windows10

It’s almost been a month since Microsoft launched Windows 10 and in that time the company claims to have got over 75 million devices running on its new software.

The announcement was made by Yusuf Mehdi, VP of the Windows and Devices Group at Microsoft, in a tweet storm that revealed quite a few interesting stats.

According to Mehdi, Windows 10 is now running in 192 countries and on more than 90,000 unique PC or tablet models. The oldest devices being updated to Windows 10 are back from 2007.

The figures all seem positive and are squarely aimed at wooing developers to now build apps for Windows 10, in an attempt to end the Windows app drought.

Microsoft also says that it has seen 6x more app downloads per device from the Windows store for Windows 10 than Windows 8, signifying that users are now more proactive.

All in all, it seems that Microsoft’s bet to provide Windows 10 as a free upgrade to Windows 7 and Windows 8 users has been a great success.

While growth will eventually slow, by restricting the free upgrade scheme for only the first year, Microsoft can get Windows 10 on a sizable chunk of the 1 billion planned devices before that period runs out.

Microsoft has begun saving the Windows 10 activation status for a device online. This means that once you’ve activated Windows 10 successfully, all future activations will be done automatically without the need for a product key.

The move makes clean installing Windows on a PC a much easier task, which previously required a product key for every installation. Microsoft ties every Windows activation to a specific device using a unique ID.

With Windows 7 and Windows 8, Microsoft used a hashed value that was recorded in its activation database alongside the product key. Later, reinstalling the same version of Windows on the same hardware with the same product key then automatically activated the software.

With Windows 10, the company stores a digital entitlement (Windows 10 license certificate) alongside the device ID if the install is detected as genuine. When a user reinstalls Windows 10, you don’t need to enter a product key to activate since the digital license is now tied to your hardware.

Long story short, once your Windows 10 install gets activated, you can now wipe your hard disk boot from Windows 10 installation media to have a squeaky clean PC. While the setup does ask you to enter the product key, it can be skipped.

If you reinstall with the same version of Windows 10 on the same hardware you should find yourself automatically activated. Just keep in mind that trying to install a copy of Windows that came preinstalled with a device you bought from an OEM on another PC will not work.

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Just 24 hours after releasing the Windows 10 free upgrade, Microsoft has announced that adoption has been great, with over 14 million devices already running the software.

Further, the company notes that it is rolling out Windows 10 to users of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 in phases in order to ensure a great upgrade experience for users.

Windows 10 has received high praise from initial reviewers and users, possibly contributing to the enthusiastic adoption of the latest OS from Microsoft.

Not everyone who has registered for the Windows 10 upgrade has received it yet, and the company said the best way to know when to upgrade is to keep an eye on the little notification icon in the system tray.

Further, users can also clean install Windows 10 on their systems by downloading the ISO from the Microsoft website and using their Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 product key to activate the software.

Microsoft is sweetening the deal for many more users to upgrade to Windows 10 by making its virtual assistant Cortana available in more regions.

The company has announced that Cortana will be available Japan, Australia, Canada, India, Brazil and Mexico a few months into the launch.

Cortana will also make its debut in the U.S., UK, China, France, Italy, Germany and Spain on July 29, alongside the Windows 10 global launch.

Microsoft is trying to pique interest by bringing its virtual assistant to the desktop, hopefully sparking some consumer interest in its smartphones.

However, it’s interesting to see that Microsoft is also bringing Cortana to Android and iOS mobile device platforms, meaning users will not have to be tied down to its Windows ecosystem to use it.

To roll out Cortana in different regions, the company studied what was important in a personal assistant in that market. Based on that research, Microsoft assembled a local team of creative writers, editors, programmers and voice talent to build a relevant experience.

For example, in Japan, a high level of politeness is valued, so Cortana is programmed to bow by default.

Microsoft has confirmed that its Edge browser that ships with Windows 10 will not support its own Silverlight web-based media player.

The reason cited for the change was that support for ActiveX had been discontinued with Edge, removing support for Silverlight too.

Edge will not use many of the features of its older Internet Explorer browsers as the company wanted to move away from legacy technology that was holding it back.

Microsoft added that it will continue to support Silverlight but advises companies to transition to DASH/MSE/CENC/EME based designs and to follow a single, DRM-interoperable encoding workflow enabled by CENC.

Silverlight was Microsoft’s alternative to Adobe’s Flash player which was launched back in 2007. Since 2011 the company hasn’t released a new version of Silverlight and hasn’t indicated plans to do so in the future too.