Windows 10, after months of Windows Insider beta builds, is finally launched to everyone. If you have Windows 7 or 8.1 you get a free upgrade (limited time only, 1 year). Windows Insiders can choose to remain an Insider and keep getting beta builds for future updates, which allows you a free license as long as you remain part of the Insiders group.

So, now that it’s ready for primetime – are you going to upgrade? It’s a stable, fast, easy to use version of Windows that takes the best from Windows 8 and puts it in a more familiar looking GUI. Cortana is a great assistant, search is very much improved, and take a note from what many Apple users say – It just works. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s “Magical”, though. I’ll leave that to Apple. This isn’t magical. This is the hard work and effort from many talented programmers and designers at Microsoft who are probably going to take a well deserved week of vacation.

We are delighted to make Windows 10 available in 190 countries today. Thelaunch of Windows 10 is being celebrated around the world with global fan celebrations and a new yearlong initiative to celebrate people and organizations making a difference around the world. We’d love to hear how you plan to help#UpgradeYourWorld. Starting today, you can vote for a global nonprofit to receive a cash donation by simply tagging their social handle and using #UpgradeYourWorld and #vote on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. More information on Upgrade Your World can be found athttp://www.windows.com/upgradeyourworld. 

If you already own Minecraft for the PC, you are eligible for the new Windows 10 Edition beta for free. Mojang has a post detailing how to get your free copy. This is a new version of Minecraft, coming after Microsoft purchased Mojang.

Windows 10 – Microsoft’s shiny new operating system – launches tomorrow. As announced at MINECON 2015 a few weeks ago it features a brand-new Edition of Minecraft. We’re calling it Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta.

For those that aren’t going with the standard route of automatically upgrading, or you want a physical media to use, Microsoft has a tool that will download Windows 10 to your external media for install on your PC (or create an ISO for future use or virtual machines). Remember, if you have a legit Windows 7 or 8.1 install you can upgrade for free.

Use the media creation tool to download Windows. This tool provides the best download experience for customers running Windows 7, 8.1 and 10. The tool includes:

• File formats optimised for download speed.
• Built-in media creation options for USBs and DVDs.
• Optional conversion to ISO file format.

For many people on various forums, including reddit & Microsoft Answers, the upgrade to Windows 10 has already started to download. It is slowly releasing to many people so that it is not bogging down the servers all at once.

To see if you’re one of the lucky ones that gets a quick upgrade tomorrow, you can see if you have a $windows.~BT folder on your main drive.

This meme seems appropriate for this announcement:

Gizmodo has been playing with Windows 10 and the new search. They’ve concluded that it doesn’t suck anymore. However, their assessment that you’re never going to need a start menu again is a stretch. Yes, the new search is very powerful. It gives much more relevant results than in Windows 8.1.

The tricks don’t stop there: there’s also some natural-language-processing abilities to play with. I was trying to find a spreadsheet earlier, and thanks to my lack of organization, Excel files are scattered across about three hard drives. I’d normally need to fire up Explorer and run a long search for .xlsx files; with Windows 10, you just type ‘show me my spreadsheets’. ‘Show me photos from last month’ also works, as does my favorite, ‘open the last document’.

Windows 10 utilizes computer resources very well. To help prove it, the folks at Softpedia have installed the new OS on a 7 year old Acer Aspire One netbook powered by an old Intel Atom N450 CPU. Amazingly, the netbook handled it well, other than a 40 second boot time (which is to be expected). Once in the OS, it operated fast and wasn’t noticeably slow. I’m sure this would change when doing anything processor intensive, of course. But, for those with older systems that are wanting to update, it’s definitely an option!

Installation was performed via a USB drive and completed in approximately 15 minutes, plus a couple of minutes needed to set up the user account.

Once this came to an end, Windows 10 not only installed all drivers automatically but it also changed the resolution to 1024×600 pixels, which is actually the default resolution that the device supports.

All supported versions of Windows, including Windows 10 & Windows RT, will be getting an out-of-band patch to fix a critical zero-day vulnerability. Make sure you check Windows Update for the new patch and get your boxes fixed today! For those that like the manual route, grab the appropriate patch for your OS here.

This security update resolves a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted document or visits an untrusted webpage that contains embedded OpenType fonts.

Recent rumors have surfaced on Digitimes of the new Surface 4 Pro model. Coming in with a similar form factor, but an Intel Skylake processor, a Samsung 256GB SSD and unknown RAM inside. As usual, it’s just a rumor at this time, but it’s fun to entertain them at times. Sounds like a great new system if they are true, though.

The sources noted that Microsoft’s Surface Pro shipments were 200,000-250,000 units per month in the first quarter and after releasing the Surface 3 at the end of the first quarter, the software giant’s monthly tablet shipment volume rose to above 300,000 units. With the new Surface, the sources expect Microsoft’s monthly tablet shipments to have a chance to reach 500,000-600,000 units.

Surface RT owners will not be getting Windows 10. Instead, they will be getting Windows 8.1 Update 3 in September. No word yet as to what this will include as far as new features or functionality. At least there is some support for these older devices.

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