It’s been a decade since Windows 10 was first announced in October. That first build of the brand-new Windows Insider Program was pretty much Windows 8 with a Start Menu, and in fact, much of what was to become Windows 10 wasn’t even announced until January.
Between October 1, 2014, and July 29, 2015, the Windows Insider Program released a whole bunch of preview builds, and every single one was big news.
Windows Phone was failing, Windows 8 was a flop, and no one was making new apps for Windows anymore despite the new touchscreen interface. Moreover, the end of life for Windows 7 was around the corner, and Microsoft was due to face the same issues with the Windows XP EOL — people weren’t likely to upgrade their existing PCs, which still worked fine.
Windows 10 was going to be a revolution. First of all, it would roll back the changes in Windows 8 while keeping some of the touch-friendly elements. That meant the Start Menu returned and full-screen apps were going away. Those Metro apps, which were succeeded by UWP, would run in Windows like any other app.
And UWP was a big change as well. Microsoft was going to leverage its strength in the desktop market by having developers convert their apps into “universal” apps, which would have a responsive design that scaled across different interfaces. In other words, a desktop app would work on phones too.
Bridges were another way to close the app gap. Windows 10 was going to be able to run Android apps, and iOS developers would be able to recompile their code to turn their iOS apps into Windows apps. The part about Android apps was called Project Astoria, and that was scrapped before the public release of Windows 10. It worked in Windows 10 Mobile previews though.
Windows 10 launched on July 29, 2015, as a free upgrade for anyone running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. A free upgrade for Windows Phone 8.1 was promised to arrive later. It didn’t go too well.
First of all, Microsoft was pushing the free upgrade hard. After all, one of the goals was to stop competing with itself. It truly wanted all Windows users on the same platform.
There’s an endless supply of methods Microsoft used to get people to upgrade, from full-screen ads to the infamous ‘Get Windows 10’ app that sat in your system tray, to silently changing the default behavior of upgrade prompts so that you’d get upgraded if you clicked the message away.
There’s also an endless supply of user stories waking up one day to Windows 10 on their PCs without them ever realizing they might have opted in. On top of all of this, Windows 10 wasn’t ready. The OS was supposed to launch that fall, but OEMs wanted it pushed up, so we got an immature release.
The first feature update: The Windows 10 we were supposed to get
Windows 10 version 1511 (version numbers were the two-digit year and the two-digit month) was mostly a fit-and-finish style update. It did have some interesting new features, such as a trio of Skype apps for messaging, phone calls, and video calls. Indeed, Skype was to be integrated with the OS, an idea that was weirdly received as radical.
Microsoft started phasing these apps out by the next release. But since Windows 10 was supposed to launch that fall rather than in the summer, that’s when we got the ‘big bang’ hardware release.
At a November event, Microsoft announced the Surface Pro 4, Surface Book, Lumia 950 and 950 XL, Lumia 550, and Microsoft Band 2. In truth, when Panos Panay revealed that the screen could be detached from the Surface Book, that was his finest moment as a presenter. All of those products were riddled with problems. For Surface, Microsoft was the first to use Intel’s ‘Skylake’ chips, which had lots of power management issues.
The Windows 10 Mobile update for existing devices arrived on March 17, 2016, but there was a catch. Microsoft broke its promise of upgrading all Windows Phone 8.1 devices. It had a subset of phones that would get the update, which was pretty much anything that shipped with Windows Phone 8.1.
That wasn’t the only catch. In order to get Windows 10 Mobile, you had to download an app and opt into it. There was no prompt to do this either. You just had to know that this thing existed and know how to get it.
The Windows 10 Anniversary Update: Windows 10 matures
The only feature update that was released in 2016 was the Anniversary Update, which came out on August 2, 2016. It had interesting new features like Windows Ink, a platform of tools that was made for pen support.
Microsoft also introduced the new Skype UWP (Universal Windows Platform) app. Yes, this was in the first update after it introduced integrated Skype apps, which were being killed off at this point.
For Windows 10 Mobile, users got a Wallet app and wireless continuum. The Anniversary Update was pretty feature-packed for its day.
There was one other notable change that happened shortly before this. The Windows Insider Program, which was led by Gabe Aul, was transferred to Dona Sarkar. For the time, it was a big deal because the Program itself was a big deal. Gabe Aul had fans. Remember, interest in Windows 10 was huge, partly because it was such a radical change and partly because Microsoft was so open about it.
See also: How opatch can secure your Windows 10 after Microsoft ends support in 2025
The Creator era: 2017
Microsoft released two Windows 10 updates in 2017, the Creators Update and the Fall Creators Update. This is where Paint 3D comes into play, folks.
