If you don’t like Windows 8, don’t hold your breath waiting for Windows 9. Microsoft is moving ahead with Windows 10, due sometime in 2015.
The newest feature of Windows 10 is a personal assistant called “Cortana.” Just as with “Siri” on the iPhone or iPad, or “Google Now” in Android, Cortana will take orders from you, but this time it’s on your Windows desktop computer.
If, for instance, Bob said “Call Joy,” Cortana would fire up the free Skype program and call. This would be a free Internet call no matter where in the world Joy happened to be. If you asked, “What’s on my calendar?” Cortana would show it to you; you could also say “put something on my calendar,” to add an event. Perhaps most people will use it for reminders, alarms and text messaging. There’s a demo of all these features on Mashable.com.