The latest news from Microsoft Build 2015: Windows 10, HoloLens, and more

At a SXSW panel in March, Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey weighed in on the HoloLens, an augmented reality headset that Microsoft revealed in January. Unsurprisingly, he was more excited about virtual reality tech like the Oculus Rift. The reason? There were better things to do in VR. "Nobody has ever proven a killer application for augmented reality. Most proposed [augmented reality] killer apps, it’s not that they’re not cool, they’re just kind of boring," he said. "It’s things like assisting you with how to use a tool or telling you where you’re walking or where do I go, the best restaurant nearby. We’re not excited by those things as much."

Microsoft's demos aren't, in fact, nearly as overwhelming as something like Oculus' short film Lost. You can play around with art or architecture, but you're rarely transported to another world. A Skype home maintenance demo admittedly sounds a little on the mundane side. But being boring is exactly what could help HoloLens succeed — and potentially enter the mainstream in a way that virtual reality can't.

Microsoft's HoloLens is the kind of thing that science fiction has been preparing us for for decades. From the moment I saw it, I knew exactly what I wanted it to do: project a heads-up display around real life, let me play with imaginary toys and sculpt in holograms, produce weird optical illusions with its magical power to rewrite reality. Unsurprisingly, these are expectations that no product in 2015 could possibly live up to. Within carefully managed conditions, HoloLens is one of the most amazing pieces of tech I've seen. But for all its potential brilliance, it's still struggling hard — and failing — to break down the walls between fantasy and reality.

Everything I'd heard about HoloLens before trying it sounded like, essentially, sorcery. Without seeing it, it's hard to know how to take someone telling you that Microsoft can put a castle on a coffee table. But once you turn it on, it makes a kind of sense. HoloLens feels like the world's brightest, highest-quality projector, which it sort of is, except that it's projecting onto your eyes instead of a wall. The first thing I saw was a colorful, oversized origami set, hanging in mid-air. When I passed my hand through it, I could dimly see the outline through the hologram, but that didn't make it feel any less solid. At one point, with a larger projection, I didn't notice someone standing right in front of me.

Microsoft isn't letting the media take pictures of the HoloLens experience itself, but we just arrived at the company's demo station here at Build and there's a unit under glass. It looks identical to the press photos we've seen before, with a futuristic looking visor and the transparent glass that lets you see your environment while holograms project around you.

Microsoft had a lot on the docket for its Build developer conference today, so much that it ran just a hair under three hours. A lot of that was code demos, some third-party code demos, and even more demos that happened to involve code. But there were also some pretty exciting moments too. Things like augmented reality robots, new browsers that are not named Internet Explorer, and Microsoft giving us a look at how developers can bring over their software from Android and iOS. We've condensed these things and more into just nine minutes. If time was money and you were being paid the minimum wage, that's less than a cup of coffee in most places. And you're getting Satya Nadella to boot. Does your sad little Keurig latte offer that? Didn't think so.

The image of a lowercase "e" encircled by a halo of light is one of the most recognizable items in any computer interface. Familiar though it may be, however, the Internet Explorer icon is more infamous than famous: everyone knows what it points to, but nobody's excited to go there. Call it the post-IE6 trauma that will never go away.

Microsoft has been on a mission to right the wrongs of its web browser and has been getting better with every new iteration of IE, and for Windows 10 it's going one step further and renaming the software with the new title of Microsoft Edge. But that rebranding hasn't gone all the way. The icon is still a lowercase "e," still bisected by the ghostly shadow of that dreaded IE halo. it makes Microsoft Edge look like a bold stride into the future that refuses to close the door on the past.

We've learned some amazing things about Microsoft's Windows Holographic platform since it was announced back in January. We know that NASA is using it to virtually explore Mars, and you can play Minecraft on your coffee table, and today we learned that the company will integrate all universal apps running on Windows 10 into the experience.

