies are trying to take over. Apple has the Apple TV, Google has Android TV, Samsung has Tizen, and Roku is now coming built into TVs, too. While it's only a small entrance, Mozilla is at least giving consumers a choice. And, importantly, that choice is for an open platform based on HTML5, unlike the locked-down ecosystems that everyone else is selling.

Windows XP clings to No. 2 spot as Windows 10 gets closer

With Microsoft on the cusp of its next OS leap forward, the 13-year-old XP still is more popular than Windows 8 and 8.1 combined.

Windows XP continues its descent among desktop operating systems, though it's far from dead and buried.

Looking at the overall Web traffic for desktop operating systems across the globe, Net Applications gave XP a 16.9 percent share for the month of March, a hefty drop from the19.1 percent recorded in February.

Windows XP is still alive and kicking.Net Applications

Though XP's grip on the market continues to loosen, it remains the No. 2 most-used operating system based on Net Application's Web stats, beating Windows 8 and 8.1 and their collective share of 14 percent. Windows 8.1 took the third spot with a 10.5 percent share, leaving Windows 8 in fifth place with just 3.5 percent.

Windows 7 holds the top spot, with a share of 58 percent.

The enduring hold of the 13-year-old Windows XP on PC users underscores the challenges Microsoft has faced as it tries to move ahead with new versions of its flagship operating system, which the company says has more than 1.5 billion users around the world. The staying power has even proven resistant to Microsoft's end of support for XP a year ago, which put an end to bug fixes and and other patches, leaving users more vulnerable to security threats.

There are ripple effects as well. Last month, chipmaker Intel slashed nearly $1 billion off its quarterly revenue outlook, in large part because small and midsize businesses have been reluctant to upgrade from Windows XP -- a popular but now 13-year-old operating system. PC makers, such as Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and Acer, would also feel a pinch from slower refreshes from Windows XP.

The next leap forward comes this summer when Microsoft plans to release Windows 10, which among other things aims to avoid the missteps of Windows 8 and to provide a consistent software experience across devices including desktops, laptops, smartphones and even Internet of Things gear including ATMs and ultrasound machines.

With Windows 10 arriving soon, what choices are available to those who want to upgrade?

For users of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, Microsoft is offering free upgrades to Windows 10 for the first year. That means you can download and install Windows 10 for free and directly upgrade your existing PC. But users still running Windows XP or Vista won't be able to ugprade their PCs directly to Windows 10, according to Microsoft. That leaves them the choice of upgrading to Windows 8.1 and then to Windows 10 or simply buying a new PC this summer already equipped with Windows 10.

Currently available as a technical preview, Windows 10 has been showing up as a blip on Net Applications' radar. For March, the new OS took home a share of just under 0.1 percent.

Microsoft backtracks on free Windows 10 update for pirates

People running pirated copies of Windows are going to have to pay — or keep pirating — if they want to update their computers to Windows 10. That may sound painfully obvious, but there's actually been quite a bit of confusion up until now.

The confusion has revolved around Microsoft's offer to give free Windows 10 updates to people running Windows 7 and 8.1. In a statement last March, Windows chief Terry Myerson was reported to have said that the offer would extend to pirated copies, too. Microsoft quickly began issuing vague clarifications, while still implying that there would be a way to upgrade at no cost, even if pirates would be required to pay eventually. Now, we're finally getting a full clarification: there's no free upgrade at all. Pirates just have to pay.

Microsoft says that it's planning to run some "very attractive Windows 10 upgrade offers" that will allow people with pirated copies to move to an official version. Specific details of that haven't been announced yet, but that likely won't come until we actually hear about when Windows 10 will arrive. For now, it's still targeted for this summer.

MICROSOFT IS HOPING TO CONVERT PIRATED COPIES TO PROPERLY LICENSED ONES

There are a handful of good reasons that Microsoft remains willing to work with pirates. The major one is that they're potential customers, but the other reason is that some customers really may not know — they could have been sold a computer running a pirated copy of Windows without realizing it. On Windows 10, Microsoft says that it will display a watermark on the desktop informing people when they're running a pirated copy, but there don't appear to be major obstacles to using it. In the past, Microsoft has even issued security updates to pirated instances of Windows.