Windows 10 is nearly one year old come July and we expect an update to come out to all of you who have switched to 10 in the past nine months. The Update will be free for users [non-business] including those using W7 and 8, but not after July when you need to pay for an upgrade.

What can we expect to see in the birthday edition?

The new Windows 10 Anniversary Update features innovations for Windows Ink, Cortana, Windows Hello, Skype and gaming.

Windows Ink is a new experience, putting the power of Windows in the tip of your pen. With Windows Ink, you can write on your device as you do on paper using a digital pen to create sticky notes, draw on a whiteboard and easily share your analogue thoughts in the digital world by making notes through a new shortcut panel, a bit like the yellow sticky notes you place on the screen, but which will also recognize handwriting and automatically place the notes with similar other information.

New Cortana [The Window equivalent to Apple’s Siri], which we still haven’t got in New Zealand yet, enables you to receive proactive guidance from Cortana throughout the day, and to speak with Cortana, even while your device is locked [enabled by the user], without logging in. New Windows Hello features extend the security of Windows 10 to multiple devices and to Microsoft Edge browser, so you can log into your devices and websites with professional-grade security.

Also new willl be the use of Skype together with Microsoft’s upcoming VR Hololens headset, another awaited product. Meanwhile it looks as if Windows 10 operating system will shortly overtake Windows 7 as the preferred OS in most countries and in NZ 60% of users said they will update to W10.

These are just a few of the many features that we expect to become available this winter when the Windows 10 Anniversary Update becomes broadly available.

Meanwhile, happy computing.