Microsoft Office 365 review

[Editor's Note: What immediately follows is a rundown of the latest developments and features Microsoft has added to Office 365 since this review was first written.]

• The Secure Productive Enterprise offering was revealed, bundling Office 365, Windows 10 Enterprise (in its new E3/E5 cloud-based form) and Enterprise Mobility + Security suite.
• Redmond released a free videoconferencing tool for SMBs, noting that Office 365 business subscribers get similar facilities on a much grander scale via Skype for Business.
• Microsoft revealed that later in 2016, Office 365 users will get a preview of an automatic live translation caption service for Skype Meeting Broadcast supporting 40 languages.

• Microsoft Planner was rolled out to Office 365 users worldwide, an app which lets you tackle project management in a fresh and user-friendly fashion.
• Microsoft made a number of tweaks to Sway, its 'digital storytelling' app, including upping content limits so you can use more photos, videos and so forth in your Sways.
• Outlook received some new features to help users better manage their travel plans and track the status of package deliveries.
• Excel got a new set of Power Query features designed to make working with and getting the most out of your data easier.
• A new Office 365 admin app was pushed out with a more slickly designed interface that makes important information easy to spot at a glance.
• A new SharePoint mobile app was also launched for iOS offering quick and easy access to your company's portals, sites and resources when you're on the go.
• The preview version of GigJam – a collaboration app inbound for Office 365 that allows users to easily share all manner of content – was made available to all comers.
• Office 365 was struck by a major ransomware attack that exposed some 57% of its 18.2 million subscribers to phishing attempts.

• Office 365 Business was enhanced to allow co-editors to chat in real-time when collaborating on documents stored in OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online.
• Accessibility improvements, including a new high contrast theme, were applied to Office 365 to make it easier for the visually impaired to work with the apps.
• Microsoft tweaked security for Office 365, with Exchange Online Protection getting safety tips that give warnings about suspicious emails.

• Office 365 received a front-end facelift with a new welcome page designed to be more helpful and intuitive.
• Redmond bolstered the capabilities of Microsoft Graph, meaning that going forward developers can build better and smarter apps powered by data drawn from Office 365.

• A new admin centre arrived on Office 365 boasting powerful search functionality and enabling easy access to in-depth reports.
• Office 365 Connectors were introduced, allowing apps and services to be hooked up to Office 365 Groups, so notifications from said apps automatically get sent to the Groups shared inbox.
• Office 365 became the only non-Apple accessory offered to those purchasing iPads online.
• Google expanded its Identity Platform, which is made up of a number of solutions including Google Sign-In, to cover Office 365.
• And as March ended, we discovered that according to one study, Office 365 is the king of all business web apps.

• A ton of improvements were applied to Excel including new functions to make building common calculations an easier process, and deeper integration with Power BI.
• Outlook also got some attention with a new system that lets users easily archive messages, and a new Groups section was added to the ribbon.
• We saw a leaked pilot web page that indicated Redmond's incoming premium email service, Outlook.com Premium, will be free for Office 365 users

• Microsoft extended its Office Insider preview program, which allows the curious to test early builds, to include Mac users.
• Redmond introduced new inking features for the Office for iPad apps, allowing for scribbling on documents with a stylus or your finger.

If you want to see older news and developments pertaining to Office 365, then check out the Archives page at the end of this review.

• Buy Microsoft Office 365 at Amazon for $49.95

Otherwise, now move on to Page 2 for our full review and detailed look at what Office 365 offers, and how it can help you become more productive.

• You might also want to read our feature which pits Office 2016 vs Office 365 vs Office Online

Hands on: Ricoh Aficio SG-2100N review

Every now and then, a new printing technology comes to the market with the promise of challenging the status quo. Dot matrix was displaced by inkjet and laser printers with dye-sublimation and solid ink left by the roadside.

In 2009, Japanese technology company Ricoh wanted to do something with its proprietary GelJet solution (which uses piezo electric technology, making it somewhat related to what Epson employs in its inkjet printers) to deliver something that brings the best of the laser and inkjet worlds together.

