Microsoft releases new Windows 10 preview with Cortana, revamped Start menu, and Xbox app
New features include Cortana, Xbox app, improved Start menu and more Chris Velazco / Engadget : Microsoft rolls out new Windows 10 preview with Cortana and Continuum Lance Ulanoff / Mashable : Microsoft Windows 10 January Build is available now Paul Thurrott / Thurrott.com : Here's How Your Feedback Impacted Windows 10 Technical Preview 2 Napier Lopez / The Next Web : You can now download the newest Windows 10 preview with Cortana and the new Xbox app Brad Sams / Neowin : To upgrade to the next Windows 10 build, make sure you have KB 3025380 installed Cyril Kowaliski / The Tech Report : Windows 10 build 9926 adds Cortana, Continuum, and more Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch : New Windows 10 Build With Cortana And Xbox App Now Available For Insiders Palle Petersen / TechNet Blogs : Windows 10 Technical Preview now available in another 22 languages
Context & Ripple Effects
This build is Microsoft's second public Windows 10 preview, and it reverses the defining misstep of Windows 8: the Start menu returns in hybrid form, now with room for Cortana and an Xbox app baked into the desktop. The preview program itself is doing real work here — Thurrott's coverage of how tester feedback shaped this build shows Microsoft iterating in the open rather than behind closed doors.
The arc that follows confirms why this January moment mattered: Microsoft courted developers with the platform pitch by spring (Welcoming Developers to Windows 10), shipped the OS that summer, and reviewers ultimately scored it as the fix for Windows 8's problems, Start menu and Cortana included.
First-order effects
- Preview testers on the Insider track gain desktop Cortana, the revived Start menu, and the Xbox app streaming/console tie-in immediately, with Neowin noting an explicit KB prerequisite before upgrading to the new build.
- Continuum, rolled out alongside this preview, puts phone-to-desktop convergence directly into testers' hands for the first time.
Second-order effects
- Developers receive a stable-enough API surface months before retail launch, which is exactly what the April developer outreach builds on — the preview converts early adopters into an extension of Microsoft's QA and marketing pipeline.
- Rivaling assistants and game-launcher ecosystems on Windows now face Microsoft bundling its own assistant and its own gaming front-end at the OS layer rather than as optional downloads.
Third-order effects
- Public pre-release builds harden into permanent infrastructure: the same preview cadence reappears with Timeline and Progressive Web Apps work in 2017 and again in Windows 11 previews in 2022, making continuous public iteration the default way Microsoft ships Windows.
- Bundling services like Cortana and Xbox into the OS establishes the template for later platform-level plays — including today's merged consumer-commercial Copilot apps — where distribution through Windows substitutes for separate product adoption.
The trend: Microsoft has turned Windows from a periodic boxed release into a continuously previewed, service-bundled platform, with each feature — from Cortana in 2015 to Copilot today — entering through the same insider-build funnel.