Microsoft launches Windows 10 - and it's free to current users

Microsoft has unveiled the latest version of its operating system, Windows 10, and announced it will be free to existing customers. The firm also has a new innovation called HoloLens, a virtual reality headset which overlays '3D' holograms on reality.

Showing off the new OS, designed to work equally well on PCs and mobile devices, Microsoft VP Terry Myerson explained that a streamlined new web browser, Spartan, will be built in. Integrated into the browser will be a "personal assistant", Cortana, intended as a rival to Apple's Siri or voice activated Google.

PC World is enthusiastic about Spartan. As well as a note-taking mode that lets you scribble on web pages for your own later reference, it includes an updated version of the "stellar" Windows 8 reading mode, says the site.

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"Reading mode strips all the ads and sidebar crud out of webpages, formatting articles so they appear similar to a book," says the site. "It's a wonderful thing."

But the big idea behind Windows 10 is 'OneCore' technology, says The Register, which it explains is a way of unifying Windows behind the scenes so that it can be used on phones, tablets and PCs.

OneCore allows developers to make one piece of software and then bolt on either a phone, tablet or PC interface. The hope is that this will help Microsoft get more apps onto its phones.

"After the false starts of Windows 8 and Windows Phone, Microsoft is taking a second stab at both tablets and phones, with a more converged Windows," says the website.

Microsoft's hope may be that OneCore will lead to more desktop apps moving over to its handheld devices, says The Register. But if so, the results will be "disappointing", predicts the site. It adds that in its efforts to improve its apps, Microsoft is, as ever, "late to the party".

To make things worse, analyst Jan Dawson believes that lack of apps is not the factor which has held back the tech giant's mobile strategy, pointing out that "all the apps available on Windows PCs are already available on Windows Phone".

Microsoft's problems with the mobile market are "deeper" than this, says The Register. The issues are a lack of desire for its mobile products among consumers and "structural supply problems", insists the tech site.

As for the HoloLens, the Daily Mail observes that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has described it as "magical" but would not say how much it cost. The firm hopes the technology that lets users 'see' objects which aren't really there but appear real will be picked up by other makers of augmented reality headsets, such as Google Glass, if it is resurrected by the search company.