Windows 10: release date, price, news and features

Update: We've injected the latest news into our already massive Windows 10 hub. Scroll along to catch the most up-to-date info on Microsoft's next operating system!

With Windows 8 and now Windows 8.1, Microsoft tried – not entirely successfully – to make tablets part of a continuum that goes from number-crunching workstations and high-end gaming rigs through all-in-one touchscreen media systems and thin-and light notebooks down to slender touch tablets.
The general consensus is that it still has a long way to go to produce a unified OS. Recently, Microsoft publicly made the first steps to doing just that, with Windows 10. Skipping the Windows 9 name entirely, the Redmond, Wash. firm aims to step into the next generation of computing with the right foot forward.
You will soon be able to download Microsoft's Windows 10 Technical Preview by venturing over to its Windows Insider Program website. You'll need a Microsoft account to get it, and it's worth bearing in mind that it's not the finished article so may be a bit rough around the edges.

• Is the new OS any good? Read our hands on: Windows 10 review to find out
• Or you can check out our 10 features of Windows 10 article

While there is little information regarding the Windows 10 Road Map currently available following the event and the Technical Preview, this is what we know so far regarding the stymied release of Windows 10:

• The event on September 30 announced the release of the Technical Preview of Windows 10 for laptops and desktops, often referred to as WTP, DP (Developer Preview) or CTP (community technology previews). This is just over three years after Microsoft unveiled the first public beta build of Windows 8, known as Windows Developer Preview).
• Microsoft released its Windows Insider Program on October 1st, designed to keep early adopters up to date with the latest preview builds of Windows 10.
• Starting with Technical Preview for laptops and desktops, the preview build will extend to servers short after.
• As of October 7, the preview build is available to Windows 7 users as well.
• Consumer preview builds will not be available until early next year, according to Microsoft's Terry Myerson.
• The Technical Preview will end sharply on April 15 of next year, which conveniently leaves right off at...
• Microsoft's Build 2015 conference next April, at which the company will talk more about Universal Apps and likely issue a Windows 10 release date.
• Finally, the company promises that Windows 10 will ship to consumers and enterprise "later in the year" in 2015, Myerson said.