WINDOWS 10 THE ULTIMATE UPGRADE

Get your PC ready for the next-gen OS

We all know that Windows 10 is coming. We even know exactly when, 29 July. For PCs and tablets, at least. The rough date was at first inadvertently leaked by AMD’s CEO Lisa Su, in an earnings call, before being confirmed by an official Microsoft statement, on 1 June. And it's a perfect fit with Microsoft’s previously stated intention to release "this summer." AMD will be glad for the release, and not just to save its CEO's blushes. Like many hardware manufacturers, AMD is hoping for an uplift in sales as people rush out to buy new machines and/or hardware to get the most from the latest major OS system.

Indeed, an indicator of a market that’s waiting for a new Microsoft OS is that sales in PCs tend to dip leading up to the release. And that’s exactly what’s happening at the moment, with the likes of Nvidia lowering its forecast for the second quarter of the year from $1.18 billion down to just $1 billion (yes, we feel bad about using the word "just" there). Analyst Canalys predicts a 13 percent fall in desktop shipments in the lead up to the release of Windows 10. Even notebooks, which tend to weather such storms better than desktops, have been hit by a 4 percent drop in demand.

This could be one of the last times that the "softening of the market" happens though, as Microsoft has announced there isn’t going to be a Windows 11. It’s changing how it updates the OS. The big releases we’ve come to know and love, or hate, are about to be replaced with a much more dynamic model. A service model that should see updates delivered in a more regular manner, though how such updates are going to be financed is something that still needs to be explained.

Windows 10 has changed substantially since we first saw glimpses of the freely available Technical Previews at the start of the year, and we’re not just talking about the OS itself. The unveiling of HoloLens, the ongoing work on Cortana, Continuum, Microsoft Edge (the successor to Internet Explorer), and information on what DirectX 12 is really going to do for you have changed the proposition considerably.

Turn the page to see why you should start getting excited about Windows 10.