When it launched the SG-2100N nearly two years ago, the company made some impressive claims, but things didn't pan out as expected and the printer is now available from a rock-bottom £29.99 (around $39, AU$52) at online retailer Ebuyer – that's half its original selling price.

That is impressive as it includes free delivery, a surprise given that this is a printer that weighs more than 10kg. This review unit of the Ricoh SG-2100Nwas provided by Ebuyer.

At the heart of that printer is a print-head that's different from others in this price range. The head is wider at 32.3mm and spreads two colours through 384 nozzles each via 2pl ink droplets.

Speaking of ink, the SG-2100N uses gelatinised, pigment-based ink which is water insoluble, dries almost instantaneously and reduces smudging, just like laser printing.

Another significant difference is that Ricoh mixed the electrostatic transfer belt technology used in laser printers with the paper-feed conveyance technology used for inkjet printers. That, Ricoh says, reduces paper jams and allows for faster printing.

On an overall level, though, the SG-2100N reminds us of a laser printer rather than its inkjet peers. It definitely has a more business feel to it, with a cuboid shape and a two-tone monochrome colour scheme.

Its heft adds to the air of solidity and ruggedness about this device, and that robustness is even more surprising given that the printer is made mostly from recycled plastic. Ricoh claims that it can deliver a jaw-dropping 10,000-page monthly duty cycle and we'd be inclined to believe the firm.

Uniquely amongst printers, everything, from the paper trays – one of which is a pull-out affair – to the controls, are all available on the front, which means that you can shove the device on a shelf or between a drawer unit and your table-top. This is something we'd like to see more from other vendors.

Because the paper path is curved rather than straight, this printer will only handle A4 sheets up to 163gsm. Up to 250 sheets – half a paper ream – can fit in the feed tray, with the output tray having the capacity for 100 sheets in all. There's a small opening on the former that allows you to gauge how much paper is left in the tray.

The control panel sits above the trays and is a two-line (16-character) LCD screen. It is non-backlit which makes it hard to read unless you come level to it.

Opening the printer up is fairly easy, as is installing the consumables – with four gel cartridges, you won't need to discard any half-empty combo colour cartridges, which is sadly the norm for some competitors.

The colour cartridges are reasonably cheap at £9.99 (around $13, AU$17) a pop, each enough for 400 pages, while the high capacity ones (only available in black), good for more than 2000 pages, cost just over twice the price. The new ones bundled with the printer are rated at 600 pages each although they show up as half full when inserted into the printer.

We'd advise you to check the online manual for the SG 2100N and Ricoh's driver page as the latest driver release (v1.13.0.0) dates from June 2016! You will need to install the drivers as Windows 10 can't either find or load them; that entails unzipping, then searching for files in your temp folder. You will then need to add the printer, manually selecting the port USB001.

The printer also comes with a myriad of other applications for end users and IT managers, all of which can be downloaded from the aforementioned page.

Loading the cartridges is pretty straightforward, but we were taken aback by the fact that we had to wait six minutes before being able to use the device. During all that time, the printer was far noisier than expected.

The SG-2100N promises to print at up to 25 pages per minutes regardless of whether you're outputting colour or mono content. In reality, the printer never reached that speed even with the help of the 32MB on-board memory.

After a warm up period of 35 seconds, it printed 21 pages of a PDF document in 116 seconds, which translates into a printing speed of 11 pages per minute. You can however tinker with the controls to reduce quality in order to improve speed (and vice versa).

The quality of the output, helped by a 3600 x 1200 dpi resolution, certainly ranks amongst the best efforts we've seen south of £50 with impressive colour reproduction and very little smudginess.

The picture of the emerald blue lagoon of Flic-en-Flac in Mauritius was beautifully rendered, with deep blacks and no signs of banding. The downside is that it takes far longer to be printed.

