What we expected to be Windows 9 has been gradually revealed through leaks over the past several weeks, but Microsoft has thrown a curveball into the mix with Windows 10. The latest information, revealed during a public Microsoft Windows event, has gone into much detail concerning the nature of the newest incarnation of Windows, including its focus on enterprise and cloud-centric policy.

But first, what we already know; Windows 10 appears to look like a funky combination between Windows 7 and Windows 8. While several applications still use the Metro tile user interface used in Windows 8, the operating system has returned to its roots with what appears to be Windows 7 desktop functionality. Also present is the triumphant return of the beloved Start menu with a slick new look, sporting customizable Metro-style shortcuts within the menu. These fix the two most common complaints about Windows 8. While the Metro UI was designed to work well on touch-screen devices, some users who enjoyed the traditional desktop design disliked it, while the absence of the Start menu had Windows users up in arms.

The task bar is back and filled to the brim with features, including a Search function and virtual desktops. The virtual desktops can be customized for specific tasks, like separating casual applications and work-related applications. The Charms bar from Windows 8 is also making a comeback, though it is more user-friendly this time around.

Windows 10, according to Microsoft, is aiming to become the new standard for future Windows operating systems. By becoming the “threshold,” as its code name implies, it makes Windows 10 the last big operating system for Microsoft’s popular software brand. The fact that Microsoft is aiming high with Windows 10 is seen in their decision to skip Windows 9. On their official blog, Microsoft states,

This new Windows must be built from the ground-up for a mobile-first, cloud-first world. This new Windows must help our customers be productive in both their digital work and their digital life. This new Windows must empower people and organizations to do great things.

It’s also mentioned that Windows 10 will be streamlined to work on all devices, as displayed by Microsoft’s marketing slogan: “One product family. One platform. One store.” All applications will run in windows, which means that you can resize, move, close, maximize, and minimize them at will. Improved Snap features allow you to set shortcuts to certain applications for easy access.

Nobody saw Microsoft skipping Windows 9 to move forward on Windows 10… well, nobody but InfoWorld, that is. The technology news website won the April Fool’s Day lottery in 2013 when they tricked the online community into believing that Microsoft would skip Windows 9. The main gist of the joke was that Windows 9 was “too good” to release to the general public, and that it would be kept on the down-low as an internal perk for Microsoft employees. According to InfoWorld, the fabled Windows 9 was pretty sweet:

Details about Windows 9 are sketchy, but according to internal Microsoft communications obtained by InfoWorld, the OS was fast, intuitive, bug-free, and equally adept with both the Windows Desktop and Metro-style interfaces. "And who would've thought to put the Start button there?!? Genius!" marveled one engineer, though it's unclear where "there" is exactly.

Another engineer likened the OS to the Nintendo Entertainment System's Power Glove accessory, saying, "It's that good a melding of man and machine.”

As of October 1st 2014, the technical preview for Windows 10 has been made available for enterprises looking to sample the new operating system. Of course, the operating system is going to change before its official release in mid-2015. During the technical preview period, Microsoft encourages enterprises to let them know how to improve the operating system to its full potential. You can download the technical preview at preview.windows.com.

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Videos offer a peek at Microsoft's Windows Threshold in action, including Start menu features that could appease keyboard-and-mouse fans who hate Windows 8.

Earlier this week, alleged screenshots of the next version of Windows, codenamed Threshold, leaked online. The images provided the first in-depth look at Microsoft's upcoming OS, including support for virtual desktops, the inclusion of a notification center, and the new Start menu.

Two videos have since appeared that purportedly show the Start menu in action. Both were posted by German blog WinFuture, which also, along with another German website, posted the screenshots. Microsoft's decision to remove the Start menu from Windows 8 alienated some traditional PC users, many of whom dismissed the new user interface as too touch oriented. The new videos give these disgruntled mouse-and-keyboard users additional reassurance that Microsoft's PC interface is headed in the right direction.

If you hate Windows 8's tiled Start screen, the video suggests Microsoft has heard you, as Threshold will allow users to completely purge Live Tiles and the Modern-style apps they represent. Even so, the new apps are a central part of Microsoft's strategy; they allow developers to write software that will run on any Windows platform, from the Xbox to smartphones, and could eventually offer users a seamless digital experience as they move from device to device. For that reason, Threshold appears to include several ways for users to interact with Modern apps, even if those users spend most of their time in the desktop UI.

