The jury's still out on the Modern UI apps within Windows 10 and the Start Menu. It is effective being able to preview pictures using the Photos app on the desktop. But because the menus and functions in these apps are in the Modern UI-style (in other words, they are at the bottom), you have to adapt to them – they just don't work like full desktop apps. Users that come from Windows 7 to this will still find it jarring.
As for the Modern UI elements in the Start Menu, we actually found this reasonably useful. We're not logged into our personal email at work, but the Mail app is, so we were able to see if any new emails had arrived as well as peruse news and weather headlines whenever we opened the menu. However, we did not use the Modern UI Start Menu tiles to launch apps and we believe most users just won't bother customising the panel unless they're helped to do so.
Task View is an acquired taste. We are used to using Alt+Tab to switch apps, so we continued to do that rather than using the taskbar icon. However, it's clearly going to be a boon for those who don't use keyboard shortcuts to switch between apps. And being able to add additional desktops is extremely useful when you need to switch gear completely into a different workspace – this was great when we were using one desktop for web and email but wanted to have another area for laying out a document in Adobe InDesign. We really like the new Aero Snap features enabling you to snap windows to each quarter of the screen, having variable width windows.
Finally, though, the PC Settings app is still a noddy Control Panel and we'd prefer to just use the Control Panel please. Microsoft clearly doesn't want to bin the work done in Windows 8 and 8.1 by having a separate app, but it just doesn't make sense to have two places to change settings. According to leaked builds, it does seem like more updates are planned for this app, though.
But enough of that, the fact remains that our third-of-a-year play with Windows 10 has been an unqualified success. We're really looking forward to seeing what Microsoft can offer us in the Consumer Preview.