Connectivity-wise, the printer offers an Ethernet port and a USB 2.0 connector, both hidden behind a flap. The power socket is recessed and there's a groove in which the power cable sits nicely (ditto for the USB 2.0 cable).

Ricoh claims that it uses only 27W to run which is higher than inkjet printers but far lower than laser ones.

Early verdict

At £30 (around $39, AU$52), we didn't expect much from Ricoh's printer but it pleasantly surprised us. With a long warranty (two-year onsite), exceptionally good prints and a wealth of features (including an Ethernet port) that you'd usually find on far more expensive printers, this is a no-brainer for small businesses looking for a printer that can deliver fast output at a low price.

Buy the SG-2100N while stock lasts as we don't expect it to be around for long, sadly.

• How to choose an office printer

OS X 10.11 El Capitan review

Update: With Mac sales once again on the decline, is the world ready for an El Capitan successor? Read on into "Latest news" to find out more!

Original review follows below...

It's much better to think of El Capitan as an OS X update that adds some spit and polish to its predecessor, OS X 10.10 Yosemite, while also providing some convenient tweaks and features. And despite some minor pain points, Apple has succeeded in that respect.

With OS X 10.11.5 now out in the open, it's been confirmed that the most recent public build of El Capitan (paired with the latest version of Flash) patches things out with the 13-inch MacBook Pro's notorious freezing complaints.

Meanwhile, those registered with the Apple Beta Software Program can grab the fifth OS X 10.11.6 beta straight from the App Store. As with the last four betas, Public Beta 5 10.11.6 features "stability, compatibility and security" refinements to OS X El Capitan. You can download this latest update from the Mac App Store given you have the proper credentials. However, you'll need acompatible Mac computer to install it if you're not already using El Capitan.

The recent drought in substantial updates is likely a result of the imminent launch of macOS Sierra available now in the form of a public beta and set to arrive officially come September. Revealed at WWDC 2016, the new OS bringsSiri integration, improved Continuity features and even Apple Pay support while foregoing the usual OS X moniker.

While the El Capitan-equipped Mac sales are all but impressive, perhaps the introduction of macOS Sierra alongside 2016 revisions to the MacBook Pro andMacBook Air lineups will rectify Apple's brand power in the computing market.

Interface

Upon first booting your Mac back up after installing OS X El Capitan, you're not going to notice many visually apparent changes. El Capitan largely carries over the same flat, iOS 7-inspired design cues that arrived with Yosemite, and, frankly, that's a good thing.

You are likely to see to changes if you're astute and do a little poking around. The first, and most aesthetically pleasing change is the adoption of a new system font. Yes, after initially switching to Helvetica Neue in Yosemite, Apple has once again switched things up with its own, specially designed font called San Francisco that also appears in iOS 9 and on the Apple Watch. Overall, this is a welcome change that only further unifies the Apple ecosystem.

The second main interface element change you're likely to notice also happens to be one of convenience. Now, if you're struggling to find your mouse cursor, simply wiggling the mouse back and forth will cause the cursor to temporarily inflate in size. It's an extremely minor detail, but it's a nice change that keeps with Apple's focus on the little things in El Capitan.

Split View and Mission Control

General interface sameness notwithstanding, Apple has managed to bring some pretty major changes to multitasking in El Capitan. On the minor side of things, the new Mission Control features few tweaks that clean things up a bit.

Now, when you swipe up with three fingers on your trackpad, you'll notice that Mission Control's overall view of your open windows is more spread out. The multitasking feature no longer overlaps windows, which could make it a bit easier to spot the window you want at a glance.

Meanwhile, the Space Bar at the top of Mission Control now features labels, rather than thumbnails by default. Thumbnails aren't totally gone, however, as hovering over the labels will give you a peek at the thumbnails. And as an added bonus, you can now drag windows up to the Space Bar to create new desktops.

None of the Mission Control changes are what I'd consider essential, but they aren't off-putting either. Where multitasking has really taken off, however, is with the new Split View.

