The Windows 10 Review: The Old & New Face of Windows
by Brett Howse on August 25, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Operating Systems
- Microsoft
- Windows 10
Changing the Way You Interact With Your PC: Meet Cortana
Digital personal assistants have graced our smartphones for a couple of years now. Traditionally, computers reacted to specific commands. Double click to open calendar. Select tomorrow. Right click. New. Reminder. Meeting about mortgage. At the bank. 3pm. Save. It’s the way it has always been, because as fast as computers are at certain tasks, they don’t speak any languages other than the commands that they know. Google Now, Siri, and Cortana on Windows Phone have allowed us a glimpse at natural language input on mobile devices, Microsoft is extending that functionality to all Windows 10 PCs with Cortana now available on the PC as well..
“Hey Cortana, remind me to go to the bank at 3pm tomorrow for my mortgage”
There is nothing you can do with Cortana that you could not have done manually yourself, but the goal of these digital assistants is to make certain tasks easier. At the moment, Cortana is certainly not an AI being, and as such, is still limited in what commands are possible. Anything that falls outside of the features of Cortana end up in a web search. For a full list of commands, ask Cortana for help and a list will appear. Cortana is able to do contextual searches and replies too, and can respond to follow up questions without having to restate the original question again.
You can use Cortana to search for what music is playing, track your flights, set appointments, give directions, and more. Over time, this will also expand to offer more functionality.
Cortana will of course respond to speech inputs, and can even be set to always be listening for Hey Cortana much like you see on smartphones these days, but it is also just as capable with text based input, and it is smart enough to know that if you talk to it, it can reply in audio, but if you type something in, it will reply with a text response.
Sitting at your desktop, you may be thinking that you don’t need or want this on your PC, since you have it on your phone. If you are someone who uses your PC for any amount of time, being able to type in quick reminders or check calendar appointments can be a great feature. Cortana is also proactive, and knows your appointments and can remind you that you need to leave. Once again there is nothing new here, since smartphones already have this functionality, but for those of us who spend a lot of time at a PC during a day, it is very nice to have this.
I think one of the untapped potentials of Cortana will evolve over time. Microsoft has been pushing to add Cortana support to iOS and Android, and while you may feel that effort is in vain because they already have their own integrated personal assistants, Cortana will be the link between any of your devices. You can set reminders on your PC but if you are out at the gas station with your Android phone, you’ll get notified. Cortana also supports geo-fencing, so you can tell it to remind you to do something the next time you are at a location, and that will work from the desktop to the phone as well, no matter what phone you use.
The one major issue with Cortana at the moment is just how limited it’s deployment is. Microsoft is tuning Cortana to each region where Windows is available, and as such it is only available in seven countries right now, with the U.S., UK, China, France, Italy, Germany and Spain being available at launch. More countries will be coming online in the next couple of months. By tuning the experience to each location, they can ensure that the experience fits in with the culture which varies so greatly across the globe.
I have only had a small glimpse of Cortana on the desktop, although I have used it quite a bit on my phone, because being from Canada I am on the list of countries waiting. But that small glimpse, as well as the integration of Cortana with the rest of the system, shows that Cortana might be one of the most important additions to Windows in this release.
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boeush - Thursday, August 27, 2015 - link
When had MS *ever* released a new product version (whether OS or not) that wasn't half-baked? This is SOP for MS. The rule of thumb with MS products has always been, and continues to be: unless you want to bleed on the bleeding edge, wait for SP1 before installing.Fiernaq - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
The ability to scroll inactive windows is awesome. I currently use a third party tool to gain that functionality called X Mouse Button Control. There's one other feature I use that program for, though, and if that feature is also included in Windows 10 then I can finally drop that program (as nice as it is) from my list of "install this on every computer I ever use" apps. That other feature is desktop icon placement saving/loading with keyboard shortcut. Does anyone know if this feature has made it into Windows 10 yet?thekdub - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
I like it. I upgraded from Win 7 Ultimate on a 5 y/o HP laptop as a sort of test platform before making the jump on my gaming desktop that currently has 8.1 Pro installed. No issues with the upgrade, definitely a lot easier than reinstalling Win 7 on a new SSD which was an absolute nightmare. Boot time is actually faster on the laptop, and it feels quicker overall despite having mostly older/slower hardware (though it does have a technically faster 850 EVO vs the 840 EVO in the desktop). I barely had any driver issues with the upgrade despite the outdated hardware, and even the otherwise terrible Radeon mobile drivers work like a charm without having to resort to Leshcat drivers. The UI looks cleaner and it's a pretty easy transition from 7 as far as usability. Most things are where you'd expect them to be and it's not hard to figure out the rest.I did end up installing Classic Shell as I still prefer how it organizes the start menu, although I do really like the ability to add and customize live tiles with the new start menu (however, they do take up more space than I'd like and it's quite ugly when you only have 3-4 tiles). I also had to use Classic Shell to match the color of my start menu and taskbar to my desktop, as the default options end up being pretty ugly outside of grey or black.
With that being said, I'll wait till DX12 rolls out before I upgrade my desktop. I've been pretty happy with 8.1 once I installed Classic Shell and until games start using DX12 I see no real reason to upgrade right now. I anticipate the transition will be even easier with hardware that actually has Win 10 drivers available.
mrbofus - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
"With this release, the system now supports pen input for any text field. Let me say this again. Any text field now supports pen input."Wow, I would have assumed this was the case back with Windows 7, or at least 8. Crazy.
mrbofus - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
Great write-up, Brett! I love all the topics you cover in-depth! Excellent work.HerveS94 - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
edge has so much potential, but so it has a long way to go before it takes over google chrome in terms of features etc.Ratman6161 - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
Well its very sad that this turned into an I hate Microsoft rant/pissing contest practically with the first comment. What a waste of time. Windows 10 is not mandatory for anybody so if you don't like it and don't want it, then don't use it. Stick with whatever version you have if you want to or go download your favorite Linux distro if you don't want to use Windows at all.Or if you want to talk about it, please try to have an intelligent discussion. This is rapidly turning into the sort of mutual flame war that inevitably causes me to give up on web sites...or at least disregard their comments section.
Oxford Guy - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
"If you don't like Stalin killing people then don't live in Russia!""If you don't like people running over grandmothers for fun with their cars then move out of that neighborhood!"
"And, no one needs to use Windows once Windows 7 is no longer updated with security updates rather than hidden telemetry."
dmacfour - Friday, August 28, 2015 - link
What an idiotic comparison.Nobody chooses to live in a authoritarian nation. You can't just opt out of it and choose a new country.
Windows is a product that you choose to buy. They are legally mandated to serve you or your best interests. If you don't like it, use a competitor's OS, it's as simple as that.
mrbofus - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
"they are also scalable and can work on small phones, all the way up to large desktop devices, with different layouts depending on"On the "Mail, Calendar, and People" page, the last sentence of the second paragraph just cuts off mid-sentence.