Windows 10 is undeniably impressive, but can it win you over?

Victory Winner Free

I was sold on Windows 10 before I could even try the first Technical Preview. Now, after seeing the latest slew of changes unveiled at Build 2015, it is clearer than ever that Microsoft is on the right path and that Windows 10 will be the most impressive release yet. There is no doubt in my mind about it.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Microsoft expects Windows 10 to attract one billion users within the first two to three years of its release. The timer starts this summer. It may sound like an empty claim, but when you look at everything that has been done so far to make Windows 10 so exciting, and consider the huge unlocked potential, it certainly sounds plausible. While I am no fortune-teller, I can’t see Microsoft getting anything important wrong. And that’s something I haven’t felt in ages in regards to the software giant.

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You can now tweet playable MS-DOS games

street fighter

Using Twitter used to just involve writing something under 140 characters in length, but over time the service has evolved, and you can now include photos, animated Gifs, short videos, files and more with your tweets. And if that’s not enough, how about embedding fully playable DOS games?

The Internet Archive lets visitors play classic console and arcade games directly on its site, and it recently added 2,600 playable DOS games too. It’s those games that can be embedded on Twitter.

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Generate gorgeous math-based art with Spirograph

Spirograph

Spirograph is a classic geometric drawing toy, developed 50 years ago and still popular today.

Normally it involves using multiple gears to draw intricate patterns on sheets of paper, but if that sounds like too much hassle then you could just download the open source (and entirely unofficial) Spirograph for your PC.

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Unpatched PDF readers leave US private PCs open to attack

Patch download

Adobe Reader 10 has 39 vulnerabilities and is unpatched on 65 percent of private PCs in the US, whilst Adobe Reader 11 with a 55 percent market share has 40 vulnerabilities and remains unpatched on 18 percent of machines.

This is one of the findings of the latest Secunia country report. Additional findings show that 14 percent of PC users in the US (up from 12.9 percent last quarter) have an unpatched operating system, and that Oracle Java once again tops the list of applications exposing PCs to security risks.

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Outlook.com API brings add-ons from PayPal, Boomerang, Uber and more

Outlook.com API brings add-ons from PayPal, Boomerang, Uber and more

Add-ons are a common feature of traditional, offline applications, but they're becoming increasingly popular in online services. Microsoft is the latest to get in on the action, announcing a batch of new add-ons for Outlook.com, including one from PayPal that makes it easy to make payments via email.

The add-ons were made possible when Microsoft launched the Outlook APIs at Build. They can be used by developers to create plugins with HTML, CSS3, and JavaScript. Microsoft is pushing the "write once, run anywhere" nature of the API that means the same plugin can run in Outlook.com, Outlook Web App and the desktop version of Outlook.

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Get Windows 10 for Raspberry Pi 2 now

DefaultAppRpi2

When the Raspberry Pi Foundation launched its new Raspberry Pi 2, we were impressed to hear it would be able to run Windows 10. Admittedly it isn't the full PC version of the operating system, but rather a special version created especially to run on such devices.

Yesterday, following the keynote at its Build developer conference, Microsoft released a new build of Windows 10 Insider Preview, but that’s not all. It also pushed out a Windows 10 IoT Core Insider Preview with support for Raspberry Pi 2 and Intel’s Minnowboard Max. So if you have either of those devices, you can download and try out the preview right now.

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Bing predicts where your team will finish in the Premier League

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The Premier League is almost over, but the final positions of the 20 teams is still up for debate, with several middle of the pack teams currently tied. Microsoft’s Bing Predicts looks to answer where every team will be come the end of the season.

Using algorithms based on past matches against future opponents, current form, injuries and other factors, Bing Predicts has a good overview of the entire situation, although nothing is for certain.

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Windows 10 Build 10074 becomes official -- available now from Windows Update

happyman

Today has been a whirlwind day for Microsoft. On the first day of the Build conference, the company stunned the world by announcing tools to easily port both iOS and Android apps to Windows 10. That alone is news worthy, but the company did not stop there. It also announced Continuum for Windows 10 phones, allowing the devices to scale up as desktop PCs. It also revealed the user-facing name for Project Spartan to be "Edge". Phew!

