While Windows 8.1 was released at the end of 2013, Microsoft's Windows team of developers did not immediately go on holiday. However, the company immediately began work or the next major software release.

The next installment in the software suite is called Windows 10, and it will be offered as a free upgrade for most Windows PC, tablet and phone users.

The update will also eventually come to Xbox One, with the intention of keeping all Microsoft hardware running along the same frame work. Windows 10 is the next version of Windows, which was unveiled on September 30^th, 2014 during an event in San Francisco, and has been discussed more since the beginning of 2015.

Microsoft chose to abandon the Windows 8 brand because it was not received well by critics or users. Microsoft also said that it did not want to use Windows 9.

The company did not want to call the product Windows One either, because One was used already to brand other Microsoft products.

The new operating system will offer a fix for many of the issues that critics and Windows users did not like about Windows 8. It will also bring back some of the best elements of Windows 7 and keep the touch screen feature in mind for two in one devices.

Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 10 will be offered to customers using Windows 8.1, Windows 7 and Windows Phone 8.1, as a free download.

The free download will be made available to these customers for an entire year after the operating system's official release date.

It will be coming to devices this summer and there is a preview version of the software available for interested users.