Windows 10 Vs. Windows 8: What’s Changed And What’s Stayed The Same

Windows 10 is almost here. The impending release is bringing quite a few questions, and they are more substantive than why Windows 10 skipped a number when moving from Windows 8.

The good news is that Window 10 is going to be free. The questions are whether or not it will be worth installing when Windows 10 hits the market. One significant item in the plus column is that the start screen has been taken away. Microsoft has been hearing people ask for this feature to go away since it was first introduced in Windows 8, and the company is finally delivering in Windows 10.

Boy Genius Report also points out that there is no mention and no trace of the charms menu. This is another piece of good news for people who have long wanted it to disappear forever. The complete wiping out of the charms menu is in contrast to the start menu that apparently will still live on in Windows 10 when it comes to tablets and smartphones. It will be computers and laptops running Windows 10 that will be saying goodbye (hopefully forever) to that annoying start screen.

One of the biggest new introductions Windows 10 is going to bring is a brand new browser. Codenamed Spartan, there isn’t much known about the browser just yet or whether this means that Internet Explorer is about to be retired. Perhaps it should be, considering just how unpopular it has been for anyone who isn’t a dedicated Microsoft fanboy.

ZDNet also claims that the new operating system is going to have brand new calendar and mail applications. According to that site, the new applications are quite a bit better looking than their predecessors. Another feature that was supposed to be a big centerpiece of Windows 8 that probably won’t be included in Windows 10 is the Microsoft Media Center. There are more than a few tech insiders who think they’ll be writing the obit for this particular feature any day now.

For the most part, it seems like the whole gamut of changes are there to show people that Microsoft has actually listened to its audience about what was good and what was very, very bad about their current operating system. These moves are seen as a kind of reversal of what the company did with Windows 8. In that operating system, the firm tried to guess what people would like in a PC operating system. For the most part, they guessed wrong. Now we just have to sit and wait until Windows 10 is released.