Use Cortana now
If you install the Technical Preview, you’ll probably find that Cortana (Microsoft’s voice-control tool) is not enabled by default. That’s because it still needs to be localised and is only currently available for those using US English as their default language. But if you’re eager to try Cortana now, you can do so by altering Windows 10’s regional settings so it thinks you’re a US user.
Click Start, Settings, ‘Time & Language’, then ‘Region & Language’. Select United States from the ‘Country or region’ dropdown menu. If ‘English (United States)’ isn’t listed under Languages, click ‘Add a language’ to install it. Then click it in the list, click Options and download the language pack. Go back to the previous screen, click ‘English (United States)’ then ‘Set as primary’.
Activate Cortana with just your voice
With Cortana enabled, you can type a question in the ‘Ask me anything’ box on the Taskbar, but to get the most from Cortana, you’ll need a microphone. Getting a microphone to work with a virtualised system (such as Windows 10 Technical Preview installed in VirtualBox) is a bit hit and miss, unfortunately. But if you’ve gone down the dual-boot route or if you’re trying out the Technical Preview on an old PC, then setting up a microphone works just like it does under Windows 7 or 8/8.1. Even with a microphone connected, though, you still need to click the microphone icon in Cortana’s search box before you speak.
However, there’s a trick that will let you activate Cortana with just your voice. Click in the ‘Ask me anything’ box, then click the menu icon (three lines) in the top left and choose Settings. Switch on the ‘Let Cortana respond when you say “Hey Cortana”’ option.
If you’re having problems getting Cortana to understand what you’re saying, try clicking Start, Settings, then System. Click Speech on the left, then tick the box next to ‘Use speech patterns for non-native speakers of this language’.
Tell Microsoft what you think of Windows 10
Microsoft has hidden its user-notification and feedback system in the Windows 10 Technical Preview, by tucking it away in an anonymous- looking app. To get the latest news about the Preview and its related updates, and to let Microsoft know what you think or to suggest features, you’ll need to find and run the Insider Hub. Click Start, ‘All apps’ and scroll down to find the app. From here you can read the latest announcements, complete tasks or click ‘So, what do you think of this build?’ to answer a quick questionnaire. Scroll down for further feedback options.
Get Spartan (sort of)
The next build of the Technical Preview will include Microsoft’s new Spartan web browser. At the time of writing, that’s still a couple of w-eeks away. However, if you’re running the previous build (9926) you can get an idea of how Spartan will work, by enabling Experimental Features in the version of Internet Explorer that’s included in build 9926.
Open Internet Explorer and type 'about:flags' into the address bar. Under Enable Experimental Web Platform Features on the page that opens, tick the Enabled option, then click ‘Apply changes’ and restart the browser. This will activate Spartan’s new Edge rendering engine, which is faster, but still somewhat unpredictable at this point in time.
Get the latest Office apps for free
Aside from previewing the next version of Windows, Microsoft is also offering the opportunity to try new versions of its Office apps. These don’t come preinstalled and they aren’t available through the standard Windows Store (the one with the green tile), but you can hunt them down by using the alternative Beta version of the Windows Store (the one with the grey tile). Launch this, search for ‘office’, then install the Word, Excel and PowerPoint preview editions you’ll find there.
Unlock Command Prompt secrets
The Windows Command Prompt has remained more or less the same for as long as we can remember. But Windows 10 brings with it some useful new features for this much-overlooked tool, including - at long last - the ability to copy and paste commands using Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V keyboard shortcuts.
Currently, this and other new features are hidden away, so you’ll need to tweak Windows in order to enable them. Click Start, type 'cmd' and press Enter. The Command Prompt window will appear. Right-click the top title bar and select Properties. In the next window, click the Experimental tab. Tick the box next to ‘Enable experimental console features’, then tick any features you want to try - the ‘Enable new Ctrl key shortcuts’ is the one you want for copying and pasting. Click OK, then close and re-launch the Command Prompt to try it out.