Windows 10 brings back the Start Menu and traditional desktop, and preview versions have won generally positive reviews among technology analysts.
“That is Microsoft asking for permission to get back onto your desktop,” said Kleynhans. “That’s one of the things they have to be thankful for. They were able to screw up at a massive level and survive long enough to fix it.”
Yep. And they're also adopting a completely different approach; it's more along the lines of the Apple and Android model in which successive upgrades are pushed to users at no charge. Enterprise, of course, will still have to pay for the OS, but at significantly reduced rates: MSFT has finally realized that their old model, in which the operating system was a profit center, doesn't work any longer. So they're building in more cross-platform compatibility while restoring the basic look and feel of the interface (which they epically screwed up with their Winders 8.0 OS).
New features migrating into the desktop/laptop environment include their Cortana assistant (you'll need a microphone for that) and their completely rebuilt Edge browser, which has received good reviews from the beta crowd as a long-overdue successor to their old Internet Explorer browser. The likely reason for calling the new one "Edge"? So they can continue to deploy the familiar "e" logo in the toolbar, which folks like my mom have come to associate with internet access over the years.
So what are they going to do for money? Subscription services - primarily from their Office product, "cloud" services, and Skype conferencing. Those will likely draw interest from Enterprise as businesses seek to reduce costs associated with data storage, travel, and other expenses.
Oh, by the way - it looks like they're keeping the Registry, which is a major vulnerability for the MSFT operating systems, because it's pretty easy to add Reg keys. You can disable that, but it takes a bit of work - as always. I can read and write binary, it's sort of like ESL, except they didn't teach it in schools. Have fun!
System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]
Value Name: Scancode Map
Data Type: REG_BINARY (Binary Value)
Value Data: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 5B E0 00 00 5C E0 00 00 00 00
