Terry Myerson
Microsoft executive vice president Terry Myerson, center, chats with Windows 10 users in Bellevue.

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Microsoft invited a group of “insiders” who have been testing Windows 10 ahead of today’s launch to a special event on Wednesday morning to mingle with executives and talk about what’s next for the new operating system.

Breaking from tradition with the development of Windows 10, Microsoft opened the software up to 5 million “Windows Insiders” nine months before it was ready to ship. Their feedback and crash reports has been gathered and analyzed internally as Microsoft tried to work out all the bugs you would expect from a new piece of software.

Windows 10 launch event at the Microsoft store in Bellevue Square Mall.
Windows 10 launch event at the Microsoft store in Bellevue Square Mall.

Terry Myerson, executive vice president of Microsoft’s Windows and Devices Group, said he has a lot of nervous energy today so he was happy to get off campus to spend some time with users.

“It feels very different [from the launch of Windows 8.1],” Myerson told GeekWire. “Customers built the product with us and now they’re here with us on this day. So it has a very different feel to it.”

GeekWire was on hand at the event, held at the Microsoft store inside the Bellevue Square Mall, to hear from the insiders themselves and see what the people who know Windows 10 the best think of it.

Almost everyone I talked to said things were pretty buggy when they first got their hands on an early build, but most of the issues have been ironed out by now.

Microsoft vice president Joe Belfiore poses for a photo with a Microsoft Insider.
Microsoft vice president Joe Belfiore poses for a photo with a Microsoft Insider.

Insider Jeison Salazar said Windows 10 crashed his computer two or three times when he first ran it, but he’s not run into any major problems in about a month.

“It’s been pretty great since then,” he said. “You use it. You find something that doesn’t work. You open the Windows feedback app and report it. Then you sit back and about two weeks later there’s a fix.”

Larry Baker, a Starbucks engineer and Microsoft Insider, said there was plenty he liked under the hood of Windows 8, but the user interface was just too confusing. Windows 10 takes all those much needed performance updates from the last major launch in 2012 and wraps them in an interface that “makes it usable” again.

This time around, there isn’t a single quirk in Windows 10 he finds annoying.

 “It’s everything Windows 8 should have been — plus a little bit more,” Baker said.

Other insiders offered their own improvements, like a missing feature that would let you pin Edge web browser shortcuts to the taskbar and a bug that doesn’t place the cursor in the address bar when you open a new tab. One insider said the home screen could use another row of tiles on mid-sized tablets.

Overall, the insiders had very few complaints. However, this event attracted ardent Microsoft fans who went out of their way to rub shoulders with company executives.

Several of the Insiders pointed out key features that they’ve been using the most.

“Cortana, that’s the biggest feature that’s not on any other operating system,” insider Samuel Schumacher said. “I use it mostly on my phone but to dictate things on my computer, too. It takes a little bit of getting used to, but once you start it’s like, ‘Wow, this is really useful.'”

Baker’s favorite feature: The way Office 365 integrates with OneDrive on Windows 10.

“It is pretty seamless,” he said. “I don’t even have to think about saving stuff. It really is anywhere access to data.”

Others pointed to Xbox features, such as streaming, and “just the look of it.”

DSC06378DSC06373DSC06361

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.