Windows 10: Love means never having to say upgrade

Microsoft doesn’t just want you to like Windows 10 — it wants you love it.

But love is a loaded word, too strong of an emotion to feel after we were jilted by Windows 8, or by Windows Vista. And after we gave the steady Windows XP the best years of our lives, it just up and left us without support.

Yes, Microsoft says it’s sorry for the mistakes of its past, and promises that Windows 10 will remain true. There won’t be a Windows 11 or 12, because “once you’re on 10, you’ll be upgraded perpetually,” said senior product marketing manager Will Dixon.

That’s a big change for Microsoft. Instead of trying to sell us new operating systems, it’s marketing Windows 10 as an ongoing service.

“We designed it to be the best Windows ever,” Dixon said.

After using Windows 10 for a short time last week, I found that Dixon might be right. It certainly puts Windows on par with Apple’s Macintosh OS X, which also reached 10 and stopped counting. In some aspects, Windows 10 might even be better.

For starters, Microsoft brought the “Start” navigation button back to its natural place — the lower left corner of the screen. For Windows 8, Microsoft tried to get too fancy and modern by replacing the start button with big application tiles that confusingly hid everything else on the desktop because they took over the entire screen.

The tactic was great for newer tablets and desktop monitors with touch screens, so it got high marks from those users. The rest of us stuck with a mouse and keyboard hated it.

Windows 10 uses a compromise — as with Windows 7 and earlier, the start button pulls up a short list of the programs you use the most. It also calls up those Windows 8-style interactive program tiles. Only this time they’re smaller, filling less than a third of the screen. That makes launching apps like weather, mail, photos or calendar much faster and intuitive.

The best new feature lets you create multiple desktops, which will increase your multitasking speed.

If, for example, you’re working on three different projects for different clients, you can create separate desktops for the applications needed for each client. With one button on the task bar, you can see miniature versions of each desktop and quickly hop from one to another.

Or, let’s say you like to browse Reddit at work and don’t want your boss to find out. Two desktops means you’re in the clear — as long as you’re quick on the click.

Microsoft has also brought Cortana, a Siri-style personal digital assistant application that debuted on Windows mobile phones, to the desktop. Cortana is supposed to learn over time what type of information you need to know most urgently. For me, it showed the weather, my calendar and top headlines. Somehow, it also knew to suggest upcoming “Star Wars” show times.

Cortana (voiced by Jen Taylor, the same actress who voices the Cortana character in the “Halo” video game series) gives Windows 10 a little personality. We asked her to tell us a story, and she said: “He was a super hero. She could talk to animals. In their 40 years together, they saved a lot of kittens from a lot of trees.”

Windows 10 also introduces Edge, a faster Web browser that replaces Microsoft’s outmoded Internet Explorer. Its features include the ability to type or draw directly on a Web page to highlight the exact information you want to share with a friend or colleague. There’s also a special view that changes fonts and background colors on Web pages to make reading easier on your eyes.

Windows 10 is a free upgrade for one year after its July 29 release. Your computer needs to be running on the latest versions of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.

So the price is right, and Windows 10 is a definite step up from those older operating systems. But, as with many programs, adding features can mean sacrificing privacy. You should take the time to fully consider the information on Windows 10’s set-up screens that make you agree to statements like this:

“Personalize your speech, typing and linking input by sending contacts and calendar details, along with other associated input data to Microsoft .... Let Windows and apps request your location, including location history, and use your advertising ID to personalize your experiences. Send Microsoft and trusted partners some location data to improve location services.”

So while I do like Windows 10, I’m not ready for love. It’s going to have to prove itself over time.