Will Windows 10 be enough to rescue Microsoft?

Alright everyone so Windows 10 is out and has been baked onto almost everyone’s PC’s and even some Macs. It got a really good reception and definitely seems to be the next version of Windows that people will adore after Windows 7 and XP and the credit for that partly goes to Windows 8 as the road to Windows 10 had to go through Windows 8. We definitely loved Windows 10 you probably did too but the question is whether it’s enough? Whether it’s too late? Has the Nadella era come too late to matter? Yes all the questions need to be asked because Windows 10 is a make or break game it will either rebuild Microsoft to be the great company it once was that MICROSOFT once had to fund Apple to get Apple out of bankruptcy or is it too little too late to stop Apple from expanding in the desktop/laptop market while Google already owns the mobile market with Android, so is it enough?

Windows 8 was supposed to be the ultimate version of Windows or at least that’s how it was imagined or say thought out to be but it failed miserably I was supposed to be one Windows to rule them all and it tried so hard at achieving this goal that it eventually didn’t even rule even one of them, with people often downgrading to Windows 7 or even XP the 2 which are often considered as benchmarks when it comes to OS quality. You can argue that Windows 8/8.1 was good for the mobile devices such as tablets (Surface RT) but the fact Microsoft killed off Windows RT screams about the failure of Windows 8, yes the Surface Pro tablets were good they also ran Windows 8 and later 8.1 but the sole reason for their success was being portable professional laptop like tablets that could run desktop applications and games. Take the desktop out of Windows and you got nothing but an OS which looks good, has potential of being a great OS but just won’t sell. Just last week Huawei over took Microsoft as being the third most selling smartphone brand. So if Microsoft wants to stand a chance in the mobile and tablet market it has to care for the PC market and it learned that from the failure of Windows 8. Microsoft no longer holds a monopolistic strength in the desktop market even IBM is considering integrating Macs into its Business, yes the big brother of the PC market from the 80s and 90s even the early 2000s might allow its workers to use Macs as more and more of them demand Macs, you can read more about that over at The Verge. If IBM does shift away from Windows to Macs that could start up a massive decline in PC sales while we should note as of yet it is only talking about allowing it’s workers to use Macs, Microsoft probably leads in other business sectors such as Windows servers. So if Microsoft really wants to stand a chance against Android, iOS and OSX it needs to defend its desktop kingdom first. Windows 10 seems to work towards that as Windows 8 provided a very poor desktop experience Windows 10 went old school and brought back the start menu while keeping the good tablet mode and other nifty features.

Edge Browser

We do like the approach Microsoft is taking with unifying the App base and App stores for the desktops, tablets and smartphones. It’s a real smart strategy developers want a high consumer base and Microsoft has that when it comes to PC market but lacks it in the tablet and smartphone market. So with unified app store and apps that can run on all the devices whether a desktop, tablet or phone or even a 2 in 1 Microsoft seeks to impress the developers alongside providing ability to run iOS and Android apps on Windows 10 with just a few minor tweaks, Yes!! This is the Nadella effect at work. It will all depend on whether Windows 10 can attract developers and ultimately populate its app store to such a high number that ignoring Windows 10 and Windows 10 mobile will not be an option as Windows 8 lacked apps and the apps it did have were clunky, slow and really poorly coded even the app store itself was awful often taking ages to load, with downloads almost always stopping in the middle, very poor and almost no frequent updates. In other words it appeared it was built by an amateur not a multi billionaire company, same is true for all other Windows 8 pre-installed and Microsoft built apps e.g. Xbox music, Photos app, Videos app etc. Windows 10 app store and Microsoft built apps on the other hand feel amazing to use and are really fast and fluid while easy on the resources, take Edge browser for example it’s as fast Google Chrome if not faster, don’t be fooled by the similar Internet explorer like icon this is a whole new browser built from ground up and let me tell you this with future updates it will get even better e.g. extension support and ability to use even Chrome and Firefox extensions.

Windows Store

Okay enough Windows 8 bashing and enough with all the things Windows 10 fixes. It’s not only an improvement over Windows 8, Oh No No, it’s a whole new Windows with some really great new features such as Cortana, your personal assistant which is like Siri and Google now it’s definitely a good feature to have I find myself saying “Hey Cortana what’s the weather like”, “what’s on my agenda” etc. more and more often it’s good you don’t have to open up your browser or pop out your phone for little things like weather. Windows 10 also includes the Xbox app which is great for your gaming needs and it also allows you to cast your screen while gaming from your Xbox to your PC and it is rumoured that Microsoft is working for the vice versa PC to Xbox feature too. The new Groove music app is there to get you ah, grooving? Groove is your music player and a Music service too you can buy music from the store. which not only has Apps and music but movies and films too

Cortana

 I have to say it’s a massive improvement over the previous Xbox music which covered my full screen and often stopped music playback in background. Groove can also play your music from your Onedrive and sync it back to your Onedrive making it even available on the Groove app for Android. Now comes my favourite two the Mail and Calendar apps these are just amazing and truly set an example for developers looking to develop Windows 10 apps. They are fast, fluid and focus on information first approach of Microsoft the mail app is so good you might not even use outlook anymore, I can’t put it to words how good it is you have to try it yourself to know it. Windows 10 also has a new settings menu which is definitely good it allows easy access to all settings where as the control panel usually felt too confusing and bloated on the old Windows versions but it is still there if you need it as all settings haven’t been moved to the new settings app yet. Here’s one for you gamers Windows 10 works great for gaming with Directx 12 it truly allows for great graphics and we can’t wait to see next games running with DirectX 12 it can render high number of objects without a sweat you can read more about how it will improve your gaming at Eurogamer here. Last but not the least the Office Mobile apps are truly example of what benefits unified apps can have now these are free for any device with 10.1 inch screen or less while they offer only viewing ability for larger ones but you can purchase an office 365 subscription and get that feature. The office mobile apps have almost all the needed editing features you require while keeping it simple and easy to access them, they can sync your files to Onedrive so you can access them anywhere and can adapt to whether you’re using a physical keyboard or a touch based one overall they are very handy for quick editing or even writing a whole documents with them. Microsoft is also making these apps available on Android and iOS and we mean all of them not just office apps but Groove, Cortana, Xbox app etc. This is a new much more open and “other platform friendly” Microsoft. Microsoft supports other platforms to such a level it even created an Android Launcher called the Arrow launcher you can read more about it here.

Email App

Groove Music

Android version of Office mobile, desktop version has more features

Windows 10 definitely fixed the things we hated the most about Windows 8 if you hated Windows 8 and loved 7 you will surly love Windows 10 if you loved 8 on the other hand you’re still going to love Windows 10 it just gives that much control to the user to customize it the way they want to. Windows 10 provides you with a truly best of both worlds experience not the Windows 8 type of best of both worlds. Microsoft is becoming more open and listening to feedback and changing Windows according to what the people like this is what they call “Windows as a service” it will keep developing. The new strategies of Satya Nadella certainly seem to have made Microsoft better and somewhat more open like Google. The new app store certainly deserves some good apps whether developers will be impressed by Windows 10 or not only time will tell but we think they definitely will be, is it a good platform to develop for? Yes it most certainly is and the default Microsoft apps show that apps can be useful even on desktops. Windows 8 might have earned your hate but if there is a way for Microsoft to match Google and Apple then this is certainly the right way with Windows 10.