The testing build is likely to come without these features

Sep 25, 2014 18:15 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft will talk about plans for the next Windows version in just 5 days, but quite a lot of details have already been unveiled by people who are more or less familiar with development plans.

Since it’s just a technical preview, it’s only natural to expect the OS to ship with some unavailable features, performance issues and bugs, but we’re now hearing that some tools might also be locked on purpose to restrict users from getting access to them.

This isn’t the first time when such rumors reach our ears, but now it appears that Microsoft wants to ship a couple of features at a later time, just to make sure that testers actually have more options to try before sending in their feedback.

The testing builds, however, will include quite a lot of new options, among which multiple desktops and a notification center that’s inspired from Windows Phone 8.1.

Cortana and IE12 very likely to be unavailable

Development of some features is still in the very early stages, so many of the features that we’ve recently written about might not be available for testing when downloading the early builds of Windows 9.

Cortana for Windows 9, the very first PC version of the Windows Phone personal assistant, will definitely be there in the final build of the operating system, but the beta won’t come with such an option. At least, not at first, as work continues on this particular feature, so Microsoft might provide a glimpse of the PC version through a later update.

Internet Explorer 12 is also in the works and is very unlikely to be unavailable in Windows 9 preview, with some sources claiming that Microsoft is working on “something big” for the browser.

The next version of the application could come with a completely new look, extensions support, and significant performance improvements that would help it compete with other top browsers on the market.

The Start menu will be there

There were also some people claiming that the Start menu wouldn’t be there in Windows 9 Preview, but we’re hearing that Microsoft wants to make this particular feature available from the very beginning to show that it’s listening to users.

The Start menu comeback was confirmed earlier this year at the BUILD 2014 developer show, but it’s only taking place in Windows 9 together with the introduction of other important features.

While Microsoft will break the news on Windows 9 on September 30, the preview will be released for download in early October. The full version of the OS should be unveiled in April 2015.