New Browser, Office Apps on Windows Roadmap

Windows 10, the next version of Windows for PCs, tablets, and phones, will deliver a new Web browser to compete with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, add the Cortana intelligent assistant previously limited to Windows Phone, and deliver new Windows Store Office applications designed for touch. The new capabilities should make Windows more attractive for mobile users and application developers. However, organizations should plan on investigating manageability and compatibility of the new browser and privacy aspects of Cortana ahead of Windows 10’s release, which is likely in the fourth quarter of 2015.

The new consumer-centric browser, code-named Project Spartan, will offer built-in Web page sharing and annotation capabilities and a new HTML rendering engine that will behave more like those used by Chrome, Firefox, and Apple Safari in terms of support for the latest Web standards. The browser derives some infrastructure from Internet Explorer (IE), but it will not offer backward compatibility. Instead, Windows 10 will ship with an updated version of IE that organizations can use as needed.