I just installed Windows 10 for the first time today and I started playing around with it to see the hype about all of the new features especially the fact about the return of the Start menu.
Well, as it turns out, there are definitely some nice new features that are an improvement over Windows 8/8.1, but still does not bring back the comfort and ease-of-use of Windows 7.
The Windows button is back and it sports a whole new Start Menu that basically brings the Metro screen into the Start menu and gets rid of the Charms bar altogether:
Unlike the earlier versions of the Start menu in Windows 7, you will notice that there is no "Programs" menu option. Instead, there is an All apps menu option.
The All apps menu option provides an alphabetized version of all of the Apps/Programs on the system.
If I want to expand the display of the Metro Apps, I can click on the 4-arrow icon in the upper right hand corner to expand the Start menu to fill the screen similar to the Metro Start menu in Windows 8/8.1:
Unfortunately, all of the categorizations for separating Administrative tools from common tools are not present in this structure.
If I right click on the Start menu, I get a set of menu options that provide me with some Administrative Tool options but certainly not the comprehensive set:
I still miss the ability to customize the Start menu the way I could easily do in Windows 7 with different menus and options for Favorites, Links etc. Maybe they will bring back those features before the RTM release of Windows 10...
In the new Taskbar, you will see a fixed search bar which allows you to search your entire computer without directly opening the Start menu:
One of the tools that ships with Windows 10 is the Snipping Tool that functions like a screen capture utility such as TechSmith SnagIt:
This tool will definitely come in handy for all those users that simply need quick and easy screen capture capabilities and don't want to go through the hassle of copying and pasting into MS Paint or MS Word to achieve this functionality.
Windows Explorer has a slightly updated and refreshed look, but it is not significantly different from what Windows Explorer looked like in Windows 8/8.1:
This new version of Windows ships with Microsoft.NET Framework v. 4.6 (as is to be expected).
In addition, the overall boot time and performance of this OS seems significantly better than any of its predecessors, but that might change as I begin to install more and more programs/applications into the OS. Even Windows 8/8.1 booted faster than Windows 7 initially, but as soon as I began using it heavily, the performance degraded significantly just like every other Windows OS previously so I will just have to wait and see.
There are numerous Windows UserVoice feedback items about installing applications in "registry free" mode or getting rid of the Windows Registry in a manner similar to OS X, but I don't think those ideas will see the light of day with the release of Windows 10. An idea like that would require a radical overhaul and breaking changes to all existing applications which might take several years before such an OS emerges from the Microsoft team.