In April, Microsoft previewed an early version of the new Start menu, which at the time included a Windows 7-like list of common destinations and apps in a column on the left, and a collection of Live Tiles in a column on the right. The screenshots and videos are consistent with this look. They also support recent rumors that claim the new Start menu won't replace Windows 8's Start screen as much as absorb it.

In the video, the Start menu's left column includes links to File Explorer, the Documents folder, and other frequent destinations that should be familiar to Windows 7 users. But the left column evidently also can be switched to an "all apps" list. The right column, meanwhile, includes any Live Tiles the user has pinned there. In the Threshold system settings, this right column is still referred to as a Start screen, but unlike the version in Windows 8, it takes up space only within the Start menu, rather than needing its own screen.

Users can open, pin, unpin, and uninstall apps directly from within the Start menu. The upshot is that if you don't use any Modern apps, you can simply refrain from pinning any to the Start menu. You can also uninstall any that might happen to come pre-pinned when you upgrade or buy a new machine. That way, if you don't want to see any tiles, you won't.

If you choose to pin tiles to the Start menu, they can be resized and moved around, just like Windows 8.1 lets you do on its Start screen. Some of them also appear to be truly "live" in that they display a constant stream of updates, whereas others are just regular icons. This is also consistent with the way Live Tiles work in Windows 8 and 8.1.

In the videos, when Modern apps are launched from the Start menu, they open in floating windows on the desktop, just like legacy applications. These windows can be moved around, resized, and layered on top of one another, whereas current Modern apps in Windows 8 and 8.1 are viewable only in full-screen mode.

Based on the new leaks, Threshold will still contain a Windows 8-style Start screen, but it will be disabled by default. If enabled, the OS will boot directly to the Start screen. This resembles the UI customization options available in Windows 8.1, which chooses its default settings based on the type of hardware on which it's running, and then lets users make changes. They can choose, for example, to boot PCs directly to the desktop, or the Modern Start screen. Even though Threshold includes a number of features aimed at desktop users, it makes sense to include both UIs, since the OS will also run on not only conventional PCs, but also on two-in-one devices and touchscreen PCs. But Threshold looks to give users even more control over how and when the two UIs interact.

Microsoft reps haven't commented on the leaks, but even if they're legitimate, a lot could change between now and Threshold's official release, expected in spring 2015. In fact, according to some rumors, change is at the forefront of Microsoft's goals. The company is expected in the next month to release a "Public Enterprise Technical Preview" of Threshold that will allow users to provide one-click feedback. According to ZDnet's Mary Jo Foley, who has a good record for pre-release Microsoft info, different users might be given different versions of Threshold depending on what kind of feedback they provide. For Microsoft, it seems the idea is to gather a lot of real-world data about what works and what doesn't, and implement necessary changes before shipping the final product.

Later this year, Microsoft is expected to release a second, consumer-focused preview for tablet and smartphone users. At this point, it's still not clear what Microsoft intends to call Threshold when it comes to market. Some indications, including a social media post from official Microsoft account, indicate the next version will be called Windows 9, perhaps to distance the new release from Windows 8's poor reputation. But other reports say Microsoft might drop version numbers and just refer to all its operating systems as "Windows." Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has made broad allusions to such a strategy, and the new videos and screenshots contain references to "Windows" but not to "Windows 9."

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Another month of security updates from Microsoft means, once again, another round of fixes for the company's Internet Explorer (IE) Web browser, as well as a set of updates for the Windows operating system, for both the server and desktop editions.

Overall, Microsoft has issued six bulletins in July's "Patch Tuesday" collection of software fixes. Microsoft issues these collections on the second Tuesday of each month, hence the name "Patch Tuesday."

Two of the patches are marked as critical, meaning they address defects in Microsoft's software that could be readily exploited by malicious attackers to compromise systems. One of the critical bulletins is for IE, and the other one is for Windows.

Three of the remaining bulletins are denoted as "important" by Microsoft and one as "moderate." These bulletins cover Windows and the messaging component of Windows Server.

A single bulletin may cover multiple patches for a single piece of software, such as Microsoft Windows.

Wolfgang Kandek, chief technology officer for security firm Qualys, advised administrators to look at the IE patches first. IE update MS-14-037 addresses one publicly disclosed vulnerability and 23 privately reported vulnerabilities. The critical patches in this set all address vulnerabilities that could lead to remote code execution, which would allow an attacker to gain privileges on a machine by tricking a user to view a specially crafted Web page using the browser.

