Since the launch of Windows 10, anyone who has joined the Insider program has been treated to a number of updates in the form of preview builds -- particularly on the Fast ring. Regular users have not been so lucky, but Microsoft's Windows 10 roadmap includes a number of Service Pack-style updates on the horizon.

It is through these bigger updates that Microsoft is expected to deliver the long-promised extensions to its Edge. But anyone who is looking to extend the capabilities of Microsoft's browser could have something of a wait on their hands. The next update to Windows 10 -- known as Threshold 2 -- won't bring extensions. In fact, it won’t be until the Windows 10 Redstone update later in 2016 that Edge gets the feature everyone is waiting for. But will it be too late to claw back users from Chrome and Firefox?

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Microsoft is keen to get its Surface tablets in the hands of business users. This is one of the reasons why it increased the number of Surface sales partners back in July. And in September it launched the Surface Enterprise Initiative allowing Dell and HP to resell the product.

Now following the launch of Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book earlier this month, the company is making renewed efforts to crack the business market with new service offerings.

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The new baby in Microsoft's Surface family is the Surface Book. The convertible device has a striking look, as well as a striking price -- particularly if you opt for the newly announced 1TB model -- but Microsoft has been keen to promote performance.

At launch, the claim was made that the Surface Book is twice as powerful as a MacBook Pro. When the $3,199 1TB model was announced, Microsoft repeated the claim. Being quite a fan of evidence, I was intrigued by the fact that the claims were not being backed up with raw data from benchmarks. I asked Microsoft for more details, and found the company to be really quite cagey (and repetitive) in what it had to say.

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New releases of Microsoft’s flagship operating system are typically greeted with a combination of angst, curiosity, confusion, and dread in equal measure. However, I believe that Windows 10 is Microsoft’s next big achievement.

Breaking the cycle of numbered releases and device specific upgrades every few years, Windows 10 is giving modern IT users what they want, where they want it. With the upgrade strategy change, Microsoft is moving away from Windows as a product to Windows as a service. This makes complete sense on paper, but migration becomes a wholly different proposition to what many organizations have experienced before.

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Windows 10 hasn't just ushered in a new era at Microsoft, but it has inspired PC manufacturers too. The Windows OEMs are finally catching onto the fact that consumers are not interested in chintzy low-quality computers. Apple has proven that people want to buy and experience well-designed and well-engineered computers. They are willing to pay the premium. Companies like Dell and HP have released absolutely beautiful hardware as of late.

Today, it is Lenovo's turn to wow the tech world. Quite frankly, I think the company has achieved its goal in building impressive Windows 10 machines with its latest PCs. Its svelte YOGA 900 convertible laptop and YOGA Home 900 portable All-in-One computers are absolutely gorgeous, and feature both Intel Broadwell and Skylake processors. Hell, the YOGA 900 convertible laptop is the thinnest convertible Intel Core "i" laptop ever. Of course, these beautiful computers also carry hefty price tags, so you had better be prepared to pay.

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Microsoft should not be surprised to see Windows 10 users ignoring its Edge browser, or other stock programs for that matter. People will do that, especially when there is an alternative that better suits their needs. But, as a new leaked build shows, Microsoft does not want to give up the fight just yet.

Windows 10 users who want to switch away Microsoft Edge (or some of the stock apps) might soon get a prompt, asking them to give the program a chance while listing some of its main features. But, at this point, this feels like a terrible idea, one that will surely annoy users and make them ignore Microsoft's efforts in the future, no matter how good its software might be.

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As Microsoft announced its first flurry of Windows 10-ready devices at its recent Windows 10 Devices event, businesses everywhere will be beginning to wonder how the new OS is going to affect their carefully organized (yet often fragile) IT policies.

As Microsoft’s marketing campaigns have made clear, through natural ties to OneCloud and Office 365, Windows 10 is designed with flexible working and BYOD at its heart. Unfortunately for businesses however, while Microsoft may be ready for the workplace of tomorrow, a lot of IT departments are still struggling to manage the workplace of today.