Anyone who has used a Windows PC in the last half-decade will be familiar with Split View. The feature essentially lets you more easily manage side-by-side windows on your desktop with a couple of clicks, rather than going through the cumbersome process of manually resizing each window.

There are a couple of different methods for accessing Split View. The first involves clicking and holding on the green full-screen icon in the upper-left corner of a window. One side of your screen will then turn blue and you can then drop the windows on that side. After that's done, OS X will show you other open Split View-compatible apps that you can then drop on the other half of the screen.

The second method involves the Space Bar in Mission Control. If you have an app already expanded to full screen, you can swipe with three fingers to open Mission Control. From there, you can drag a compatible app up to that desktop in Space Bar to add it in Split View.

Overall, Split View is a fantastic step forward for multitasking on OS X. However, already being familiar with Microsoft's implementation of Snap in Windows, I do have one misgiving about Apple's methods. Just getting apps into Split View feels like it takes too many clicks, and I would have liked to see Apple move more towards a "drag-and-snap" method. That being said, it's still a great feeling to know I don't have to manually fiddle with a window's size and position to work on two things at once.

Spotlight

Another area receiving some big love in El Capitan is the improved Spotlight Search. We saw Spotlight get a touch-up in Yosemite, but El Capitan works to bring it in-line with its counterpart on iOS.

Spotlight in El Capitan can now pull from more sources for data, bringing you weather, stock, and sports information directly to the Spotlight Search box with a click on the menu bar.

Perhaps the largest change to Spotlight, however, is the addition of natural language recognition. Essentially, this means you can ping Spotlight with complex queries like "emails from Bill in June" or "documents I edited last week." This also extends to Spotlight's new web sources, allowing you to enter phrases like "what's the weather in Cupertino.

There's no doubt that the Spotlight Search's new smarts are a vast improvement over its previous iterations, but I found the natural language input to be a bit finicky with how I worded things at times. Additionally, while Apple has brought Spotlight a little bit closer to its iOS counterpart in El Capitan, I can't help but feel it's high time to go all-in and bring Siri to the desktop. After all, what's more natural than simply asking a question with your voice?

Notes

The diminutive Notes app has perhaps seen some of the biggest changes of any stock app in El Capitan. Whereas Notes was previously a pretty barebones affair, it is now expanded with the ability to add new types of content, more ways to format your notes, and more.

Users now have the option to add videos, PDFs, and Maps locations to notes, making it that much easier to flesh out your ideas. In tandem, Apple has expanded Notes to be an option in the Share Sheet across many of its own apps – something developers also have access to – so pulling that content in is a smooth as a couple of clicks.

To keep track of these elements, the Notes app now includes an attachments browser, which provides a running list of media elements you've attached over time. Combine that with the ability to finally add proper checklists (as in, you can actually check items off), as well as the addition of a third "categories" pane, and it's hard to complain about this update. Some users will still flock to third-party solutions like Evernote and Wunderlist for their needs, but the stock Notes app is now much more viable.

Hands on: LaCie Porsche Design Mobile Drive 4TB review

LaCie is an unknown brand to most people but the storage company, which was acquired by storage giant Seagate a few years ago, has a cult following amongst Apple aficionados. That explains why the brand has the largest number of DAS (direct-attached storage) devices on Apple's online store.

Visually, LaCie is also very close to Apple's minimalist design. The company has used some great designers in the past – including legendary French designer Philippe Starck and Scottish artist Neil Poulton – for its product lines.

The Porsche Design company is behind LaCie's latest creation, a 4TB external hard disk drive that is equipped with a USB Type-C connector and is an obvious storage option for the Apple MacBook.

The drive comes with a USB-C to USB-C cable plus a USB-C to USB cable with a maximum theoretical output speed of 5Gbps (USB 3.0).

As expected, the device is fashioned from aluminium, with the words 'Porsche Design' rather than LaCie printed on top. The name of the drive maker is written in tiny characters on one side.