But a short demo near the end of today's Microsoft Build 2015 keynote showed us a little bit more about how HoloLens can help blend virtual reality with the real world to create what the company calls "mixed reality." A small metal robot drove on stage, and the presenter used HoloLens to make a cute robotic avatar float above it. What was, just moments before, an inhuman hodgepodge of metal and plastic now had a much more familiar and anthropomorphic form.

Microsoft is unveiling a new lock screen for Windows 10 today that will change over time and customize itself based on how each person uses their computer. The new lock screen is optional, but if you do enable it, you'll see something a lot like the Bing homepage: a beautiful image provided by Microsoft with a number of hot spots on it that you can mouse over for more information. It's not quite the same, however. On the lock screen, it sounds like the image will change closer to once a week, and those hot spots will also provide tips on how to use Windows and suggestions for what apps you might want to download. These are effectively ads, though they blend in with the other information on screen.

The new lock screen is being called Windows Spotlight. "We are able ... to understand what your use of the PC is" to provide personalized suggestions, Microsoft's Joe Belfiore says. If someone has recently gotten a Windows 10 computer and hasn't tried Cortana yet, Belfiore explained that Spotlight might change their desktop to a Cortana-like image and include tips on how to use the personal assistant. If someone with a tablet hadn't used their stylus, Spotlight might display an image highlighting drawing apps. In his demonstration, Spotlight prompted users to download the Fresh Paint app. That's one of Microsoft's own apps, but Belfiore emphasized that this is about introducing users to the entire Windows ecosystem — a similar app suggestion slot is being placed right in the Start menu, too.

During its Build 2015 keynote, Microsoft just unveiled a new Windows 10 feature it's calling Continuum for Phones. It allows smartphones running Microsoft's latest OS to transform into desktop PCs — or at least an experience that's very close — when connected to larger screens. We've already seen Continuum help ease the transition for users switching between tablet and PC modes, and this is an even better example of what's possible when developers go along with Microsoft's universal apps plan.

Read next: Our Microsoft Windows 10 review.

Update: Check out the new logo for Edge, which bears a close resemblance to its predecessor.

Microsoft Build 2015: Keynote speech in nine minutes

Microsoft Build 2015: Keynote speech in nine minutes

Microsoft has huge hopes for Windows 10, and it wants to quickly see the new operating system become its most successful ever. Windows chief Terry Myerson said today that Microsoft wants to see Windows 10 on 1 billion devices within two or three years of its release. "No other platform working in any ecosystem is available on 1 billion devices," he said. Microsoft believes that between its free upgrade offer for existing Windows customers, new devices, and plans for business users, it should be able to hit that target. For comparison, it took Microsoft about 15 months to sell 200 million licenses of Windows 8, though the hope is that Windows 10 will be much better received.

Achieving its goal won't just mean getting Windows 10 on new devices — it'll be getting older devices off of older operating systems. That's been an ongoing battle for Microsoft, one that it hasn't necessarily been that successful in. Companies have built their IT infrastructure around old versions of Windows, and they often aren't eager to change tools that people need to use every single day. If Microsoft can get companies updating, it'll have a much better ecosystem situation on its hand, since developers will know that Windows 10 is the platform to focus on. "To make all of this work for developers we know this needs to be widely adopted," Myerson said.

At Build 2015, Microsoft is greatly expanding on how it hopes to make its Office productivity suite a genuine platform, and it all revolves around apps. Apps that run inside Office. "We want to move far beyond individual apps and their APIs," said CEO Satya Nadella. He outlined some "fundamental changes" revolving around the user experience. Mainly, Microsoft is giving developers the ability to create add-ons that work across Windows, the web, and Microsoft's Office apps for iOS.

Demonstrations shown at Build included Uber running inside Outlook for iOS; you can automatically schedule a ride based around existing calendar appointments. "You're no longer going to different applications for different data," he said. Microsoft will give developers access to these tools over the coming months.