Windows 10 Revealed

Kinnary Jangla

Windows 10 Revealed

The Universal Windows Operating System for PC, Tablets, and Windows Phone

Kinnary Jangla

Bing Maps, San Francisco, California, USA

ISBN 978-1-4842-0687-4     e-ISBN 978-1-4842-0686-7

DOI 10.1007/978-1-4842-0686-7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015948311

© Kinnary Jangla 2015

Windows 10 Revealed

Managing Director: Welmoed Spahr

Lead Editor: Steve Anglin

Technical Reviewer: Kathleen Anderson

Editorial Board: Steve Anglin, Louise Corrigan, Jonathan Gennick, Robert Hutchinson, Michelle Lowman, James Markham, Susan McDermott, Matthew Moodie, Jeffrey Pepper, Douglas Pundick, Ben Renow-Clarke, Gwenan Spearing, Steve Weiss

Coordinating Editor: Mark Powers

Copy Editor: Kimberly Burton-Weisman

Compositor: SPi Global

Indexer: SPi Global

Artist: SPi Global

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To my parents, Meena and Mukesh Jangla, for their everlasting love and support, and to my husband, Abhinav, for being the rock in my life.

Introduction

What is Windows 10? What does Windows 10 look like on different devices? How can you upgrade to Windows 10? What can you expect from this book?

Windows 10 is the next generation of Windows and an evolution of the Windows 8 operating system, with a focus on transitioning between behaviors suitable for the type of device and the available input methods. The goal of Windows 10 is to unify Windows PC, Windows Phone, Surface, and Xbox One product families, along with upcoming new products, such as HoloLens. Windows 10 offers a fresh user interface on the tablet and PC, which is certainly a welcome change from the previous version of Windows where apps consumed the entire display and the Start menu took over the screen altogether. No more! Windows 10 brings back the familiarity. What’s old is now new!

Windows 10 improves the user experience by adding a new revision of the Start menu on the desktop and tablet, and allows apps to run within the classic desktop mode and in full-screen mode. Windows 10 offers the concept of new universal apps. Some of these universal apps are bundled with Windows 10; they offer an innovative experience consistent across the device continuum for Office apps, Photos, Videos, Music, People, Mail, and Calendar. These apps have a new look and design, and feel the same from app to app and device to device. Content is stored and synced through OneDrive, enabling you to start somethings on one device and continue it on another, which makes it my personal favorite feature.

Windows 10 also integrates Cortana, the intelligent digital personal assistant—a notification system that can be synchronized between devices, and Edge, a new bundled web browser.

And above all, Windows 10 is a free upgrade from Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1! Woot!

Note

The Microsoft term for apps is
Windows Store applications
. I’ll just use
Windows apps
or often just
apps
throughout this book.

About this Book

This book is for the new and experienced Windows users who want to get a head start on navigating through the new user interface of the Windows 10 operating system on the phone, tablet, and PC. In this book, I explain how to upgrade to Windows 10 and emphasize what’s new with the Windows 10 user interface on the phone, the tablet, and the PC. I also walk you through the all new integrated features—such as Cortana and Edge—that are common across all devices. There is a dedicated chapter on universal apps, which will help you use and sync your apps on all of your Windows 10 devices.

What Do You Need to Know Before You Read this Book?

You need to have a Windows 10–compatible device with either Windows 10 already installed or a previous version of Windows that can be upgraded to Windows 10. If you have used Windows 7 or Windows 8 before, Windows 10 will be very familiar to you since it is a good mix of the classic desktop of Windows 7 and the metro apps mode of Windows 8. If you are a first-time user of Windows, then you simply need to want to learn Windows 10!

Note

Microsoft uses the term
user interface
, which means everything that is visual on the Windows operating system. I simply use
UI
throughout this book for simplicity.

How Is this Book Structured?

I have divided this book into four chapters, as I summarize next. The four topics make for the building blocks of Windows 10. I go deeply into each of these five topics and summarize at the end of each chapter what you should be comfortable trying. There are also some important notes and tips that I emphasize for you to read and make note.

