In case you missed it, this Wednesday Microsoft held its first conference to dig into the nitty gritty details of what we can expect from Windows 10. Everything from a refreshed UI to a holographic 3D modeling workshop are said to be a part of the new push, and today they’ve announced that members of the company’s Insider Program will have a chance to get their hands on the January build for the first time.

The build, version 9926, will feature some (but not all), of the new toys and upgrades we saw during Wednesday’s presentation. The biggest upgrade of all of course is Cortana, a fully functional Siri-esque digital assistant that responds to voice activated commands, but not all of its features are enabled in the just-released build.

Related: Hands-on with Cortana in Windows 10

Next is the new Start menu. While not a lot has been changed from what we got with Windows 8.1, the company has heard the voices of the people, and decided to integrate the ability to automatically expand everything out to full screen if you’re using your computer in tablet or touch-ready mode instead of with a traditional mouse and keyboard.

Microsoft will be testing the marketplace waters with their new Windows Store Beta. Other new apps include Xbox, Photos and Maps. There’s also a streamlined Settings experience, which does not replace the Control Panel but does replace the difficult Settings app found in Windows 8.1.

Related: Windows 10 updates Start menu with full-screen mode

If you’re not already a part of the Windows Insider Program but would like to find out how to apply, you can visit Microsoft’s portal for newcomers here. The new build is available to all Insiders at the time of this writing and can be installed either as an upgrade to Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. Users already running Windows 10 can upgrade to it directly from the Metro-style Update app.

Related Posts

New study shows AI isn’t ready for office work

A reality check for the "replacement" theory

Google Research suggests AI models like DeepSeek exhibit collective intelligence patterns

The paper, published on arXiv with the evocative title Reasoning Models Generate Societies of Thought, posits that these models don't merely compute; they implicitly simulate a "multi-agent" interaction. Imagine a boardroom full of experts tossing ideas around, challenging each other's assumptions, and looking at a problem from different angles before finally agreeing on the best answer. That is essentially what is happening inside the code. The researchers found that these models exhibit "perspective diversity," meaning they generate conflicting viewpoints and work to resolve them internally, much like a team of colleagues debating a strategy to find the best path forward.

Microsoft tells you to uninstall the latest Windows 11 update

https://twitter.com/hapico0109/status/2013480169840001437?s=20