Microsoft Corp — working to overhaul its operating system software in a world dominated by mobile computing — said it plans to release the new Windows 10 in 190 countries this summer.
The software would be released in 111 languages, the company yesterday said in a statement that coincided with its Windows Hardware Engineering Community conference in Shenzhen, China. The software is to feature a number of Windows 10 customizations for the Chinese market, such as its Cortana personal assistant in Mandarin.
The company, which first showed off Windows 10 in September last year and gave a fuller preview in January, had said the new software would go on sale sometime this year. Windows 10 features a new Web browser, replacing Internet Explorer for most consumers.
Microsoft also attempted a radical overhaul of Windows with the previous version, Windows 8. The Redmond, Washington-based company wound up with unhappy corporate customers, who found the program’s new design difficult to use.
With Windows 10, Microsoft is trying to merge design elements from Windows 7 with some of version 8’s changes, and is once again trying to appeal to tablet and mobile phone customers, an area where Windows has won minimal market share.
In addition, the new Windows 10 operating system is to allow users to sign in to a device without a password by using biometrics, including facial recognition.
Microsoft on Tuesday said its new Windows Hello feature would support biometric authentication as part of an effort to reduce the use of passwords, which can often be hacked.
This means “using your face, iris or fingerprint to unlock your devices,” Microsoft vice president Joe Belfiore said in a blog post.
“You — uniquely you — plus your device are the keys to your Windows experience, apps, data and even Web sites and services, not a random assortment of letters and numbers that are easily forgotten, hacked or written down and pinned to a bulletin board,” the post read.
“There will be plenty of exciting new Windows 10 devices to choose from which will support Windows Hello,” and that if the device already has a fingerprint reader, it will be compatible with the new authentication system, Belfiore said.
For facial or iris detection, “Windows Hello uses a combination of special hardware and software to accurately verify it is you — not a picture of you or someone trying to impersonate you,” he wrote. “The cameras use infrared technology to identify your face or iris and can recognize you in a variety of lighting conditions.”
Additional reporting by AFP
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