Of course, as many people expected, Microsoft released a new Windows 10 preview build today too. Yes, it is Build 10074 -- the one that leaked -- although now you can get it from Windows Update rather than messy ESD files. The company has revealed changes in the now-official build including additions, fixes and the dreaded known issues.

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Microsoft HoloLens can run Windows apps in 3D

HoloLense headset

When Microsoft unveiled HoloLens a few months ago, it came as something of a surprise. It's essentially Google Glass meets virtual reality on steroids, throwing the users into a 3D world filled with holograms, all powered by Windows 10. Today at build 2015, Microsoft showed off some of HoleLens' capabilities.

Something that had been talked about when HoloLens first came to light was the possibility of running regular Windows 10 apps in HoloLens. In a demonstration, Microsoft showed how Windows 10 Universal apps can be used in 3D space, 'projected' onto floors, walls and other surfaces.

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Microsoft's new browser -- Project Spartan changes to Microsoft Edge in Windows 10

Microsoft Edge

Project Spartan -- the all new Web browser which Microsoft announced at an event in January -- now has a proper name. At its developer conference Build 2015, the Redmond, Washington-headquartered software company announces that it will be calling the new browser Microsoft Edge.

Microsoft Edge, which is a successor to the age old internet navigation tool -- and source of tons of jokes and memes -- Internet Explorer, is designed to surf on the waves of the modern Web. Interestingly, the company seems to be using the same moniker it used while christening the new rendering engine (EdgeHTML) that powers Edge.

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Blame the dollar: PC prices rise, as features fall

freaking out omg no shock surprise

Gartner predicts that currency devaluation will compel major computer manufacturers to reverse a longstanding trend. "PC vendors selling to Europe and Japan, where local currencies have fallen up to 20 percent since the start of 2015, have little choice than to raise prices to preserve profits" -- by as much as 10 percent, Ranjit Atwal, Gartner Research director, says in a statement earlier today.

Higher prices mean more consumers will do with leaner configurations, and many businesses will push back upgrades. All the while, PC makers will give customers less for more money. Atwal anticipates fewer features in new computers in affected markets and increased sales emphasis in "regions least affected by these currency effects".

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Windows Store to gain subscriptions and phone payments

windows_10_store

Today at Build 2015, Microsoft revealed some exciting changes to the Windows Store -- not least that it will soon be much, much easier for iOS and Android app developers to convert their creations into Windows 10 apps. But this is far from the end of the story, and there are also important payment and subscription options on the horizon.

Microsoft is introducing support for in-app purchasing of subscriptions, providing developers with new ways to monetize their apps. To help make it easier for devs to get money from customers, the ability to pay for purchases with a mobile phone is also to be added.

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Windows 10 will turn your smartphone into a tiny PC

Tiny PC

Smartphones are essentially pocket-sized computers, packed with processing power. However, Microsoft sees its devices as actually functioning as full-blown (if somewhat underpowered) PCs, once Windows 10 for phones arrives.

At the Build developer conference, the company showed how Continuum can transform a Windows Phone into a tiny Windows PC.

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Microsoft's final attempt to save Windows Phone: Introduces support for Android apps, lures iOS devs

lifebuoy life preserver

Microsoft has a four-fold plan to close Windows Phone’s infamous 'app-gap' problem. At its ongoing developer conference, Build 2015, the Redmond-based company announces that it is making it easier for developers to bring their apps to the Windows Phone platform.

The first way is to entice Web developers to wrap their sites into apps and release them on the Windows Store. The second -- arguably, the least exciting -- is to make Windows apps the traditional way -- using existing Win32, .NET WinForms and other Windows development technologies.

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Microsoft aiming for 1 billion Windows 10 devices in 2-3 years

1 billion

Windows 8.x is a massive failure for Microsoft, with a usage share that’s well below that of Windows XP.

With Windows 10, Microsoft is hoping to put the past behind it, and produce an operating system that isn’t overshadowed by older Windows versions.

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