The critical Windows update MS14-038 covers a remote execution vulnerability that originates in a faulty way for how Windows opens files in the Windows Journal file format. Windows Journal is Microsoft's software for capturing handwritten notes on a computer. It can be used not only for touch-enabled devices, but also for other non-touch Windows computers to read files in that format.

If an organization does not use the Journal format, it may be a good idea to turn off the capability altogether in its Windows machines, so as to reduce the "attack surface" of these computers, Kandek said. In general, it is a good idea to turn off any unneeded services in computers if an administrator has the time to do this, he said.

While administrators are in the mode of testing and applying software patches, they should also take a close look at the critical patches Adobe has issued Tuesday for its Flash player.

Oracle shops should also prepare for Oracle's quarterly round of patches, due to be issued Thursday.

IE tends to get the most of the fixes in Patch Tuesday not necessarily because it is inherently more buggy than other Microsoft software, but because it is widely used software that could provide an entry point for outsiders to break into the computers that run the browser. As a result, it is under such scrutiny by both malicious attackers and security researchers.

IE is not necessarily any more buggy than other popular browsers, such as Google Chrome or Mozilla's Firefox. Both Google and Mozilla have automatic updates for their browsers, so a vulnerability can get addressed as soon as the developers create a patch to fix the problem, noted Amol Sarwate, the director of Qualys' Vulnerability Labs. As a result, such bugs and their attendant fixes are rarely called out in the press, unless they are critical in nature.

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Microsoft no longer supports Windows XP, but 25% of PC users still use it today -- twice as many as use Windows 8 and 8.1.

You've got to hand it to people who still use Windows XP -- they're a resolute bunch. Microsoft stopped supporting the enormously popular OS almost three months ago, but according to the newest figures from Web tracking firm Net Applications, more than a quarter of PC users still relied on XP in June.

XP remains resilient despite Microsoft's multi-year upgrade campaign, which included frequent reminders that the OS would become vulnerable to malware, and even a zero-day scare shortly after Microsoft ceased support. The latter pressured the company to issue a security fix in a "one-time exception" to its support policy.

[How are Surface Pro 3 early adopters using Microsoft's new tablet? Read Microsoft Surface Pro 3: Customers Speak.]

Net Applications, which scans a network of 40,000 websites and 160 million unique users each month, found that Windows 7 remained the top OS overall, with 50.55% of PC users. That was up meaningfully from 50.06% in May and 49.27% in April. Retailers and OEMs have deemphasized Windows 7 in their consumer offerings, but Net Application's new numbers reinforce that among businesses that recently upgraded from XP, most chose Windows 7.

Windows XP remained the second most popular OS by a large margin. It snared 25.31% of users in June -- basically flat compared to May. XP commanded 37.17% of the market in June 2013 and more than 29% in January, which means that millions of XP users have indeed upgraded to newer platforms.

But millions still remain, and XP's rate of attrition is slowing. Some businesses are paying Microsoft for extended XP support, and many third-party security vendors offer XP-oriented products and services as well. Consequently, not all of the XP traffic, which is drawn from users who connect to the public Internet, necessarily represents the same security risk.

Windows 8 and 8.1's flat-lining growth speaks to why Microsoft's older OSes remain so popular: Existing Windows customers simply haven't felt compelled to upgrade. In June, Windows 8.1 accounted for 6.61% of the market, up a bit from 6.35% in May. The original version of Windows 8 held 5.93%, down from 6.29% the month before.

With almost 53% of the combined Win 8/8.1 user base, Windows 8.1 achieved its greatest share to date. That said, it remains somewhat puzzling that more Win 8 users haven't moved to 8.1, given that the update is free and earned better reviews than its maligned predecessor. Moreover, Win 8/8.1 combined for only 12.54% of users, which was not only less than half Windows XP's share, but also down from May's 12.64%.

Apple's top performer was Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks), which is the current version. It grabbed 3.95% of users. That accounted for almost three-fifths of the overall Mac user base. Fewer than 14% of Windows customers, in contrast, have moved to Windows 8 or 8.1. Apple CEO Tim Cook made a similar comparison last month, arguing that Mac customers find OS X more appealing than Windows customers find Windows 8 or 8.1. That might be true, but Net Application's numbers still point to concerns for Apple.

