Microsoft will let you upgrade to Windows 10 for free, even if you're running a pirated version

In what may turn out to be an historic move in the battle against piracy, Microsoft's Terry Myerson has announced that the software vendor will allow all customers — whether they're running genuine Windows software or a pirated version — to upgrade to Windows 10 for free.

The move is clearly targeted at the Chinese market, where two-thirds of all PCs run pirated versions of Windows. Speaking to Reuters, Myerson said:

"We are upgrading all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10," he said in a telephone interview with Reuters. The plan is to "re-engage" with the hundreds of millions of users of Windows in China, he said, without elaboration.

By giving away Windows 10 for free, at least for the first year, Microsoft is deviating from its regular sales model for the first time. The software maker announced earlier today that Windows 10 will be launching this summer in 190 countries, with the vendor focusing its attention on China.

Lenovo has committed to rolling out the Windows 10 upgrade to its customers as soon as it becomes available, as well as stating that it would launch its first Windows Phone over the summer.

The Redmond giant also inked a deal with Chinese internet portal Tencent in bringing popular games such as League of Legends to the Windows 10 store. Tencent has stated that it will also be working to roll out the Windows 10 update as soon as possible.

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Microsoft to replace the traditional Control Panel with the Windows 10 Settings app

Microsoft plans to replace the traditional Control Panel with the Windows 10 Settings app, bundling functionality and tools into the latter option.

Windows 10 (as well as Windows 8) provides users with two ways to access settings, the traditional Control Panel with access to various functions and tools, as well as the new Modern UI Settings app. The former is the more advanced option, but Microsoft is moving away from the familiar Control Panel in favor of the Settings app.

According to Microsoft's Gabriel Aul, the company plans to replace the Control Panel with the Settings app "in time", slowly migrating across the numerous tools.

Unfortunately, should you be a fan of the Control Panel after all these years, the Settings app will become the new portal to manage your Windows PC. It isn't known just how long it will take Microsoft to make the Control Panel entirely redundant. Have you grown attached to the Control Panel, or are you backing said change?

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Windows 10 will include new touch gestures for precision touchpads and touchscreens

Microsoft will include new gestures for controlling Windows 10 for owners of laptops that have precision touchpads. It will also offer some new actions for gestures made on touchscreens.

In a session at today's WinHEC conference titled, "Designing Great Hardware for the Windows 10 UI" Microsoft showed slides that illustrated the gestures that will be enabled for precision touchpads. Microsoft also stated that the cost for including such touchpads, which were first supported by Windows 8.1, have been "significantly reduced" since they were first launched. Hopefully, that means we will see more of them installed in new Windows 10 laptops.

As the slide shows, the edge gestures that are a part of Windows 8.1 have been replaced with multi-touch gestures on Window 10 for precision touchpads. Some of them are similar to touchscreen gestures, such as pichcing and zooming with two fingers and tapping and sliding with just one finger. Another slide showed how these gestures will work with specific Windows 10 commands.

The presentation also indicated that Microsoft has "relaxed the requirements on how the digitizer should perform around screen edges" for touchscreens, which means that Window 10 devices that support edge gestures should be available for a broader number of devices. In Windows 10, swiping on the left edge will bring up the Task View of the most recently used apps, while doing the same on the right edge brings up the new Action Center. Swiping from the top edge can bring up a hidden title bar on an app in desktop mode or the ability to snap or close an app while in tablet mode. Finally, swiping from the bottom edge reveals the desktop taskbar when an app is in full screen mode

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Windows 10 looks like it's getting a super easy uninstall option

While Microsoft no doubt wants each and every one of us to upgrade to Windows 10 and stay there, in practice we all need a way back. We do of course have that, but at the WinHEC conference out in Shenzhen, China, Microsoft has shown off a super easy way to uninstall Windows 10 and roll back to whatever you had before.

Thousands of unique faces have been tested for Windows 10's facial authentication

The facial authentication features that will be a part of Windows 10 have already been tested extensively by Microsoft. The company says that over 13,000 unique faces have been captured so far by the "Windows Hello" system.

Microsoft wants to see speedier updates for Windows 10 phones with 'Project Milkyway'

Microsoft outlined a plan it calls "Project Milkyway" today that has the goal of updating Windows 10-based smartphones with the latest version "within 4-6 weeks" of its release.

As many current Windows Phone owners can confirm, it can sometimes take months for their devices to receive the latest OS version from Microsoft via over-the-air updates. In today's WinHEC conference session titled, "Upgrading to Windows 10", Microsoft says they hope to 'delight users" with this faster update time frame.

Xbox Music MP3 tracks can now be added to OneDrive accounts

Microsoft will now allow Xbox Music users to store their local MP3 tracks to their OneDrive cloud storage account. This will allow users to play their music on the Xbox Music app for Windows 8.1and Windows Phone 8.1, along with the Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles and on the Xbox Music website.

In addition to MP3 tracks, this new service also supports audio files in M4A (AAC), and WMA formats. Microsoft says that this service is for any Xbox Music user and not just ones that have an Xbox Music Pass subscription. However, Microsoft says those subscribers will get something extra with this new feature: "100 GB of additional storage in OneDrive to save all the music you love."

This service is available in the US, along with Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. There is an upper limit of 50,000 songs that can be stored. iOS and Android Xbox Music app users won't be able to play songs stored on OneDrive.

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MixRadio announces iOS, Android beta apps after separating from Microsoft

MixRadio has broken away from Microsoft after the Line acquisition completed, and is running a limited beta program for both iOS and Android.

MixRadio today announced on its official Twitter account that this very day marks the transition to a limited company. While the company is working on both iOS and Android apps, they have reiterated their commitment to Windows Phone.

Interested in either of the new beta programs? Check out the MixRadio website for more details on how to join them.

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Windows Hello will let you sign into Windows 10 with your face, eyes, or fingerprint

Microsoft announced a couple of new features for Windows 10 relating to authentication. One of them is called Windows Hello, which will allow users to sign into the OS with their face, their iris or their fingerprints, if their hardware device has the right requirements.

MixRadio for Windows 8.1 has gone, but it will be back

A few folks have been noticing that the MixRadio app for Windows 8.1 appears to have been removed from the Windows Store. This is absolutely the case, but before any "sky is falling" reactions have chance to manifest, it's not permanent. The app will return, and it's down to payments and accounts that it had to be removed at all.

"@Ricker666 afraid so, it uses Nokia account and payment services that are being closed next month. We'll be back later in the year."

It's not at all surprising, since the mobile app has also had to start going through some changes with regards payments and the premium service. After we met with the MixRadio team at Mobile World Congress we were able to confirm continued development for Windows and Windows Phone with an exciting future for the company under its new owners.

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