Introduction
Welcome to the final version of the Windows 10 Field Guide
All good things must come to an end. This is the final version of the Windows 10 Field Guide.
My original plan was to support the Windows 10 Field Guide through at least Windows 10 version 1809, or late 2018, which would have amounted to about three years of support. But I ultimately provided updates for over five years, giving readers regular updates through several Windows 10 versions, including 1903 and 1909 (2019), 2004 and 20H2 (2020), and now 21H1 (early 2021).
So this will be the last major version of this book. Looking ahead, the next book will be the Windows 11 Field Guide and it will, of course, cover the next version of Windows.
In the meantime, I will continue updating this edition with up-to-date Windows 10 version 21H1 content as needed. But my expectation is that there will be no major functional changes to Windows 10 through the end of its support life cycle in 2025.
Thanks for all of the support over the years. It’s been a fun if overly-long ride, and I’m ready to move on to the next book.
— Paul Thurrott
July 2021
Original introduction
Everything old is new again.
Faced with the overwhelmingly negative reception to Windows 8, its ambitious attempt to meld traditional PCs with mobile devices, Microsoft faced a moment of truth. On one side were about 1.5 billion disenfranchised PC users, many of whom rejected the “touch-first,” full-screen mobile interfaces of Windows 8. But on the other was a smaller yet equally vocal audience of customers who had in fact embraced Windows 8, in particular on tablets and a new generation of “2-in-1” PCs for which those new interfaces were in some ways quite well-designed.
Microsoft decided it could please both audiences. More important, perhaps, it decided it could do so with a single platform, called Windows 10, which would provide users with the same store and apps, and a responsive user interface that would adapt or be custom-designed for the hardware on which it runs.
Like its predecessors, Windows 10 runs on PCs, 2-in-1s and tablets. But it also runs on an expanding range of new device types including embedded “Internet of Things” devices, phones and phablets, the Xbox One video game console, and completely new form factors like the HoloLens augmented reality headset and the Surface Hub, an epic 84-inch all-in-one PC aimed at collaborative groups, not individual users.
The result is a system that is in many ways just as audacious as Windows 8, but without most of the downsides.
Windows 10 Field Guide, like its own predecessor, Windows 8.1 Field Guide, hits at the volume part of the Windows 10 user base: PCs, 2-in-1s and tablets. Put another way, Windows 10 Field Guide is a full-length e-book about the latest version of Microsoft Windows, aimed at those users who will upgrade from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, or acquire Windows 10 with a new PC or device.
And like its predecessor, Windows 10 Field Guide is…
Self-published. We wrote this book ourselves and there’s no publishing company to get in the way.
Transparent. This book is written and updated transparently and publicly, over time, so you can follow along, download any and all updates, and provide feedback as it is updated.
Inexpensive. A traditional technical book about Windows 10 typically retails for $29.99 or more and is made available in print and e-book formats. But the authors receive only a very small portion of that price. With Windows 10 Field Guide, we are using the pricing model popularized by mobile apps, but with a twist: we’re letting you, the reader, pick your price so you can pay more (or less) than our recommended price of $9.99.
Available in multiple formats. So what does $9.99 buy you these days? In this case, it provides you with the book in PDF and EPUB formats that will work anymore you want to read.
Not available directly from Kindle or other e-book platforms. Thanks to our previous experiences dealing with these organizations for Windows 8.1 Field Guide, we are only offering this book directly to you, the reader. No worries: it will always work properly with Kindle, Nook, or whatever other e-book software you use. We’re just cutting out the middleman.
A how-to and a reference. This book provides tips, how-to’s and reference information about Windows 10, and assumes only that you have used some version of Windows previously. But rather than cover every single little checkbox and option in all apps and features, this book focuses on the important stuff, on what’s new and what’s changed in Windows 10, so you can quickly get up to speed and master this new OS version and be productive as quickly as possible. There’s no patter, and no fluff.
Windows 10 Field Guide is the only Windows book you’ll ever need for your PCs, 2-in-1s and tablets.
Thanks for reading.
— Paul Thurrott, Rafael Rivera, and Martin McClean
November 2015/Updated January 2021 and July 2024