微软发布新操作系统Windows 10

Windows 10, the next version of Microsoft’soperating system, arrives on Wednesday, and it willhave a familiar look and feel to the more than onebillion people who have touched a Windowscomputer in the last two decades.

微软的下一代操作系统Windows 10于本周三发布，对于在过去二十年里使用过Windows操作系统的十多亿人来说，它将带来熟悉的外观和使用体验。

That is a stark change from the last time Microsoftmade a big revision to its operating system, in 2012with the release of Windows 8 — a release thatdidn’t go so well. Many customers were confused by the flurry of changes that were designedfor so-called hybrid devices that doubled as PCs and tablets. Microsoft’s chief executive, SatyaNadella, said last year that the company “got a few places wrong in Windows 8.

这和微软上一次的操作系统全面升级有很大不同，也就是2012年发布的Windows 8——那一版的下场不太好。它是为一种既是PC又是平板电脑的所谓混合型设备设计的，一系列的变化让很多用户摸不着头脑。微软的首席执行官萨蒂亚·纳德拉(Satya Nadella)去年曾表示，微软“在Windows 8的设计上犯了些错误。

With Windows 10, Microsoft is offering something of a throwback to the earlier versions. Thesoftware also comes with an enticing price tag for users of Windows 7 and 8: free. Butperhaps more than anything, there are a handful of new features that might make usersconsider making the switch.

Windows10重新回归了早前几个版本的一些特性。而且对于Windows 7和Windows 8用户来说，它的价格也很诱人：免费。但最重要的可能在于，它还具备一些新特性，会促使用户考虑升级。

The Trusty Start Button

“开始菜单回归

Back is the classic Start button, the one-touch access to a main menu, including shortcuts to auser’s list of apps and documents. Like old times, it can be opened with the click of a mouse orby pressing the Windows shortcut on a keyboard. (The Start button was still available inWindows 8, but some users were confused because it was hidden from plain sight.)

一键点开主菜单的开始按钮重返屏幕，菜单中包括一个用户的应用和文档快捷列表。和过去一样，点击一下鼠标，或者按一下键盘上的快捷键，就可以打开主菜单。(Windows 8中也有开始按钮，但有些用户搞不清怎么用，因为它不是那么一目了然。)

Microsoft made efforts to modernize the Start menu with a fresh design. Clicking on the Startbutton brings up groups of tiles that can be tailored to your preferences. For example, I easilycreated a group of tiles labeled “Productivity and pinned some of my most frequently usedsoftware for work, including apps for email, web browsing, Twitter, a calculator and MicrosoftWord. Removing unwanted apps from the group is easy — you just choose to “unpin the tile.

微软试图用新颖的设计让开始菜单更具现代风格。点击开始按钮，可以看到一组磁贴，用户可以按自己的喜好随意组合。比如，我很容易就创建了一个组标签为“生产力的磁贴，把工作中最常用的一些软件固定在了主菜单上，包括用来查邮件和浏览网页的应用、Twitter、计算器和微软的文档处理软件Word。删除不想要的应用也很简单，只需选择“取消固定那个磁贴。

For long time Windows users, the more intimidating part to get used to will be tablet mode.With hybrid tablets, such as the Microsoft Surface, you can detach the keyboard from thescreen and switch into a different software interface optimized for tablets. In tablet mode,apps consume the entire screen; the tiles of the Start section are enlarged to be easier to seeand touch.

对Windows老用户来说，更让人生畏的一点是适应平板电脑模式。使用诸如微软Surface这样的混合型平板电脑，你可以把键盘和屏幕分离开，切换到一个不同的、更能发挥平板电脑性能的界面。在平板电脑模式下，应用占据整个屏幕，原先位于开始菜单上的磁贴被放大，更容易看见，也更容易点击。

Fortunately, interacting with Windows 10 on a touch screen is generally the same as with mostmodern touch-enabled devices. Pinch outward to zoom in, swipe up to scroll down, swipe leftto pan right. And even in tablet mode, the trusty Start menu remains there to remind you thisis still Windows you’re dealing with.

幸好，在触摸屏上使用Windows 10，和在大多数现代触摸屏设备上没什么两样。手指外拨以放大页面，向上拨动使页面向下滚动，向左拨动使页面向右平移。而且在平板电脑模式下，屏幕上也保留着让人安心的开始按钮，提醒你还是在使用Windows操作系统。

A Virtual Assistant

虚拟助手

A new addition right next to the Start button isCortana, Microsoft's virtual assistant. A user can doa search by typing in a query or speaking acommand into the microphone. Saying commandslike “Remind me to buy milk on Tuesday sets up areminder notification that will alert you on that day,and “Schedule meeting tomorrow at 3 p.m. createsan appointment in your calendar.