It felt like everything in Windows was going 3D at the time. When Microsoft launched the Surface Studio in 2016, it also announced Windows Mixed Reality, headsets that connected to Windows PCs that would only cost a few hundred dollars, while competitors were twice that much.
Of course, by the time Windows Mixed Reality headsets shipped, companies like Oculus were doing standalone VR and headsets that were tethered and much cheaper, but that’s neither here nor there. The point is that Microsoft was pushing Windows Mixed Reality. Everything was about 3D creation because Microsoft was betting big on VR.
2017 also marked the nail in the coffin for Windows 10 Mobile. The Fall Creators Update, or version 1709, came from the Redstone 3 branch on PCs, but for the first time, Windows 10 Mobile came from a different branch. It was called ‘feature2’, and it lacked any kind of features at all. This ended up being the final feature update for Microsoft’s phone OS.
This was the first year when Microsoft offered a spring and a fall update, a pattern that it formalized later. The fall update was always the one that focused on stability, and getting longer support for businesses.
It didn’t have the stability that year though. The Windows 10 version 1709 release was actually a disaster. You see, Microsoft had let go of most of its internal product testers when it launched the Windows Insider Program. Why pay people to test a product when you can have fans do it for free? The third branch of the Program was called Release Preview; it was designed for updates that were ready to be released.
Microsoft skipped the Release Preview ring with the Fall Creators Update. The company took the stage at its annual Surface launch event and said it was available for download immediately. It wasn’t long before some users found that their files had been deleted. Uh oh. The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update was pulled, and re-released in November.
2018 and beyond
From Steven Sinofsky’s dream of everyone moving to touchscreen PCs and 2-in-1s with Windows 8 to Terry Myerson at the helm with Windows 10, the goal was always to make Windows cool and modernize the platform. People use Windows as a tool. They get the things they need done and they put away their computer, but they’re on their phones all the time. How could Microsoft make Windows as pleasant as your phone?
It just never worked. The mixed reality pushes, the mobile apps in the store, the tablet PCs, and so on; it just seemed that Windows was destined to remain a utility, and Microsoft more or less resigned to that mindset. Terry Myerson left Microsoft in late 2018, and for a while, there wasn’t a face of Windows.
From there, feature updates didn’t have any exciting features, and Microsoft even got gun-shy about promising features. At Build 2017, Joe Belfiore said a bunch of things were coming in the Fall Creators Update, and some didn’t ship on time. But while most companies would simply say the feature got delayed and they’re working on it, Microsoft went out in true Microsoft fashion and deflected.
There was messaging along the lines that the features weren’t promised (again, it’s on video), and the Windows Insider Program was reformed so that no features in the preview were aligned with a feature release.
The Windows Insider Program got less exciting after that. The features weren’t as flashy, and some were being A/B tested in a program where you signed up to get the latest new features. It all just seemed messy and got harder to keep up with, which I suppose was the point.
Windows was essentially in maintenance mode, but then, something changed in 2020. A whole lot of people started working from home, and that meant a whole lot of people were buying Windows PCs. Suddenly, there was an opportunity in the ever-shrinking PC market again.
The last version of Windows
When the concept of Windows as a service was unveiled, the internal plan was that Windows 10 was going to be the last version of the OS. It was just going to be serviced forever. Sure, there might be UI overhauls and such, but it would always be called Windows 10. Remember, a key goal was that Microsoft didn’t want to compete with itself anymore.
The company never publicly said this. A developer evangelist named Jerry Nixon did, and the company just sort of didn’t correct him. You won’t find a Microsoft press release saying that Windows 10 was going to be the last version. The company just doesn’t do that. It likes to stay vague and not make promises.
And as we all know now, it didn’t end up being the last version. With the new PC boom, a new version of Windows would increase sales. Indeed, there’s a massive spike in Windows interest that comes with a new release.
Windows 11 was born.
Once again, Windows 11 was a free update, but this time, there wasn’t such a focus on upgrading old hardware. It requires an eighth-gen or newer Intel CPU, and similar AMD or Qualcomm specs. Even some hardware that shipped with Windows 10, like the original Surface Book, wasn’t eligible.
There was a TPU requirement as well, but that was pretty minor since there was a TPU requirement for new Windows 10 PCs before the required CPUs came out.
Support for Windows 10 ends in October 2025, and Microsoft will once again be competing with itself. One thing is for sure. Windows 10 laid the groundwork for the modern features that we enjoy today, despite the bumpy ride that it’s been.
And despite various challenges along the way, Microsoft adapted quickly. There’s always work to be done, but when you look at some of the stumbles with Windows 10 and how it didn’t take years to make changes from them, it’s impressive, happy 10th Anniversary Windows.
See also: Windows 11 compatibility check: how to know if your laptop or PC is eligible for upgrade
