Microsoft to finalize Windows 10 this week

Microsoft to finalize Windows 10 this week !

Microsoft is planning to finalize Windows 10 this week, ahead of its official launch later this month. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that the company is currently working on final copies of Windows 10, with a release to manufacturing (RTM) build expected later this week. RTM candidate builds have already been spotted online. Once the RTM build is ready, Microsoft will send the final copy of Windows 10 to its PC partners ahead of a release to the public on July 29th.

"WE WILL NEVER BE DONE."

While the RTM process has been a significant milestone for previous releases of Windows, it’s more of a minor one for Windows 10. Microsoft is moving Windows 10 to a "Windows as a service" model that means the operating system is regularly updated. That’s part of the reason Windows 10 is considered the "final version of Windows," as regular updates means it’s never really finished. "We will never be done," explained Windows chief Terry Myerson last week, and we’ll start to see future Windows 10 updates roll out regularly in the coming months. Those include extensions support for Microsoft’s Edge browser and many app updates for the built-in Windows 10 applications.

An example of Microsoft’s rapid progress with Windows 10 can be seen in recent builds that the company has provided to testers. Microsoft released three separate versions of Windows 10 last week (build 10158, 10159, and 10162) and each contained minor improvements. While there’s still a debate around the readiness of Windows 10, Microsoft has been squashing hundreds of bugs in the OS in just a week. Driver problems and other software bugs still remain on some systems, but the RTM milestone won’t mean these stay a problem for long. Once Microsoft has finalized Windows 10 this week the company will continue to work on bug fixes ready for the July 29th release date. Windows 10 testers will get a copy of the final version first, and the company will be rolling out the OS to the public in waves starting on July 29th.

Microsoft rebrand the Xbox Music to Groove

Microsoft rebrand the Xbox Music to Groove

Microsoft killed off the Xbox Music branding in its music and video apps for Windows 10, but today the company is rebranding the entire service to Groove. In a blog post detailing the changes, Microsoft's reasoning for the new name appears to be because "Groove describes what people feel and do with music." Groove will be largely the same as Xbox Music, but Microsoft is planning to update it regularly in the coming months. At launch, alongside Windows 10 later this month, the Groove app will work in both light and dark themes with features that are currently in the Windows 10 preview.

While there's no free streaming version of Groove, following the end of Microsoft's free music streaming last year, the company is pitching this updated service to those with big collections of MP3s. Groove will support the ability to upload music to Microsoft's OneDrive cloud storage service and access the songs for free from Windows devices, Xbox consoles, and Android or iPhone handsets. Like Xbox Music before it, there's also a subscription service for $9.99 a month or $99 year that provides access to stream and download music from the Windows Store.

Alongside the Groove rebrand, Xbox Video is also getting a new name. In Windows 10 the app will simply be called Movies & TV, with access to download TV and movies or import personal collections. You can rent or buy movies and TV shows, and they'll be available on all Windows 10 devices and Xbox consoles, but there doesn't appear to be plans to extend this to Android and iOS devices just yet.

Microsoft says "Windows Insiders who are a part of the Fast ring and upgrade to the next PC build will see these updates," which suggests that a new build will be made available to testers ahead of the Windows 10 release on July 29th. Microsoft is planning to finalize Windows 10 this week, and the company is currently putting the finishing touches to the OS before it starts regularly updating it over the coming months.

Update, 3:50PM July 6th: Microsoft mistakenly referred to Groove as Groove Music in its announcement. The company says it's simply Groove and is working to correct its mistake. This article has been updated to reflect the correct name.

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