Microsoft’s Gabe Aul announced today that the latest January Windows 10 build is now available for members of the Windows insider program. While not all of the features talked about in Microsoft’s briefing earlier this week are included, there is a nice amount to check out.
Windows 10 Technical Preview Build 9926
The build is being pushed out to both Slow and Fast rings. You’ll get the update automatically via Windows Update, but to get started now, go to just go to PC Settings > Update and Recovery > Preview Builds.
It is a full build and will be installed as an in-place upgrade.
In this build you can expect to see Cortana on the desktop – which was talked about at nauseam during Wednesday’s briefing. If you downloaded and played with the leaked 9901 build, you were able to experiment with Cortana on the desktop a little bit. And you can assume it will be better integrated and work better with this official build.
There is also a new Start menu that has been tweaked a bit, a new Settings app, Continuum – which allows you to easily switch between desktop and touch mode, a new Windows Store Beta, and a new Photos and Maps “universal” apps.
I haven’t been able to test anything out on this new build yet, but am downloading it right now. As we dig into the new features this weekend, we’ll show you what the new features are like, and share any hidden nuggets we might find.
Many of the new features talked about by Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore in this week’s press briefing are available but not all of them. For more on what you can expect, check out the video below where Joe shares what’s coming in Windows 10 when officially released later this year.
After kicking the tires on this new build, let us know what you think of the progress of Windows 10 so far.
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Karl K
January 24, 2015 at 6:42 am
PUH-LEAZE get rid of that %#@$! on-screen widget on the left side of your articles! (You know, the place to Twitter, G+, facebook, et cetera)!
Michel
January 24, 2015 at 9:42 am
It took 20 years to MS to to jump above Apple, but I really think that they have done it and they will finally prove in 1 to 2 years from now that they were right.
I have a WinPhone and a Nexus 5. The winPhone is running 8.1 in english which to me is temporary since I am a french canadian and am looking forward to use Cortana to speed up the things since I have a rough time doing it in the care running from 1 customer to another.
Had bought an iPad 1, it was nice but my business is run through Windows, my customers ALL use Windows, so to me Mac is cute, but I can’t earn a living with it and am not interested of paying extra because said so. I won’t dig into that especially after having read his life in the 600 plus pages, let’s just say that I didn’t share ANY of his way of thinking with his partners, loers, and especially childrens.
MS it’s about time and I am looking forward to switching all my PC’S Laptops, phones and tablets to Windows once and for all.
Ziggy
January 24, 2015 at 5:23 pm
Keep in mind this is only a Technical Preview, so I wouldn’t bother installing this on your main machine.
The best approach would be to run it in something like VirtualBox, where it seems to work just fine…at least so far it does!
Steve Krause
January 25, 2015 at 10:57 am
Such little faith Ziggy! ;)
But yeah — I’m keeping this on my spare box for now. Wise counsel for sure — except for the crazies like Brian. :)
Brian Burgess
January 25, 2015 at 2:53 pm
Oh make no mistake, I don’t have this installed on my main production box. I have it installed on a couple test laptops and a VM though.