Windows 10: everything you need to know

Coming to Microsoft Stores across the United States today is a new range of Windows 10 laptops from a familiar brand. Better known to US consumers for its TVs, home appliances, and smartphones, LG is debuting its premium LG Gram Ultra PCs to an American audience, confident that it can capitalize on the momentum of Windows 10.

The main selling points of the Gram don't actually have much to do with Microsoft's new operating system — there's no touchscreen option or RealSense camera for Windows Hello. Instead, LG is relying on classically useful laptop features like compact dimensions and an attractive display. The 14-inch LG Gram is no larger than the 13-inch MacBook Air and Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro, and its 1080p IPS display is much better looking than the one on Apple's ageing Air. I have one of the Gram laptops in for review and can attest to the visual upgrade it provides.

Windows 10 is now available as a free upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users. While millions are performing the upgrade this week, Microsoft is working hard on updates and fixes behind the scenes. Some of those patches have already started rolling out, but there are more to come. The first bigger collection of fixes will come with what Microsoft calls Service Release 1 (SR1). Sources familiar with Microsoft's plans tell The Verge that SR1 is due to be released in early August, possibly as early as next week. While SR1 won't include new features, it will fix some of the issues people have been experiencing with Windows 10.

After the initial patches and updates, Microsoft is working toward a bigger collection of fixes and feature additions for later this year. Tentatively scheduled for October, some of those additions will include a new Messaging app to provide Skype integration and extensions support for the Microsoft Edge browser. "There's no one working on a Windows 11, but there's a group of people working on some really cool updates to Windows 10 that the Windows insiders will see soon," says Microsoft's Windows chief Terry Myerson in an interview with The Verge. Windows 10 testers will start to receive new builds shortly, with the ability to test new features like Microsoft Edge extension support before it's available more broadly later this year.

When Microsoft released Windows 95 almost 20 years ago, people packed into stores to be among the first lucky buyers to get their hands on this cutting edge new technology. Microsoft had an iron grip on productivity software in the enterprise, but even ordinary consumers were accustomed to paying hundreds of dollars for software. Two decades later, Microsoft is releasing Windows 10. But most people won’t have to rush out and purchase a copy. Anyone with a copy of Windows dating back to Windows 7 can upgrade for free, a first for Microsoft.

For two decades, the default web browsing experience in Windows has been Internet Explorer. Over the years, Microsoft’s home-built browser became bloated, insecure, confusing to use, and just plain hated by many users. A lot of people turned to alternatives, such as Google Chrome, as a result. With Windows 10 (check out our full review here), Microsoft went back to the drawing board and scrapped everything it had done so far with Internet Explorer. It built an entirely new browser from scratch, one that would shed all of the baggage of Internet Explorer and offer a modern, fast web browsing experience for Windows users. That browser is Edge.

Edge comes with Windows 10 out of the box. And I should say up top that Internet Explorer also comes with Windows 10, though it’s buried in the OS, and Microsoft says that’s largely for compatibility with legacy enterprise apps. But Edge is the default, and it will be available across Microsoft’s product line, from PCs to smartphones to Holo Lens and Surface Hub. Microsoft said it built Edge to be clean, tight, and responsive. In my tests, it mostly was. Edge feels really lightweight and fast — and in some cases bare-bones — which is a refreshing change from IE.

Windows 10 is available today as a free upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users. If you've followed our guide on how to upgrade, then you might be interested in some new keyboard shortcuts. Microsoft has introduced a variety of keyboard shortcuts to navigate between new features, like virtual desktops, and even activate the new Cortana digital assistant. All the new important additions use the Windows key, so they're easy to activate. If you're a trackpad user, then there are also some changes here: tapping three fingers activates Cortana (you can change this to activate Action Center), swiping three fingers up shows the new Task View, and swiping three fingers left or right alternates between apps. Here are the most important Windows 10 keyboard shortcuts:

Verge Video: Windows 10 review

Windows 10 has arrived, and with it comes the inevitable question: should I upgrade my PC? Even with a few outstanding bugs left to quash, Microsoft’s new software marks a major improvement over its predecessors and should be considered essential, so that’s a fairly solid yes to Windows 10 itself, but what about the PC that runs it? The answer to the hardware upgrade question is much less obvious. Microsoft’s minimum spec requirements haven’t changed since Windows 7, making it possible to enjoy the latest software without having the latest PC. And yet, to get the best possible Windows 10 experience, with neat extras like Windows Hello facial recognition, you’ll probably want to upgrade your computer even if you don’t strictly need to.

