The new Windows 10 preview (build 10061) packs a fair number of enhancements including a new mail and calendar app, a polished interface and tweaks for tablet users
Microsoft recently announced a new build of their upcoming Windows 10 operating system. While this is still a technical preview, aimed at the more advanced user and for trial on non-production systems given that it is still not completely stable for use in day-to-day operations, it brings several new features and enhancements to the table.
A new Mail and Calendar app: First up is a new mail and calendar app, bringing better performance along with the three-pane UI so evocative of Microsoft Outlook. On a touchscreen device you can swipe left or right to take actions on deleting, flagging, moving or marking mails as read/unread. In a boost to spiffying up your mails, you can now use many of the formatting features in Word such as tables, pictures, bullet points and colors as you compose mails. Both of these apps support Office 365, Exchange, Outlook.com, Gmail, IMAP, POP and other popular email accounts.
Improvements to the Start menu, Taskbar and Action Center: There is a new black system theme that reflects across these elements, along with the ability to adjust transparency and resize the Start menu. Another interesting twist is the AutoColor feature that extracts the primary color from the desktop background and applies it to these system elements. So when you change the wallpapers, the UI’s theme reflects the dominant color accordingly.
Enhancements to Continuum: Here’s an optimization that applies to tablets--firing up the Tablet mode causes the Start button, the Cortana assistant and the Task View buttons to expand, making them easier to hit on screen. This view also gets rid of pinned and running apps making for a more uncluttered experience, although this can be toggled back on if needed. Users can also utilize a setting to boot the tablet directly into this mode.
Visual tweaks and Virtual Desktops: Many elements from the Task View have been polished, including the window icons, the close buttons and the thumbnails. Also you can now create a theoretically unlimited number Virtual Desktops making it easier to segregate your running applications by usage.
Keen to taking this preview of Windows 10 for a spin? You’ll need to sign up for the Windows Insider Program, download the ISO file, burn it to a DVD and launch the setup. See the instructions on this page. We reiterate--this is not a production version of Windows 10 so we recommend against installing it on a computer you use every day for work.
Got something to say about your experience trying out the development builds of Windows 10? Tell us in the comments here or ping us on Twitter and Facebook.
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