It's bigger and heavier than the other 4TB external HDD we've previously looked at, the Seagate M3, which is now known as the Maxtor by Seagate M3.

Other than a barcode and a few more identifiers and logos at the bottom, the enclosure is remarkably clean. According to LaCie, "rounded corners, a sandblast finish and a high polished bevelled edge combine" to give the drive its unique look.

The reversible USB port and a status light can be found on one side of the Porsche Design drive.

Three LaCie applications (Private-Public, Backup Assistant/Genie Timeline and Desktop Manager) are available for download on the firm's website, which is handy as you will have to download them should you format the hard drive – which we had to do to get full access to the 4TB capacity.

Using CrystalDiskInfo, we could confirm that the drive was a Seagate Momentus ST4000LM016, a two-year old 2.5-inch drive previously known as the Spinpoint M10P with a 16MB cache and a 5400rpm spinning speed. The drive can also be found in the Backup Plus Portable external hard drive from Seagate as well.

Given that the LaCie Porsche Design Mobile costs £147 (around $195, AU$255), one would expect the bare hard drive to cost less. Surprisingly though, we couldn't get an internal Momentus drive for less than £160 (around $210, AU$275).

That's down to supply and demand – although the bill of materials for the LaCie external drive will obviously be higher, sheer demand (and competition) means that Seagate finds it more profitable to sell it cheaper than an internal hard disk drive.

When it came to performance, the drive acquitted itself much as expected, delivering great numbers on CrystalDiskMark (114MBps read speeds and 45MBps write). Just bear in mind that because it is an SMR-based (Shingled Magnetic Recording) hard disk drive, it is slower on random writes for small files.

This is a 15mm hard drive which means that it uses five 800GB platters – each with a 1TB per square inch areal density – to achieve this capacity. Such a high areal density – one of the highest in the industry – translates into an equally higher than average transfer rate.

Early verdict

The LaCie Porsche Design Mobile Drive is a great little external hard disk but will suffer from some serious competition from its own siblings, more specifically the aforementioned Seagate/Maxtor/Samsung M3 drive.

The latter costs only £104 (around $135, AU$180) in the UK, which translates roughly into a 40% price premium for this LaCie model (as mentioned, it retails for £147 – around $195, AU$255 – at the time of writing).

That's a lot of money for a storage device, but those looking for quality aesthetics – and an appearance to match their shiny new MacBook – will be content to pay that price for an external drive that not only looks good but also delivers on the performance front.

• Check out our roundup of the 10 best external hard drives

Office 2016 review

[Editor's Note: What immediately follows is a short rundown of each major version of Office 2016, as well as information on the latest developments for the app suite. If you'd like to get right to our critique of Office 2016, click right here.]

Microsoft Office is a lot more than just Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook, although that's what most people think of first.

• Buy Microsoft Office 2016 at Amazon for $124.99

There's now a whole range, from the Office 365 cloud services to the mobile apps for iOS and Android (along with Skype for Business, Dynamics and Power BI), backing up CEO Satya Nadella's claims that Microsoft is the productivity company.

The mobile Office apps are certainly popular, but Office on Windows and Mac remains the main attraction, even in Microsoft's cloud-centric approach.

At any rate, Office 2016 isn't the same Office everywhere. It's more like the right Office for each platform – and in this case, that's Windows 10 and Mac OS X. Here's how they all break down at a high level:

• Windows still gets the lion's share of tools and features simply because it's had the most attention over the years. And though it might be hard to keep adding major features to something with this much power already, there are some very welcome improvements – but also some changes you need to be aware of.
• Office 2016 for Mac gains many new features (or at least, features that are new to Mac users) and its OneDrive integration is unmatched. It doesn't have all the Office applications and it doesn't have all the Windows Office features, but what you get has the both feel of a real Mac application and the tools of a real version of Office.
• The touch version of Office for Windows 10, otherwise known as Office Mobile, sits somewhere between Office for iPad and the Windows RT version of Office for Home and Student, but brings in features from Office Online.