Microsoft is positioning Windows 10 as "the last version of Windows" you’ll ever need to get, with regular feature updates and product improvements taking the place of big releases every couple of years. But that means that you’ll need to do the traditional "which version of Windows should I buy" dance one more time. Fortunately, your options for buying Windows 10 are a lot simpler than they were in the Windows Vista and Windows 7 days. As it did with Windows 8, Microsoft will offer four versions of Windows 10: Home, Pro, Enterprise, and Education.

Before getting into the differences between these four options, it’s worth remembering that Windows 10 will be offered as a free upgrade to anyone running Windows 7 or newer (you'll have to make sure your Windows 8 install is updated to 8.1, though). It’ll match up as closely as possible with whatever you’re running — for most of you, it’ll probably mean you’re getting an upgrade to Windows 10 Home or Pro.

Windows 10 is officially out today. It’s the biggest update to Windows in years and represents a number of new directions for Microsoft’s premier software product. Windows 10 replaces Windows 8 and 8.1, and serves to attract those Windows 7 users that never bothered to update to Windows 8. There are a host of new features in Windows 10, ranging from updated interfaces to new apps and services. For all of our in-depth thoughts on the new platform, be sure to check out our full review.

Perhaps the most notable thing about the new platform is that you don’t have to pay for it, so long as you already have Windows 8 or Windows 7. But if you’re looking for a reason or two to update your current Windows 8 machine or aging Windows 7 box, here are the top new features in Windows 10 that might make you want to.

Windows 10 has a lot to live up to. Microsoft has made a lot of promises about it. And oddly enough, we’ve heard most of them before, with Windows 8. Both were designed to acknowledge and embrace mobile and mobile apps, work well on touchscreens as well as laptops, and form the basis of a new phone platform. But there’s a big difference between them: Windows 10 actually does all those things.

Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system debuts today, enabling Xbox One game streaming to PCs. While that's a neat feature for Xbox One owners, Microsoft is working on streaming PC games to Xbox One consoles too. In an interview with The Verge, Microsoft's head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, reveals the company is working on the feature. "We understand if you're going to go PC to Xbox, we need to get keyboard and mouse working completely so you could play those games," explains Spencer. "In terms of where we want to go with our platform, those are absolutely in scope of things that we want to do."

Windows 10 is here. After nine months of public beta testing, the final version is rolling out to machines across the world. You can now upgrade to Windows 10 free of charge if you have Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 on your existing PC. While not every single machine will get the upgrade instantly, Microsoft is rolling out the install to millions of devices. All you have to do is register for the upgrade from the task bar, and Microsoft will alert you once it's ready to be installed. See our guide for full Windows 10 upgrade instructions.

If you upgrade today you'll get a shiny new Start menu, built-in Xbox app with Xbox One game streaming, Cortana integration, a new Microsoft Edge browser, and a host of new built-in apps. Should you upgrade to Windows 10 or wait a little while? That and more is answered in our comprehensive Windows 10 review.

Windows 10 launches on Wednesday, and you're probably going to want to update. The good news is that Microsoft has made the process surprisingly painless. Seriously, you just click a couple buttons and everything should be set.

But the bad news is that you may not be able to update this week, even though Windows 10 is coming out. Still, there may be plenty you can do to prepare. For all of the details, keep on reading.

Looking back at Windows 8, it’s easy to see where Microsoft went wrong. It was a giant bet on touch-based computing, but it made using a PC with a keyboard and mouse awkward, frustrating, and outright confusing. In our original review, I wrote that there was a “risk of alienating users and creating another Vista-like perception catastrophe” due to the sweeping changes.

