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Happy 10th birthday, Windows 10! Hoo boy, it's been a journey

Part of the affection that users have for Windows 10 today is a result of Microsoft's benign neglect of the OS since the debut of Windows 11. But remember those first five years?

Part of the appeal of Windows 10 in the modern era has been the fact that it was essentially preserved in amber five years ago, and Microsoft hasn't mucked with it in all that time. Cortana was the Siri-like assistant that promised to pull together all my personal data and give me a daily briefing that got me set for the day. The software that runs those PCs is relying on a dizzying variety of local hardware and cloud-based resources.

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