14 DAY TRIAL // Today, Microsoft will unveil the very first public preview of Windows 9 in a private press event in San Francisco, thus revealing information about the company’s next operating system.
At this point, no information coming from official sources is available, but people close to the matter unveiled quite a lot of details pointing to lots of improvements that should be part not only of the preview build, but also of the stable product.
Windows 9 is expected to be a truly game changer for Microsoft, as the new operating system will help users not only get closer to users and offer them the features they want, but also forget about the Windows 8 disaster that brought in so much criticism for the software giant.
As a result, there’s no doubt that Microsoft has really high hopes that Windows 9 will succeed, but it all depends on how well it actually tackles users’ demands.
Start menu finally brought back
The star of the show will be the new Start menu, which was first presented by Microsoft at the BUILD 2014 developer conference in San Francisco earlier this year.
Leaked Windows 9 screenshots that have recently reached the web have confirmed that the Start menu will have a design similar to the mockup shown by the company at BUILD, mixing traditional elements with new modern features, such as live tiles.
The Start menu will expand as you add new tiles, but a manual resizing option is also expected to be offered, which means that the feature could take up even your entire screen if you want so.
Microsoft will offer the Start menu only on PCs, but users will also have an option to disable it and stick to the original configuration with a Start screen.
Cortana, multiple desktops, and a notification center also coming
Cortana will finally make its debut on the PC, but in Windows 9 preview, Microsoft’s personal assistant will only be available as a reminder with very limited features. More options are expected to be added at a later time, through a new built-in update system.
Multiple desktops will finally debut on Windows as an integrated option, and so will a notification center that will keep users up to date with everything that’s happening on their computers.
The notification center is, just like Cortana, inspired from Windows Phone, and comes with a very simple design supposed to display messages and nothing more.
The preview version will be available in both 32- and 64-bit versions and will come in the form of dedicated ISOs that can be installed on all PCs. Microsoft says that only the first preview version will require a clean installation, as all the other improvements will be delivered via a built-in update system.
More to come in the next few hours as we move closer to the official release date of the very first preview version of Windows 9.
Update 1: here are the Windows 9 event kick-off times. Update 2: new leaked screenshots show the Windows 9 preview feedback options. Update 3: Windows 9 preview will have a new telemetry system called Asimov.