就在开始按钮旁边，新增了微软的虚拟助手Cortana。用户只要键入一个问题，或对着麦克风发出一个指令，就可以在设备上实现搜索功能。说出类似“提醒我周二买牛奶的指令，手机会自动设置一个提醒任务，然后在那天给你发出提醒。而发出“安排明天下午三点的会议的指令，日程表上会自动创建这一日程。

On other questions, like finding a place to eat, Cortana often falls back to doing searches onBing.com, Microsoft's search engine, which is less proficient than Google's search engine. Intests, Cortana generated mixed results. Asking Cortana to look up a place to eat nearbyretrieved a list of Bing search results for the term “Find me places to eat nearby, which includedthe website places-to-eat-near-me.com, as opposed to showing a list of restaurants. (Bycontrast, the same query on Siri, Apple's virtual assistant, brought up Yelp listings of popularrestaurants within half a mile from me here in San Francisco.)

对于其他问题，比如寻找吃饭的地方，Cortana通常会转而在微软开发的搜索引擎Bing上进行搜索，而Bing没有谷歌的搜索引擎那么精进。在测试中，Cortana给出的结果比较杂乱。让Cortana在附近找一个吃饭的地方，得到的是在Bing上输入“在附近找吃饭的地方后出现的一系列搜索结果，包括名为“附近吃饭的地方的网站(places-to-eat-near-me.com)，而不是具体的餐馆列表。(相比之下，在苹果设备上问其虚拟助手Siri同样的问题，会出现餐饮网站Yelp上距离我在旧金山所在方位半英里以内最受欢迎的餐馆列表。)

On the other hand, Cortana did respond adequately to some other commands, like “Show meshowtimes for ‘Trainwreck,' which loaded a schedule of movie theaters showing the movienearby.

但是，Cortana对一些其他指令反应的确足够到位。比如提出“显示《生活残骸》(Trainwreck)的放映时间这一要求，它会显示附近上映这部电影的几个影院的时间表。

A big hole in Cortana is the mobile phone experience. Cortana is built in to Windows phonesand the problem is, you probably don't own one. To date, Microsoft's Windows Phone platformhas 3.5 percent market share in the United States, according to Kantar Worldpanel.

Cortana的一大缺失在于其手机端的使用体验。Cortana是内置在Windows手机上的，问题是你可能不用这个品牌的手机。凯度消费者指数(Kantar Worldpanel)的数据显示，到目前为止，微软的Windows手机平台在美国的市场占有量只有3.5%。

Microsoft says that Cortana will eventually be available as an app on devices running Google'sAndroid and Apple's iOS mobile software. For now, though, Cortana will primarily live oncomputers and tablets, limiting its usefulness.

微软表示，Cortana最终会成为使用谷歌的Android系统和苹果的iOS移动操作系统的设备上也可以安装的app。但目前Cortana将主要在微软的电脑端和平板电脑上使用，其实际使用价值会比较有限。

It's difficult to imagine that while on the go, people will yank a Windows tablet or computer outof their bag to ask Cortana to schedule a calendar appointment or create a reminder. Inaddition, the idea of using a voice assistant on a stationary computer in a typical officeenvironment, where colleagues will overhear you over their cubicle walls yapping to Cortana,seems off-putting. As a result, in its current state, Cortana is a promising start, but it's farless useful than its direct rivals, Siri and Google's Now, which are widely available onsmartphones worldwide.

很难想象，人们会一边走一边从包里拿出个Windows平板电脑或笔记本，让Cortana在日程表上添加一个安排事项或创建一个提醒事项。而且，想象自己在一个典型的办公环境里，对着一台固定不动的电脑使用语音助手，还有旁边格子间的同事能听到你和Cortana的对话，这场景还挺让人倒胃口的。结果就是，在目前的状态下，Cortana是个有希望的开端，但它远远没有其直接竞争对手Siri和 Google Now那么有用，后两者在智能手机领域使用非常广泛。

More Built-In Security

更多的系统内嵌安全保护

Microsoft has made some bold promises about improvements to security in Windows 10. ChrisHallum, a senior product marketing manager for Microsoft, said in an interview that because ofall the security enhancements in Windows 10, consumers and businesses won't have to installadditional security software to protect their machines. “We include a full-fledged antivirussolution in Windows, he said.

微软已经就Windows 10的安全性能作出大胆承诺。微软高级产品营销经理克里斯·哈卢姆(Chris Hallum)在一次接受采访时表示，因为Windows 10在诸多方面大大提升了安全性能，消费者和企业用户将不再需要额外安装安全软件来保护自己的电脑。“Windows系统中包含了一个成熟的防病毒方案，他说。

Microsoft has been including these deeper security features since Windows 8. But withWindows XP and Windows 7, far more popular versions of the software, it was practically arequirement to buy and install third-party antivirus software from McAfee or Norton, unless youwanted to be eaten alive by hackers.