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Everytime Microsoft releases a new operating system security comes to the forefront for regular users and especially for IT pros. There are other considerations of course -- usability is a big one after Windows 8 annoyed many customers.

Now Dell is coming out talking of its security features which work in conjunction with Windows 10, the latest and, possibly, greatest OS to come out the doors at Redmond, Washington.

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When Microsoft unveiled the Surface Book recently there was surprise that the largest capacity hard drive was just 512GB -- as intakes of breath at the breath-taking price. Now this has been rectified with the addition of a 1TB model to the line-up.

Of course, upping the hard drive from 512MB to 1TB involves paying a premium, and Microsoft is charging an extra $500 for the privilege. The new top-of-the-range model pushes the top price of the Surface Book to $3,199 and if you are interested, you'll have a bit of a wait on your hands.

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There have been lots of claims made about the adoption rate for Windows 10 with the most recent batch of figures from Microsoft stating 110 million installations. But how does this number actually break down? New research by Spiceworks reveals that the latest version of Microsoft's operating system is making greater headway in the business environment than Windows 8 did.

Asked before launch whether they would upgrade to Windows 10, Spiceworks found that 40 percent of businesses intended to upgrade within a year. Three months after the launch the number of businesses that have actually made the jump is 11 percent -- a penetration rate 20 percent higher than Windows 8 achieved on launch.

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People seem to be very anti-advertisements nowadays. When Apple opened up mobile Safari to content blockers, the whole world took notice and these blockers rocketed up in the App Store charts. The problem, however, is advertisements are a good thing -- they help consumers discover new products (including apps).

My colleague Mark Wilson takes issue with Microsoft putting advertisements in the Windows 10 Start menu. Microsoft wants to make a distinction that these are not ads, but just app suggestions. My take? Regardless of what you call them, it helps the user. In other words, advertisements in the Windows 10 Start menu are not only acceptable, but beneficial too.

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Earlier today I wrote about my surprise at the sudden appearance of what I referred to as an 'ad' in my Start menu. The comments the article gathered made for interesting reading, and it was clear that there was more than a little confusion and disgust at the prospect of the Start menu being used as advertising space. I mentioned in the article that I had contacted Microsoft for comment, and I've now heard back with some clarification.

First off, Microsoft insists that the promotion of apps in the Start menu is not advertising, merely the App Suggestions feature. The company stresses that no payments are made by software publishers to be highlighted in this way and explains that this personalized suggestion service is now rolling out to Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise users on the Insider program. Microsoft has more to say, but is it enough to allay the concerns of Windows 10 users?

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The other day I wrote about problems my father had after an inadvertent upgrade to Windows 10. In the comments there were numerous mocking remarks suggesting that he had been provided with plenty of opportunity to avoid the upgrade -- but it seems that may not have been the case. Microsoft has admitted that the upgrade has been automatically installed on some computers.

This has been described as "a mistake" after the optional update was marked for download and installation by default. Microsoft has already raised the ire of some users who were unhappy to discover that Windows 10 setup files had been downloaded without their permission, but the unwanted installation take things to the next level. So what’s the deal?

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Microsoft pushed out Build 10565 to Windows Insiders on the Fast ring three days ago. This preview includes Skype integration, Microsoft Edge improvements, Cortana enhancements, some new icons, and support for nested virtualization. It also introduces a change to the way the activation process works -- you can now activate Windows 10 using a Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 product key.

New Fast ring preview builds can usually only be obtained through Windows Update, but Microsoft has today taken the unusual step of making Build 10565 available to download as an ISO to allow Windows Insiders to try out the new activation paths.

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If you've been thinking of investing in a new computer, Microsoft has an incentive that might just help to convince you that the time is right. You've probably got an old computer laying around that you need to get rid of, and Microsoft will happily take it off your hands and give you cash into the bargain.

The Trade Up program offers a minimum of $200 for a laptop trade-in, up to $300 for a MacBook. The caveat? The Windows 10 computer you buy must cost at least $599. The deal is running in the US and UK -- but people in the UK have a different, and somewhat less impressive, deal available to them.

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