Microsoft Windows 10 Will Be Available In 190 Countries And 111 Languages By This Summer

Forbes ^ | 03/19/2015 | Amit Chowdry

[SeekAndFind]

At the Windows Hardware Engineering Community (WinHEC) event in Shenzhen, China, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 will be available this summer in 190 countries and 111 languages. Windows is currently used by over 1.5 billion users around the world. Windows 10 will be offered as a free upgrade to customers who have Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 for the first year after it is released. Microsoft Windows head Terry Myerson told Reuters that the free upgrade to Windows 10 is available for all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine.

Microsoft has partnered with Lenovo , Tencent and Qihu 360 to “spur adoption of Windows 10 worldwide.” Lenovo will be offering Windows 10 upgrade services at 2,500 service centers and retail stores in China along with selling Windows phones through China Mobile .

Tencent will launch its QQ app and many of its popular PC games like “League of Legends,” “Cross Fire” and “Dungeon & Fighter” for Windows 10. Internet security company Qihu 360 will offer Windows 10 for free to their customers in China. And Xiaomi will be setting up a group of Mi 4 smartphone “power users” with a program to help test Windows 10.

Microsoft’s deal with Xiaomi — which is known as the Windows Insider Program — is interesting because Xiaomi’s flagship products are Android-based smartphones. How will Xiaomi Mi4 users be able to replace the Android-based operating system with Windows? Apparently Microsoft created a custom-based ROM to overwrite the Android operating system in the Mi4 with Windows. This is similar to the way that CyanogenMod offers a customized version of Android that replaces the default Android operating system that ships with a device.

[Resettozero]

Will you get a Product Key with the free Upgrade?

Product key for Windows soon to be a thing of the past? (It's put in the BIOS by Microsoft since 8 or 8.1.)

[Excellence]

I just this week restored my Toshiba Win7 to out of the box condition. Was thinking of upgrading to Win8.1, since that’s what I’m running on my phone. It has 2 gig of ram and a 60 gig drive (aka cheap). Should I just wait and go straight to 10?

[NorthMountain]

Your call.

Me? I’m not putting Win8.anything on any computer under my control.

[Stentor]

Stick with 7 or even 8.1 as long as possible, even if 10 is offered for free.

I'm running the technical preview. One or two things are a little goofy but everything does the job or works exactly the same.

[Excellence]

I had 8.1 on my Dell Inspiron and was happy, but the memory cards died.

[Resettozero]

One or two things are a little goofy but everything does the job or works exactly the same.

Same as 8.1 or...what? If you mean 8.1, I disagree.

[Stentor]

Same as 8.1 or...what? If you mean 8.1, I disagree.

Crappy writing on my part. I mean all of the non Microsoft stuff I use. Sorry. It is different than 8.1.

[MaxMax]

WIn-7 Pro here also. If Win-10 improves performance over the 7-Pro I might be interested.
The interface change would be a least of my concerns as long as the customizing ability is there.

I skipped 8.1, never even messed with it, no reason to.

[SampleMan]

I liked it better when MS disappointed people in just a handful of languages.

[Tennessee Nana]

it goes back to the Desktop user interface by default, not that weird Modern tiled interface that drove users crazy.
_______________________________________

Hallelujah !!!

[TomGuy]

XP killed a scanner and printer.

Win7 killed a laser printer and some old DOS programs.

IE10 kills a tabbed browser with editing features not found on other browsers.

I skipped VISTA and Win8.

What hardware and software Win10 kill?

[TomGuy]

windows 7 type GUI

What idiot came up with ribbon menuing? That stuff is gosh-awful. Not only does it take up too much real estate, but it is difficult to navigate and find the functions.

What happened to buttons and blue-text links? They were easy to see, click on, and use. Win7 (and VISTA) changed from the buttons and blue links. Now, one has to move the mouse around to see if anything lights up.

The only advantage I found moving from XP to Win7 was the increased use of memory. Microsoft should have just upgraded XP with the capacity to use more memory.

Windows lost sight of productivity and replaced it with glitz. Glitz may be fine for those just wanting to check email and view Facebook, but it is not good when productivity is the objective.

[Organic Panic]

WOW. A ‘free upgrade’ to a new microsoft product. Hmmm. I’ll wait a while. I’ll test out on a windows 8 machine I hardly use. I hate Windows 8. Just hate it.

[RayChuang88]

I couldn’t agree more. The Desktop user interface is far better suited for desktop and “conventional” laptop machines, especially in corporate and government environments.

[edh]

“Win7 killed a laser printer and some old DOS programs.”

While it’d be worthless for your laser printer, did you try DosBox with your old DOS programs? I was able to run a bunch of old PLD software without a hitch in DosBox not to mention several old games I had lying around. If not, check it out. It’s pretty slick if you have to run a lot of legacy applications and don’t want to set up VMs and the like.

[Ronniesque]

Wasn’t it an issue of systems being confused by the 9, i.e. thinking it was Windows 95 or 98?

Or just in a hurry to get to the magical double-digit...

[TomGuy]

I have actually used DosBox. It is just inconvenient to have to load it to run an old DOS program.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

BFL

[Neidermeyer]

the free upgrade to Windows 10 is available for all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine.
*************************
So if you have pirated windows 7 you get a licensed copy of 10? If I build a new pc and load a bad copy of 7 I can instantly upgrade?

This is great for India and China...

[ops33]

“Windows 10 will be offered as a free upgrade to customers who have Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 for the first year after it is released.”

Not sure what this means. Does it mean that if I am a windows 8.1 user I have one year from the release date to upgrade to Windows 10 for free; or does it mean I can use Windows 10 for one year after its release, after which I must pay for it?