The New Windows 10 Features You Need to Know About

The Start Menu is back; however, it also includes live tiles for modern applications in addition to a power button and the ability to expand the Start Menu to full screen. The Start Menu also includes most recently used programs. If you miss the old Start Screen currently it can be restored by creating a DWORD at HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvancedEnableXamlStartMenu with a value of 0, then restart explorer.exe or re-login.

Continuum provides an automatic switch between the regular Start Menu and a full-screen Start Menu, depending on whether a machine is in normal or tablet mode. When a machine does not have a keyboard/mouse it will switch to the tablet mode. This can also be manually enabled using the Active Center (see next point) and clicking the Tablet Mode icon.

The new Action Center replaces the Charms bar. Swiping in from the right-hand side opens the Action Center. The Action Center provides notifications, and it has buttons for toggling to tablet mode. It also improves the experience of connecting to audio/video devices.

An improved restart experience detects the best time to restart based on your usage patterns.

Cortana is integrated and searches both local and Web content. Input can be performed on the task bar or via voice, if enabled. Notice in the example that the results are blended, showing results from the file system, email and the Web

Modern applications run in Windows and support the new universal application model.

Users can quickly see all open applications via the Task Switcher, which can also be opened with the Win + Tab key combination.

When an application is open, the corresponding icon on the Taskbar will appear with a line under them.

Windows 10 offers an enhanced snap experience with new quadrant layout. Once one application is snapped, the remaining application thumbnails are displayed. Users can select one to occupy the remaining screen.

Virtual desktops enable multiple desktop workspaces to be created. The desktops can be running specific sets of applications. The Task view provides easy access to these desktops and can also be managed using the key combinations covered in http://windowsitpro.com/windows-10/new-windows-10-keyboard-shortcuts.

New Settings experience

Windows 10 offers new applications, such as Xbox, Photo, Maps and Calculator.

The new Spartan browser can be enabled by navigating to about:flags.