How to download and install the Windows 10 Technical Preview

Microsoft, right on schedule, has made the Windows 10 Technical Preview available to download. There are 64-bit and 32-bit versions available for US English, Real English, Chinese, and Brazilian Portuguese. Follow these instructions to download and install the Windows 10 Technical Preview.

Updated: I have just completed upgrading Windows 8.1 Pro to Windows 10 Technical Preview. The upgrade appears to have worked cleanly. I haven’t spotted any issues yet, but will run a full suite of tests now.

Updated: Watch a video of my first hands-on impressions of Windows 10 Technical Preview.

My first Windows 10 Technical Preview screenshot, showing Photoshop and the new Start menu

Be prepared

As always with beta/preview software, you shouldn’t install it unless you’re fully prepared. This means you should back up any important files, and ideally you should have a separate hard drive/partition to install the Technical Preview on. You cannot revert from Windows 10 Technical Preview to Windows 7 or Windows 8; if you have second thoughts, you will have to reinstall from scratch.

Download the Windows 10 Technical Preview

To begin, head on over to preview.windows.com and join the Windows Insider Program. This only takes a few clicks if you already have a Microsoft account.

You then need to download the appropriate installation file (an ISO) for your system. This is probably the 64-bit (x64) version — though if you have an older system, or you want to test out the 32-bit version, grab the 32-bit download instead. The download will probably take quite a while: the 64-bit ISO comes in at 4GB.

Note down your license key (though you will be able to visit the page later, too).

With the ISO fully downloaded, you then need to transfer it to either a USB thumb drive (preferred) or burn it to a DVD. If you have Windows 8/8.1, burning a DVD is fairly easy — you can do it directly in Explorer. For burning an ISO image to a USB thumb drive,the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool is probably still your best bet.

If you want to install a fresh version of Windows 10 Technical Preview, reboot your computer, boot from the USB stick/DVD drive, and follow the on-screen prompts  (use “Advanced” mode when prompted). If you want to upgrade an existing version of Windows 7 or 8/8.1, just run setup.exe from the USB/DVD drive from Explorer.

Do read the next section before you go ahead with the install, though.

Screenshot from the Windows 10 Technical Preview upgrade client (in Windows 8.1)

Screenshot from the Windows 10 Technical Preview upgrade client (in Windows 8.1)

Caveats and other options

As far as we’re aware, you can upgrade your existing Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 installation to the Windows 10 Technical Preview. I would advise you to do a clean installation of the Technical Preview, however, on a separate partition or hard drive, in case something messes up. The Technical Preview license expires at the end of April 2015, but another Preview build will be released before then. Other potential caveats/pitfalls can be found on the Windows 10 Technical Preview FAQ.

Another option is installing Windows 10 Technical Preview in VirtualBox — our instructions for how to do it with Windows 8 should work for Windows 10, but we haven’t tested it yet.

Again, do not proceed unless you know what you’re doing: This is a very early build of Windows.

Now read: Windows 10 Technical Preview (or just watch the video below)

Why is it called Windows 10 not Windows 9?

One of the most surprising aspects of yesterday’s Microsoft event was the name of its new operating system: Windows 10. Not Windows 8.2  or Windows 9… but Windows 10. When asked about Windows 10′s name, Windows chief Terry Myerson and Joe Belfiore avoided a direct answer, instead joking about how “seven ate nine” and then lamely saying how the “breadth of the product family” justifies the grandiose name. So, really, why did Microsoft call it Windows 10 instead of Windows 9?

Updated 6:39am October 2: I’ve added two other alternative (conspiracy?) theories on why it might be called Windows 10 rather than Windows 9. I would take these theories with a large pinch of salt — but I’ve included them because they’re just about feasible enough that they might actually be real.

Version numbers, version schmumbers

First of all, it’s important to note that between Windows 3 and Windows 7, versions of Windows were designated by a name rather than a number: 95, 98, NT, Me, 2000, Vista, and so on. When Microsoft announced Windows 7, there was actually a similar amount of disbelief/pushback; after a series of named versions of Windows, it seemed odd to jump back to numbers.

