While boasting strong installation numbers, Microsoft's Windows 10 run over the past 12 months has been less than ideal, despite the company making its operating system free for most.
The software giant has boasted that customer satisfaction is the highest it's ever been for one of its operating systems, but it's not existing users Microsoft has to win over. The operating system improved on nearly every feature that turned customers off Windows 8, but Microsoft has undone a lot of goodwill by forcing Windows 10 onto users.
With its first anniversary approaching on Friday and more than 350 million downloads, Microsoft's offer to upgrade to Windows 10 for free will expire on 29 July. Take a look at the achievements and controversies surrounding Windows 10 in its first year.
Microsoft announces Windows 10
30 September 2014
Nearly one year after the release of Windows 8.1, Microsoft revealed it was skipping 9 and going straight to 10. Touted as Microsoft's last operating system, Windows 10 was built with productivity in mind to win back enterprise users that refused to upgrade from Windows 7.
One of the biggest selling points to win over both enterprise and consumers was the ability to dynamically switch between touch-screen and desktop optimisation. Windows 10 also saw the return of the search bar after it was removed in Windows 8.
22 January 2015
Microsoft revealed that Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and mobile users could upgrade to Windows 10 for free up to one year after the release date. Microsoft also started referring to the Windows update approach as 'Windows-as-a-service', although Microsoft planned to continue selling the operating system outright.
8 May 2015
With Windows 10, Microsoft said it would no longer push its updates on Tuesdays like it had done in the past. Instead, updates would be released as soon as they were ready.
Enterprises were introduced to Windows Update for Business, a free service allowing IT professionals to monitor Windows 10 updates.
The seven flavours of Windows 10
15 May 2015
Keeping with tradition, Microsoft announced that there would be seven different versions of Windows 10: Home, Mobile, Pro, Enterprise, Education, Mobile Enterprise and Internet of Things Core.
1 June 2015
Microsoft announced Windows 10 would be available in 190 markets, including Australia, on 29 July as a free update. Chief executive Satya Nadella said he hopes the new operating system would run on 50 percent of the world's PCs by 2018, reaching over one billion users.
5 June 2015
Microsoft published its final specification list for Windows including all of the new features that would be added in the initial incarnation.
However, it was also revealed that Windows 10 Home users would no longer have the option of choosing when to install updates.
29 July 2015
Windows 10 began rolling out as a free update to users. Windows 7 Home Basic and Home Premium users, as well as Windows 8 and 8.1 users were upgraded to Windows 10 Home. Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate, as well as Windows 8 and 8.1 Pro users were upgraded to Windows 10 Pro.
15 September 2015
The Inquirer broke the story that Windows 10 files were downloading on to PCs without consent from users.
The files ranged in size between 3.5 GB and 6 GB and were hidden in a folder called $Windows.~BT. Updates continued to be mandatory, although Microsoft introduced a tool in the beta version that allowed Windows 10 users to block updates.
Resellers slam unwanted downloads
17 September 2015
Australian resellers told CRN they had been receiving complaints about large, unsolicited Windows 10 downloads, particularly in regional areas from customers with small download limits.
Customers also had issues with installing the operating system, as botched installations led to resellers having wind back to an earlier operating system.
Next: Microsoft changes tune
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