Microsoft is trying to make sense of the core Office tools across multiple platforms, and to make the Office 365 subscription a great deal. But, before we get into the meat, let's see what's new with Office lately.

Latest news

Available from the Windows Store, Office 2016 spent the turn of the year battening down the hatches and squashing bugs, most recently putting the kibosh on abusive uses of macros.

In April Microsoft announced improved collaboration features, ostensibly in an effort to compete with Google Drive. Meanwhile, MacOS users were treated to Office-specific extensions called add-ins, leaving Android as the only remaining operating system without the feature

Also implemented in Office 2016 for Mac was the option to get Fast Ring Insider updates directly from Microsoft shortly followed by an "Office Online" extension for Microsoft Edge in June.

Towards the end of June, upon realizing some major security vulnerabilities in the Office 2016 suite, Microsoft released version 15.23 to patch these out. Moreover, the ability to export any file in the OpenDocument format was added in addition while Microsoft finally put an end to the gratuitous CPU usage increase spotted in version 15.22.

In July, those users who opted for the Fast Ring updates were treated to a sneak preview of a 64-bit Office for Mac overhaul, although that same update took less than a week to reach Slow Ring users.

Whether you're on Mac or Windows, though, it's clear at this point that you'll need experience with Microsoft Office, 2016 or otherwise, if you're on the prowl for a new job.

• Work off! Microsoft Office 2016 vs Office 365 vs Office Online

Move on to Page 2 for a look at what Office 2016 will do for your productivity – our full reviews of Office 2016 for Windows, Office Mobile and Office 2016 for Mac.

MacBook review

Update: With PC sales still on the decline globally, B&H has gone ahead and slashed the price of its top-end 2015 MacBook by $550 down to $999

Did you buy the 12-inch MacBook? I did, but not because I wanted one.

• Buy Apple New Macbook 2015 (256GB) at Amazon for $1249.99

No: the laptop I really wanted was a new MacBook Air, or even a redesigned 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro with a sleeker chassis. Of course, neither came. And like many other Air fans, I realised that another year was to pass by without Apple's best laptop getting an upgrade. So I bought the next best thing.

The MacBook is all about compromise. With more pixels than the Air, its display allows me to be more productive on the move and slinging it into a backpack almost feels like cheating. While no powerhouse (editing 4K images on it is slightly painful), it handles basic tasks with ease.

One year later, Apple has refreshed the MacBook with Intel's sixth-generation Skylake processors while introducing faster storage, memory and graphics for the same price. The most interesting change is on the outside: a new Rose Gold finish that genuinely makes me consider owning a shiny pink laptop for the first time. Gender stereotypes be damned.

But despite its upgrades, the new MacBook is not the MacBook Airreplacement that rumors once again predict will arrive this summer - it's the same unique, dazzling and challenging laptop as the one that launched one year ago. Only faster, and with longer-lasting battery life.

A new processor, coupled with faster internal storage, memory and graphics has brought tangible improvements to the MacBook's performance. You'll still have to somehow manage with a single USB-C port, bolting on adapters and connectors to equip your FrankenMac with vital extra limbs.

And if you didn't get on with its super-shallow keyboard, your fingers will remain as unconvinced as they were before - especially during long typing sessions. The MacBook brings more megahertz, and I'm not talking about clock speed.

Big money Mac

Some people expected Apple to discount its refreshed MacBook to sweeten the deal. It didn't. The entry-level model still costs £1,049 ($1,299 or AUS$1,999), around $50/$73/AUS$99 more than the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro.

If the cost remains too high for you, then consider picking up last year's version from Apple's refurb store. While the 2016 refresh is technically the better machine, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the two when undertaking low-level tasks such as surfing the web or typing up documents in Pages.

At the time of writing, the entry-level version is on there for £749 (around $1,108 or AUS$1,457) alongside eight other models of varying specs and price.