自Windows 8开始，微软就在操作系统中增加了更深层次的安全特性。但是，用户使用更加流行的WindowsXP和Windows 7时，实际上还是需要从迈克菲(McAfee)或诺顿(Norton)购买和安装第三方防病毒软件，除非你想被黑客生吞活剥。

Mr. Hallum said Microsoft was taking a multifaceted approach to protecting user identities aswell as blocking malicious software. For one, Microsoft Edge, the default browser in Windows10, includes a feature called SmartScreen, which can identify malicious websites by scanningthem for suspicious characteristics. The Edge browser also keeps some add-on software forthe browser, like Adobe Flash, to safeguard you from the latest vulnerabilities. Anotherfeature, Windows Defender, can identify potentially harmful software you've downloaded andwarn you before you run it.

哈卢姆表示，微软正采用多种措施保护用户的身份信息和阻挡恶意软件。比如，Windows 10的默认浏览器微软Edge包含一种叫智能屏的(SmartScreen)功能，可以通过扫描网页内容查找可疑特征，以辨别恶意网站。Edge浏览器上还能安装Adobe Flash等附加软件以避免电脑受到新漏洞的伤害。它的另一个功能Windows卫士(Windows Defender)可以辨别你下载的潜在有害软件，并在你运行它之前发出警告。

Are you really safe not installing additional antivirus software? As we should all know by now,almost all computer systems have some vulnerability. Still, Charlie Miller, a securityresearcher, said Windows 10's security features should work as well as other antivirussoftware. He noted that Windows Defender had been a strong security program for some time.

不额外安装防病毒软件真的能足够安全吗?以我们现有的认知，几乎所有电脑系统都会有一些漏洞。但安全研究员查理·米勒(Charlie Miller)表示，Windows 10的安全性应该能够和其他防病毒软件相媲美。他指出，Windows卫士作为一个强大的安全方案已经存在有一段时间了。

Beginning Wednesday, Microsoft will be releasing the operating system over the Internet inwaves, starting with people who signed up to test early versions of the software as part of its“insiders program. Later, Windows 7 and Windows 8 users who receive alerts notifying them ofthe upgrade will be able to download it.

从周三开始，微软将通过网络分批发布该操作系统。首先提供给之前曾报名参与测试该软件早期版本的人，这些人是其“内部人计划的一部分。之后，收到升级提醒的Windows 7和Windows 8用户就可以下载它了。

At the time of my testing, ahead of the public release of Windows 10, I encountered a numberof bugs. To name just two examples: In one incident, Microsoft's Edge browser blocked me foran entire night from using Google Mail, after mistakenly identifying it as a malicious website —though the next morning I was able to log in. I also had a frustrating time trying to compose adocument inside Google Docs, when the Edge browser occasionally failed to detect when Iwas hitting the space bar; Microsoft confirmed it would fix the issue shortly after release.

在Windows 10正式发布之前的测试中，我发现了一些毛病。任举两例：有一次微软的Edge浏览器错误地把Google Mail识别为恶意网站，整整一晚上不给我用——不过第二天早上我成功登入了。还有一次在GoogleDocs里写文档，害我折腾了很久，因为Edge偶尔会无法识别到我敲出的空格;微软已经确认会在发布之后不久修正这个问题。

Combine the early bugs with the spottiness of Cortana and the fact that third-party appdevelopers are still updating their Windows apps for Windows 10, and the operating system stillhas a little ways to go before it becomes a solid all-around upgrade. But the improvements tosecurity, along with the familiar user interface, should be reasons to grab this upgrade soonerthan later (especially if you're on Windows 7 and lacking up-to-date security tools). Theupgrade will be free for up to a year — after that, Microsoft may begin charging for it.

结合早期的这些毛病以及Cortana的不稳定，还有第三方应用开发者还没完成向Windows 10的兼容，这个操作系统要实现一次稳定而全面的升级尚需些时日。但是安全方面的改进，以及让用户觉得熟悉的界面，会促使人们尽早去获取此次更新(尤其是如果你用的是Windows 7，缺乏最新的安全工具)。更新在未来一年里是免费的——此后微软可能会开始收费。

For to-be switchers, Microsoft offers a web tool where users can check if their apps arecompatible with Windows 10 before making the switch. If you're eager to get in line for anupgrade, you can reserve a download on Microsoft's website.

微软为有意更新的用户准备了一个Web工具，用户可以在更新前，先到上面检查他们的应用是否兼容Windows 10。如果你急着想得到更新，可以在微软的网站上预订下载。