Microsoft hasn’t yet announced the release date for its newest operating system, but it has given us a release season.
Microsoft Windows 10 will officially release in summer 2015. Microsoft announced that info during the WinHEC summit that recently took place in Shenzhen, China.
Microsoft also announced that the operating system will be simultaneously released to over 190 countries. Since there are only 196 countries in the world, I’m mostly curious to find out which countries won’t get Windows 10.
Microsoft also claims the OS will be released in 111 different languages.
During a brief presentation, Microsoft talked about how Windows is currently used by 1.5 billion people around the world, with hundreds of millions of those users in China. Of course, Microsoft didn’t say how many of those hundreds of millions were using pirated versions of Windows. But hey, who cares?
Microsoft also showed Windows 10 running in Mandarin during the presentation to the Chinese audience.
Introducing Windows Hello
One nifty feature called Windows Hello was previewed during the summit. Windows Hello is a biometric authentication system that allows you to log onto your Windows PC and access personal data or locked applications using your face, fingerprint, or iris.
At the same time, Microsoft released this preview video which shows exactly how Hello works:
Basically, you sit down at your PC and your computer recognizes your face. You also won’t need to enter passwords when accessing folders or sensitive applications thanks to a feature called Microsoft Passport.
Basically, Windows Hello gains you access to your computer, while Microsoft Passport verifies your access to protected documents.
There’s an illuminated IR sensor and fingerprint reader on Windows 10 laptops. You’ll need to use these sensors to accurately scan your face. The IR sensor is used to see through cosmetics on your face as well as low-light or bright-light conditions.
Microsoft has even integrated “anti-spoofing” features that prevent someone from holding up a printed picture of your face to gain access to your computer. You can see that feature at work around the 2:56 mark of the video above.
Even more amazing, your iris and face information is never stored by Microsoft. It’s not transmitted or used in a way that anyone can recreate it. Instead, it’s stored locally. So even if Microsoft’s servers were compromised, no user data would be at risk.
Microsoft seems to be making bold moves that will make Windows 10 the biggest tech release of the summer. I mean, how cool will it be to sit down in front of your computer and have it greet you?