Windows 10 review

Update: With the Anniversary Update almost ready for a consumer launch, Insider Preview users are finding a handful of notable enhancements in Windows 10. Read on into "Latest news" to find out more.

Windows 10 is an entirely fresh version of Microsoft's veteran Windows operating system (OS) – a version that is make-or-break for the company.

• Buy Microsoft Windows 10 Home at Amazon for $88.14

It was released on July 29, 2015 in seven versions, which I'll tell you much more about below, as well as giving you techradar's final verdict on all aspects of the new OS. Note that we've published a distinct Windows 10 Mobile review, which we've recently given a full upgrade.

• Buy Microsoft Windows 10 Home at Amazon for $85.95

Even though Windows 8.1 did improve a lot, there's no escaping that, withWindows 8, Microsoft was hugely complacent, riding on the coattails ofWindows 7. It drastically misread its audience with a fundamentally different interface that didn't make any reasonable sense and was hard to learn. It failed us. It failed itself.

Thankfully, 2016 Microsoft is starkly different from 2012 Microsoft. The key management of the company has shuffled. It has realized that people can choose other OSes. It's been creating software for Mac OS X, Linux, iOS and Android. As you'll see, it's allowing apps from other systems to be easily ported to Windows, too.

Latest news

Almost 10 months after release, Microsoft has continued to deliver on its promise of Windows as a Service, announcing its first Redstone (as it's reportedly known internally) update at its largely positive Build 2016 in the form of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. However, more recently, as Windows 10 growth has begun to stall heading into the expiration of its free upgrade offer, Microsoft has enacted strong measures to keep its numbers on the rise.

• Stuck? Here's how to use Windows 10

Despite the adoption rate slowing down, 300 million installs in 10 months is nothing to scoff at, nor is the title of most used operating system in North America and Northern Europe.

Now, with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update nearing completion with a release date just around the corner Microsoft has confirmed that little more than bug fixes and security patches will be issued leading into its release.

Although, in Insider Preview build 14371, Redmond made license reactivation easier for genuine Windows 10 installs, attaching them to your Microsoft account rather than to the hardware itself. Moreover, the most recent Windows 10 preview build saw battery life improvements across the entire range of Surface devices.

Things are looking up for Windows 10 as it is now, but how it will fare once the price is raised from $0 to an entry-level cost of $119 is anyone's guess.

Windows is more than just an OS

Microsoft believes the future of Windows is as a platform for all. Like Android, the strength of Windows is in the thousands of companies that develop for it (see the section about Universal apps for more on the relationship with developers) and use it in their products.

That's why Windows 10 is no longer just an operating system for 32 and 64-bit PCs. It will also run on the ARM platform for smaller tablets and smartphones. Windows 10 is going to run on phones – it's the new version of Windows Phone, but it's not that clear whether Microsoft will brand new Windows Phones as 'Windows 10' or not. If you know what Windows RT was, then don't worry, because it's nothing like that.

Universal apps will run not only on PCs, but on Windows 10 phones, Windows 10 for IoT devices and Xbox as well.

Like Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8 before it, Windows 10 is part of the Windows NT family.

From the Windows 10 Preview to RTM

We are part of the Windows Insider program, which gives people early access to Windows 10 updates through various phases of its development, even after release. The majority of this critique is based on build 10240, made available on July 15. It is the RTM – or Release to Manufacturing – version. RTM will also be on Windows 10 PCs you buy in-store or online.

RTM doesn't have the usual 'Windows 10 Insider Preview' text on the desktop, and it has also been released to everybody in the Windows Insider program – even those who didn't want the latest updates (the "slow" ring as opposed to the "fast" ring).

Even now Windows 10 is released, the Windows Insider program will continue, and Microsoft will release Windows 10 updates to members of the program first.

While it's natural that Windows 10 is considered as "finished" by reviewers (us) and consumers, Microsoft doesn't subscribe to this point of view, and says it will carry on developing the OS with additional tweaks.