That’s exactly what happened: developers didn’t flock toward Windows 8, and regular users did their very best to avoid it. While the tablet interface was a great experience, the rest annoyed everybody who just wanted a laptop that worked the way they were used to. Microsoft is trying to fix all that with Windows 10.

In less than 24 hours, Microsoft will start upgrading Windows 7 and Windows 8 machines to Windows 10. The software giant is preparing for this big release, at 12AM ET on July 29th (9PM PST on July 28th), by pre-loading the final version of Windows 10 on PCs eligible for the upgrade. A number of Windows 7 and Windows 8 users who have registered for the upgrade have started noticing that the full installer files for Windows 10 have been downloaded to C:\$windows.~BT as Microsoft gets ready for release.

Read next: Our Windows 10 review.

Microsoft is giving the bulk of its Windows users a free upgrade to Windows 10 so long as they update within the first year. But for people who aren't eligible for that promotion, the company is maintaining status quo on single license pricing. If you've got an outdated version of Windows (anything older than 7) or build your own PCs, Microsoft's latest release will cost $119. That's for Windows 10 Home, and the Pro tier will be priced higher at $199. Windows 10 Home is the right choice for almost everyone, but if you need a feature that's only available in Pro, you can step up later by purchasing a $99 Windows 10 Pro Pack.

These prices are largely identical to those Microsoft chose for Windows 8. So while the free upgrade is a stellar deal for anyone that's kept up with the Windows release cycle, those planning to build their own system in the coming months and consumers who lack an eligible PC won't be seeing the same perks. (You can purchase most any new PC right now and get the free jump to Windows 10.) Microsoft plans to offer Windows 10 single licenses both online and in retail stores. The major operating system update is slated to launch on July 29th.

Microsoft opened up its Windows 10 Technical Preview to Windows Phone users last month, but only a scant few Lumia devices were supported. That's soon about to change. Microsoft has announced a second round of devices that will be able to run the very latest builds of Windows 10, and the good news is that the list has expanded considerably. The bad news is that there are still a few notable absences, including the Lumia 930 and any HTC Windows Phone devices.

Of course, you should still sit down for a minute and consider if you really want to install the Windows 10 Technical Preview on your phone. If your Windows Phone is your daily driver, it's probably not a good idea — the operating system is still rough around the edges. Dual-SIM features are still severely lacking, and Messaging lacks, search, message drafts, voice notes, spam filters, support for multiple attachments, and other features. In addition, Cortana only speaks English and Internet Tethering will break your phone if you don't turn it off before powering down your device.

Microsoft is said to be at work on an all new web browser, codenamed Spartan, that could officially move the company away from Internet Explorer upon the launch of Windows 10. ZDNet reports that the new app is not Internet Explorer 12, the next iteration of Microsoft's longtime browser that we'd typically expect alongside another major Windows release.

Instead, it seems that the company is planning to start anew with a web browser that looks and feels "more like Chrome and Firefox" according to ZDNet. But despite a new appearance (and perks like extensions), this new browser would retain the foundations of Microsoft's current web technology. The new software will continue to utilize the Chakra JavaScript engine and Trident rendering engine, so Redmond isn't suddenly switching over to WebKit, the engine that's used by Apple's Safari. Other competitors like Google have moved off the WebKit path and created custom variants of the engine to serve their own development needs.

Microsoft is continuing its pace of releasing a new Windows 10 Technical Preview every three weeks. The last build (9860) included more than 7,000 changes and a new notification center, and today’s release (9879) includes some similar minor tweaks. Microsoft is adding the ability for Windows 10 users to hide the search and task view buttons from the taskbar, a highly requested change from early testers. Other changes include some UI tweaks and changes to animations. "We heard that the new minimize and restore animations for apps we introduced in the last build were a bit jarring so we’ve updated them," says Microsoft's Gabe Aul.