One of my favourite things to do on the Windows side of computing is explore the latest insider preview builds to see what's new. I became a Windows Insider immediately when the very first insider preview became available. As mentioned in my Netbook article, I wanted to be the first kid in my school to run Windows 10 and get the chance to not only see what was new in this latest version, but to also have the ability to give Microsoft real feedback on their operating system and test it out to find any bugs that I could report.

So for this Friday night's project, I decided to hop onto the Windows Insider page and download the latest copy of Windows 10 Enterprise on the cutting edge Developer Channel! I chose to go with Enterprise for this review, since that's the industry standard for most businesses and most likely what I could encounter in a professional environment (if they run Windows), since Microsoft insists on forced updates for their main channels. The download and installation process was fairly straightforward and what I would expect from any standard Windows 10 installation.

The anticipation and excitement when I logged in for the first time definitely brought back memories from when I first installed Windows 10 Pro Insider on my netbook. The first thing I noticed with this installation was the freshly redesigned icons that most tech reporters are raving about (though, I'm still a fan of the older icon pack that was actually redesigned in Windows Vista, refreshed for Windows 7, and flattened out by Windows 8 and 10. Most people like to call these "Windows 95 era icons", but that is misleading, since those icons were primarily only used between Windows 95 and Windows 2000 with XP even seeing a slight refresh on some core icons). I'm not sure how I feel about the new flat UI styled icons compared to some of the outgoing 3D ones, but I will admit that they do look visually attractive and really give Windows 10 a distinct feeling from its predecessors. Another really helpful change I found in this latest build is the addition of a really helpful toolbar that displays your current weather with an attractive icon that shows if it's sunny, raining, or snowing outside. When you hover over this toolbar, you're greeted with a menu that contains your current weather, traffic updates, sports updates, stocks, top stories, as well as traffic updates (I've got my location set to Los Angeles for this VM to mask my actual location for privacy purposes). Naturally, when you hover away from this screen, it disappears instantly and lets you resume your work.

Some of my favourite preinstalled apps for productivity in this installation are the Alarms & Clock (having timers integrated into your PC mean that you can keep track of how much time you allocate to a certain task, which can be really helpful when studying and timing adequate breaks), Windows Terminal (which integrates PowerShell, Command Prompt, and Azure Cloud Shell into one helpful multi-tabbed window, similar to how Linux and Mac OS have done with their Terminals), and one of my favourite apps that I was surprised to see was originally removed from Windows 10 but made a comeback in the Windows Store, Sticky Notes (which can be useful when you want to jot down a quick note and keep your desk clutter free)

Of course, with any installation of Windows, the first thing it wanted to do was install the latest updates, which I expected to be the same ordinary setup from its debut on July 29, 2015. However, this is where I actually noticed a few more unexpected changes. Instead of your typical "Working on updates, Don't turn off your computer", this developer release instead went with a more friendly "Updates are underway. Please keep your computer on." This is a minor change, but it definitely makes the user experience feel slightly more personal and relaxed. However, when the Virtual Machine rebooted, I was surprised to have been greeted with a slightly different "Working on updates, Please keep your computer on", which appears to be a combination of the two phrases mentioned before, I'm assuming this is because the operating system I tested is still under active development at the time of writing this article.

When the system did reboot once again, I was surprised to see that Microsoft had changed the login screen wallpaper from the standard dark Cove wallpaper to a lighter wallpaper of some mountains by a creek on a sunny day. Another minor change, but definitely one that changes the initial presentation of the system when logging in. Although, it is nice to note that Windows (like most modern operating systems) does let you change your login screen wallpaper, which wasn't an option prior to Windows 8. I am glad to see that Microsoft is overall shifting to a lighter appearance than in older versions, but of course they still offer a dark mode if you're trying to conserve battery life on a laptop or if you prefer the appearance. The general theme still isn't the nice modern translucent 3D Aero Glass that I loved in Vista and 7 (and I really wish Microsoft would bring back this option back at least as an available theme), but the flat light/dark theme still does the job.

Overall, the changes in the latest edition of Enterprise Developer Preview 21354 seem good. However, I would like to see some more features implemented, such as optional aero glass or a modern translucent theme (such as in Windows Vista and 7) as an optional natively integrated theme to choose from; additionally, I would like to see the addition of 3D flip (I love the workspaces tab, but I think that another key combination such as "Ctrl + Windows + Space" would be a much better alternative, since Ctrl Windows Left and Right already switch workspaces, leaving Windows + Tab open as an option to launch 3D flip), since I feel that those features really made previous versions such as Windows Vista and 7 feel more refined and modern. Aside from that, the work done on this operating system is decent. I really enjoyed seeing some of the latest additions and changes to Windows 10 while they're still under development in this developer preview release.