Windows 8.1: Actually version 6.3, build 9600

There’s also the odd fact that the name of each Windows release doesn’t actually match the real version number; for example, Windows 8.1 is actually version 6.3 of Windows. Windows 10 is version 6.4. The last time the release name actually matched the version number was Windows NT 4.0, which was released back in 1996. Windows 2000, which was called NT 5.0 during development, was actually version 5.0. Windows  XP was version 5.1. Windows Vista was 6.0, Windows 7 was 6.1, Windows 8 was 6.2, and Windows 8.1 is version 6.3. (WinRT, which powersMetro, is a new and separate beast, but it still sits on top of the core Windows kernel.)

Technically, modern versions of Windows are still based on the Vista kernel/code base — including Windows 10, which is actually Windows 6.4. There will be some confusion if/when we eventually reach internal version 7.0, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

Some alternative theories for skipping Windows 9

After publishing this story, some other possible reasons for Microsoft skipping Windows 9 came to light. I am dubious about both of these alternate theories, but they have just enough truthiness in them that I’ll share them with you.

First, an ExtremeTech reader called Benny emailed me to say that the number 9 is considered unlucky in Japan. Microsoft has a big enough presence in Japan that it may have skipped Windows 9 to avoid any weirdness or ill will. Benny says that Trend Micro — a Japanese company — did the same thing a few years ago when it skipped version 9 of its antivirus software.

Second, someone purporting to be a Microsoft developer posted this comment on Reddit:

As stupid/amazing as this sounds, it is actually quite feasible that there are still a lot of legacy Desktop apps that use this method (or something similar) to check for Windows 95 or 98. Bear in mind that this is just an example piece of code — some developers will check for the OS name (“Windows…”), some will check for the version number (as discussed in the previous section of this story), and some might use other methods entirely to find out what OS the app is running on.

What’s in a name?

Ultimately, Windows 10 is just a name. Windows 9 probably would’ve made more sense — and I think it’s going to cause a lot of grief with novice users who just don’t understandwhat happened to Windows 9 — but Windows 10 isn’t any more right or wrong than calling Vista’s successor Windows 7.

Why Windows 10 wasn’t called Windows One: “It has been done before” (by Bill Gates)

A better question to ask now, though, is: Why did Microsoft call it Windows 10 specifically, and not something else? During the unveil event (video embedded above) Myerson gives us a few clues. Starting at around the 2:10 mark, he says: “We know, based on the product that’s coming, and just how different our approach will be overall, it wouldn’t be right to call it Windows 9.” He then talks about how Windows One would make sense with Xbox One, OneDrive, and OneNote, “but unfortunately Windows 1 has been done by the giants that came before us.” And so it seems the only other viable option was Windows 10.

Read: Windows 10: Familiarity breeds contempt

Microsoft’s seemingly arbitrary choice of Windows 10 is an interesting one. It is clearly a strong version number — and it’s also a neat way of distancing it from Windows 8, which Microsoft really wants to brush under the carpet. In fact, this might even be the same trick that Microsoft used to make us forget about Vista: “With a name like Windows 7, it must be very different from Vista…”

Apple’s OS X has been OS X for 13 years now — and shows no sign of being retired

What about any similarity to Apple’s Mac OS X? Apple did a similar trick: Its operating systems steadily incremented through System 1-7, then switched to Mac OS 8 and 9, and when it got to OS 10 (X) in 2001 it stopped. Given how Windows 10 is meant to be a single platform for just about every form factor, plus the massive weight and importance that Microsoft is lending to this release, I wouldn’t be surprised if it sticks around for a long time. I wouldn’t be surprised if future versions of Windows — at least for the next few years — are 10, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, etc. I don’t think Microsoft is intentionally aping Apple with Windows 10, but I’m sure the marketing department is aware of both the positive and negative repercussions of wanting to ride on Apple’s coattails.

