Windows 10 (original release)


 *  This article is about the original release of Windows 10 from July 2015. See Windows 10 for the overall operating system series.

Windows 10 (codenamed Threshold, also referred to as Windows 9 or Windows TH) is the successor to Windows 8.1 released on 29 July 2015. It was believed to be called Windows 9, but this was revealed to be mistaken eventually, on 30 September 2014. Rumors have spread that "Windows 9" was skipped because the name triggered code for Windows 9x in some applications, most of the time leading to an error message on the application not supporting the Windows 9x line of operating systems. Windows 10 was intended to address some of the complaints that were made in response to the user interface in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.

Windows 10 is a revolutionary release, being the first to fully use Windows Update to provide features and fixes to the masses much faster, while also providing a group that people who want to test its future releases can join (referred to as the "Windows Insider Program"). Windows 10 gained largely positive reviews and has easily exceeded the market share that Windows 8 gained in the same period.

Windows Update ESD listing

 *  See here for a list of Windows 10 ESD files that have been gathered from the Windows Update infrastructure.

Technical Preview
The Technical Preview was the first phase of the Windows Insider program. The first official build released was 9841, and the last official build released during this phase was build 10061.

Insider Preview
This phase of development began with build 10074, which was a quality build, at least going by the standards set by 10041 and 10049. The final phase of TH1 Insider Preview development ended with build 10166, which was extremely close to the RTM build, build 10240.