Windows 10 Newest Build 9926

The newest Windows 10 preview is available for download. I downloaded it last night and installed it this morning. This build, build 9926, is a huge download and a huge improvement to the OS as well. I’ll list the major enhancements from the build 9879 that was first offered to us Win 10 Quinea Pigs in the bottom of this post.

Last weekend I posted on this blog how to go about installing Windows 10 Technical Preview running in a virtual machine on your PC or Mac. You can read that post by scrolling down to the post directly below this one or if you arrived here via a search engine you can get to that page by clinking here.

Last week’s post showed a screenshot of the Windows 10 build 9879 Start Menu. Below is a screenshot of the Start Menu in the new 9926 build.

Build 9879 Start Menu

Build 9922 Start Menu

What’s New In the Latest Windows Ten Build

Say “Hey Cortana” To Cortana

Cortana Windows 10 Personal Assistant

Cortana is to Microsoft Windows what Siri is to Apple iOS devices (iPhones, iPods and iPads) and Google Now is to Android phones and tablets. Just like Siri or Google Now you can speak to Cortana (normally in the form of a question) and she will answer you in a human sounding voice over the speakers of the machine or device you’re using.

When you first open Cortana in Windows Ten, she’ll ask you what your name is. I told her my name is Jay. She repeated my name and asked me if she was pronouncing it correctly. She’s so polite.

Is Cortana as good a Personal Assistant as Siri or Google Now? I don’t have an opinion. What I am impressed with is that Microsoft is rolling this functionality out onto PC’s. Cortana has been up and running for a good while on Windows phones but with Windows 10 she’s coming to desktop computers in the very near future as well.

Oh and you can get in the settings and configure her to respond when you say “Hey Cortana”.

Continuum

Continuum may be the beginning of Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s Handoff. Apple’s Handoff allows you to begin a project large or small on your iPhone in any Apple app and then take up where you left off on any other iOS or OS X device. So far Continuum is not linking phones and PCs to the degree that Apple’s Handoff does.

Right now Continuum is offering the ability to switch between table and PC mode, depending on which Microsoft device you’re using. But MS will probably roll out more features for Continuum in the future.

Full Page Start Menu

I thought the Win 10 9879 build Start Menu looked pretty cool but the new 9926 build Start Menu looks even better. Scroll back up to the two screenshots and judge for yourself.

OneDrive

You probably have a Microsoft OneDrive account. You may remember that it was called SkyDrive when it first came out back in 2007. If you don’t have a Microsoft OneDrive account, Windows 10 will nag you about setting one up every time you log on. It’s obvious that Microsoft is aiming to make OneDrive their answer to Apple’s iCloud. But OneDrive has a long way to go to catch up with iCloud.

New Windows Store App

If you click to make larger the new Start Menu image above, you’ll see the new Store App prominently displayed in the upper right-hand corner. And yep, the Store is open for business on Windows 10.

Xbox App

By enlarging that picture you’ll also notice the new the tile that will open the new Xbox App. If you have Xbox you can register in this app to play games on it I suppose.

Add a Desktop

Windows 10 Gains Multiple Desktops

One of the things I love about Macs is the ability to switch between Desktops. Now Windows 10 allows this as well. There are many thing you can’t yet do with desktops on Windows 10 that you can on a Mac or Linux. For instance you can’t change the wallpaper for individual desktops. But just having more than one workplace is a great leap forward.

So there’s what Windows 10 is looking like so far. I’ll keep you posted on further developments when the next Windows 10 build arrives in a month or so.

If you found any of this information idiotic or confusing, yell at me in the comments.