The first chapter tells you what is to come in the following chapters, how the book is structured, and what you need to know before reading. The second chapter is focused on Windows 10 phones and small devices. This chapter talks about the changes in the mobile UI and some of the new features that stand out in small devices. The third chapter is all about Windows 10 tablets and PCs. Here you will learn everything you need to start being productive on your Windows 10 surface and desktop. The fourth chapter is common to all devices. They are based on some of the features that have never been on the Windows operating system.

I focus on the basic user interface differences between Windows 10 and previous versions of Windows. I am not going to talk about features in the OS that already existed in previous versions. For example, I will assume that you already know what a metro app in Windows 8 is and what the Windows 7 classic desktop looks like.

I have deliberately separated the chapters on phones, small devices, tablets, and PCs to keep things clear and simple. I have taken a relaxed approach by throwing in pictures wherever a UI is explained, because I truly believe pictures speak louder than words. This is a primer to get you started on this new version of Windows and show you how to make the best use of new built-in features, such as Cortana and universal apps, efficiently. There are a lot of different topics that were impossible to fit into such a mini version of this book. Hence, I have tried to focus on immediate user productivity and have detailed only the major building blocks of Windows 10.

The following sections summarize the chapters in this book.

Getting Started

I give you a brief overview of the revamped features of Windows 10 and the new features it has bundled with it for the very first time. After reading this chapter, you will understand what to expect in the upcoming chapters and get a brief overview of what is different in Windows 10 from the previous versions of Windows.

Chapter 1: Windows 10 for Phones and Small Devices

In this chapter, I talk about the Windows 10 UI, mainly for Windows Phone and small tablets. Whereas it’s still called Windows 10 on phones, it’s really a version that’s optimized for smaller screens. I break this chapter into three main sections—namely the Start screen, the Action Center, and the most refreshing interactive notifications. This chapter explains all that is new in these areas in terms of UI and functionality. By the end of this chapter, you should be able to play around with the revamped Start screen on your phone, be familiarized with the increased number of quick actions available in the Action Center, and be able to respond to your messages and e-mails straight from the Start screen.

Chapter 2: Windows 10 for Tablets and Desktops

Windows 10 has a very fresh feel on tablets and PCs. In this chapter, I show you—with the help of screenshots—the integration of the classic desktop and the metro-style apps. I show you how Windows 10 beautifully recognizes its continuum feature between the tablet and the PC modes. I go a little deeper into the revamped Start menu and explain where the missing charms bar went. This chapter will give you a great handle on navigating through the new Windows 10 UI on tablets. By the end of this chapter, you should have a great sense of the new Windows 10 UI on your desktop or surface, and be able to navigate through the Start menu seamlessly, play around with virtual desktops, and get going with your device.

Chapter 3: Cortana and Edge

Cortana and Edge run across all devices in a similar fashion. So this chapter is common to phones, tablets, and PCs. Cortana, the intelligent digital personal assistant, is there to help make things easier for you and keep you up-to-date on the things that matter to you the most. In this chapter, you will learn more things that you can do efficiently with the help of Cortana, and understand how to best customize it to meet your needs. Edge—the new Windows 10 built-in browser—is available on the phone, the tablet, and the PC. It has a completely new engine, different from Internet Explorer, and gives you a richer reading experience along with the ability to customize the page you’re viewing. By the end of this chapter you should be able to use Cortana with speech and text, and to browse through web pages and customize them to meet your needs.

Chapter 4: Universal Apps

Having one experience across all your devices is a big part of Windows 10. In this chapter I tell you more about the free built-in Office apps that sync across your phone, tablet, and PC. I show you how the rich functionality of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are available on all of your devices. Along with these apps, I talk about some other bundled apps—like Mail, Calendar, Photos, and Maps—and show you how they make your life more convenient. By the end of this chapter you should be able to play around with all the built-in universal apps on all of your devices, and have a sense of everything you can achieve by efficiently using them—making your life a lot easier.

Acknowledgments

At Apress, I would like to thank Steve Anglin, editorial director, for giving me my first technical book, and Mark Powers, project manager, for being tremendously patient with my list of unending questions and the daily e-mails that spammed his inbox.