So, there you have it: Windows 10 is called Windows 10 because Microsoft says so. I personally think just “Windows” or “Windows X” would’ve been better — but I guess the former got voted down, and the latter is impossible due to Apple’s own OS X.

src: extremetech.com

Windows 9 changes and new features:

Microsoft is all set to officially unveil Windows 9 at a special event on September 30 — and so we thought it would be a good time to run through everything that we already know about Microsoft’s new operating system. Most of these features and changes are reliably sourced from people close to the development of Windows 9 or from leaked builds of the Windows 9 Technical Preview. We’ll also update this story with an official list of Windows 9 features when Microsoft starts releasing public beta builds next week. In short, if you want to find out about Windows 9, this is the place to be.

After the very poor response to Windows 8, and the bitter taste it left in the mouths of millions of users, Windows 9 is a very important release for Microsoft. On the one hand, it needs to rectify Windows 8′s wrongs and offer normal PC users a reason to upgrade from Windows XP or 7. On the other hand, Microsoft continues to lose ground in the mobile sector as well. Windows 9 will actually have to be the jack of all trades, rather than Windows 8′s rather ignominious status as the master of none. How will Microsoft do this? Well, let’s take a look.

Windows 9 for desktop and laptop users

The Start menu returns. After a few years of claiming that the Metro-style Start screen was just as good for mouse-and-keyboard use as touchscreen use, Microsoft has finally backed down. Windows 9 will have a Start menu on the Desktop; the left side will look a lot like the standard Windows 7 Start menu, but the right side will have the option of being populated with Metro-style live tiles. The left side of the menu will adopt a new Metro-like look, too — though you may be able to configure it to look like the good ol’ Windows 7 Start menu.

Virtual desktops. In Windows 9, you will have the option of using virtual desktops. Right now you just have one desktop per monitor — but with virtual desktops, you can switch between as many desktops as you like. This is a popular power user feature that has been present on some Linux window managers and via third-party Windows tools for years — but now it’ll be native in Windows 9.

Metro apps on the Desktop. Rather than forcing you into the full-screen Metro interface, Windows 9 will let you run Metro apps on the Desktop in a window. In theory this will mean that mouse-and-keyboard users might now actually use Metro apps, which in turn might kickstart the arrival of some better apps in the Windows Store. Or not.

Windows 9 Desktop, showing a new, very flat Explorer (note the new icon too)

Desktop interface overhaul. It’s not entirely clear yet, but it seems the Windows 9 Desktop will receive a graphical overhaul, to make it even flatter. The leaked Windows 9 Technical Preview shows some flatter icons and thinner window borders — and I suspect we’ll see some further UI changes in later preview builds. (If you recall, the first Windows 8 Developer Preview still looked a lot like Windows 7, and became more flat and less opaque as the development process went on.) Curiously, there does appear to be a drop shadow behind the Explorer window in the Windows 9 screenshot above — Windows 8 got rid of a lot of shadows, so it would be interesting if they made a return.

The Metro interface may be removed. In the last few months, there has been rumblings from Redmond that the Windows 9 experience might be formally split in two: A Metro-only experience for touchscreen/tablet users, and a Desktop-only experience for mouse-and-keyboard users. One of the biggest complaints of Windows 8 is the way it forces you into the Metro interface when you’re using a mouse and keyboard, and the Desktop interface when you’re using a touchscreen. It isn’t clear if the Metro interface will be removed entirely from “Windows 9 for the Desktop” — more realistically, to cater for users of hybrids and touchscreen laptops, there’ll just be a check box somewhere for “never show me the Metro interface.”

Lots of other tweaks to the Windows 9 Desktop. In addition to all of the above, the Charms bar is also being removed (from the Desktop interface at least; it might hang around on touchscreen devices). The Technical Preview has a Notifications panel that pops up from the bottom right corner (video above), though I don’t think this is its final format or placement. There will also likely be tweaks for multi-monitor and high-res (hi-dpi) setups, too.

src:extremetech.com