Time is running out to take advantage of Microsoft's offer to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. While the exact date that the offer ends hasn't yet been announced, it is likely to be towards the end of July - a year after the initial release of Windows 10.
In related Windows 10 news, further details have emerged about the big anniversary update that is in the works for the operating system. As we have covered before, Microsoft's current plan is to continually evolve Windows 10 rather than save all new feature updates for a new version of Windows. They have previously announced that Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows.
Last month, we outlined a series of new features that are coming in this update. These included the ability for 3rd parties to sell apps via the Windows Store, facial recognition and much greater integration with various Linux tools.
In the latest development version of the update, some more changes are now apparent. The most obvious of these is a change to the Start Menu. Assuming things stay as they are, this will add an extra column to the left of the start menu that will contain icons for power, settings, file explorer, and a few other things. The column that currently contains these options will become an always visible "All Apps" menu. There's also big improvements to pen support on touch-based devices.