The secret to its success is Cortana, a voice assistant ported over from Windows Phone and whose name comes from the Halo video game franchise. Search / Cortana - Windows 8 offers fairly decent online search baked into its controversial Start Screen and Windows 7 only offers local searches (what is on the computer itself), Windows 10 easily trumps them both.

Windows 10 is the single operating system working across all Microsoft desktops, laptops, tablets. Best of all, Xbox One streaming is fast and responsive and again it will not come to Windows 7 or Windows 8 at a later date. Controllers for the Xbox One are compatible with Windows 10 PCs and you can be playing The Witcher 3 on your desktop or laptop in minutes. In addition Windows 10 supports streaming games from an Xbox One. Windows 7 and Windows 8 will never get access to DX12. Initial reports suggested DX12 would bring a 30-40% performance gain over DX11 and whereas the reality is closer to 10-20% that’s still money for old rope. Gaming -Windows 10 brings with it DirectX 12 and for serious gamers this is a must have. Read more- Windows 10: Should You Upgrade? Yes Windows 10 really does run through every device and the user interface can adapt to its environment - be that phone, tablet or PC and touch, mouse or keyboard interaction. Microsoft’s ‘Continuum’ feature allows you to potentially connect a phone or tablet to a monitor and keyboard and use it like a PC.Apps in the new Windows Store will run on any device which means a single version of Angry Birds works everywhere.Flexibility And Universal Apps -Where Microsoft deserves a lot of credit with Windows 10 is its ambition because the OS will run across all future Microsoft devices from desktops and laptops, to hybrids, tablets and smartphones.

Windows 7 date of release