Macs accounted for only 6.73% of PC users overall -- Apple's worst share so far this year. There's a certain amount of noise implicit in Net Applications' sampling methodology, but Apple's computers appear to have lost steam in recent months. OS X's June share was down precipitously from 7.39% in May, and 7.62% in April. The company recently introduced low-cost iMac and MacBook Air models, but Apple this year has otherwise left its consumer PC lineup relatively unchanged. Some would-be customers might have grown impatient and moved on, and some might be waiting for product refreshes.

Windows accounted for 91.53% of the market in June, up from 90.99% in May. Still, Microsoft is surely concerned by Windows 8 and 8.1's stalled growth. Newer, flashier devices could help, including the Surface Pro 3 as well as the fleet of svelte, powerful Ultrabooks recently introduced at the Computex trade show. But Microsoft is moving toward a cloud-focused future, while most of its Windows customers stick with OSes rooted in the past. Based on the most recent rumors, the company will attempt to reenergize the user base with Windows 9. It will allegedly run differently on different types of devices, and will include a desktop-oriented version in which the tiled Start screen is disabled by default.

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To multitask in Windows 8, you had to jump between drastically different UIs. But Windows 8.1 changes that: Get more productive using these tips.
Microsoft Office For iPad Vs. iWork Vs. Google

Heading into July, just under half the combined Windows 8 and 8.1 user base is still using the first version of the new operating system. That's puzzling. After all, critics and users both trashed Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 Update has earned significantly better marks.

Some of the resistance to Windows 8.1 can be explained. A number of users have experienced update problems, the most extreme and long-running of which simply disallows Windows 8.1 from installing through the Windows Store. Microsoft is working on a fix. But the problem isn't widespread enough to explain why half the Win 8/8.1 user base has stuck with the maligned original version.

New device sales contribute to Windows 8.1's share, which means that among Windows 7 users who upgraded to Windows 8, a huge number -- perhaps over half -- have ignored upgrades. These people use non-touch machines, which only makes their hesitancy more baffling. Whereas Windows 8 is awkward for mouse-and-keyboard users, Windows 8.1 Update works well on both touch and traditional hardware.

[Does Microsoft finally have a winning tablet? Read Microsoft Surface Pro 3: Customers Speak.]

Some industry watchers, including those with ties inside the company, have said the Windows 8 brand is tarnished beyond repair. The operating system's poor reputation explains, or so the commentary goes, why Microsoft is allegedly barreling toward a new Windows version codenamed Threshold. Likely to launch as Windows 9, it reportedly will restore the Start menu to the desktop interface and de-emphasize Live Tiles for non-tablet devices, among other major changes. Have Windows 8 users become so disenchanted they have simply lost faith in Microsoft and are dismissing subsequent updates?

Whatever the reason for hesitancy, if you're still using the original version of Windows 8, especially on anything other than a traditional tablet, consider giving Windows 8.1 a try. No, it's not perfect, but it's miles ahead of the Frankenstein-esque original edition, especially if you're a multitasker.

To multitask in Windows 8, you had to jump between drastically different UIs, but the newest versions offer a much more cohesive and productive experience. Whether you're new to Windows 8.1 Update or an experienced user looking to hone your multitasking skills, we've got you covered. Here are five tips to get you started.

1. One person's tool is another person's distraction.
If you didn't like Windows 8's changes, the OS didn't give you many options. Want to boot directly to the desktop? Too bad. But Windows 8.1 Update is much more flexible. It not only recognizes whether it's running on a tablet or PC and attempts to choose the right settings, but also gives you plenty of options to customize the interface to your preference. With a few minutes' work in PC Settings, you can enable or disable a variety of features, such as boot-to-desktop mode and smart corners. If you want a touch-centric Tile interface, you got it. If you want Windows 8.1 Update to act like a faster, more secure version of Windows 7 (minus the Start menu), you can more or less do that, too.

There are several ways to get started. From the Start screen, you can click the new PC Settings Live Tile, or activate the Charms menu (swipe from the right of a touchscreen, or mouse to the top-right hot corner) and select Change PC Settings. Once you've reached PC Settings, choose PC and devices, which includes a variety of personalization controls.

2. Use the taskbar to switch between legacy and Modern apps.
If you use both Modern and desktop apps, the taskbar makes a great navigation center. In Windows 8.1 Update, you can pin both types of apps to the taskbar. By launching apps from the taskbar (instead of, say, the Start screen, or a desktop shortcut), you'll save yourself the disruption of jumping between the desktop and the tiled Start screen.