Microsoft's Windows 10 Features 1

Wi-Fi Sense
While technically not a new feature Wi-Fi Sense (it's also part of Windows Phone 8.1) connects your devices to trusted Wi-Fi hotspots.

If you leave it enabled, the keys (passwords) to Wi-Fi networks that you add to your device are encrypted and stored on a remote Microsoft server. If one of your contacts comes within range of one of your Wi-Fi networks, that network’s key is automatically fed to the Wi-Fi access point to grant the contact access to that network.

The purpose of Wi-Fi Sense is to make sharing Wi-Fi Internet access easy, according to Microsoft. You don’t have to give the Wi-Fi key to a visitor to your home or office (assuming they are in your Contacts list), and the visitor doesn’t have to enter it in his/her device. So Wi-Fi Sense is more secure than the usual person-to-person sharing method because your contacts never see the actual key(s).

It’s important to note that only Internet access is shared via Wi-Fi Sense. Guests cannot rifle through shared folders and files on your local network, or use shared devices such as printers. They can only really surf the Web and check their email.

Password sharing via Wi-Fi Sense is enabled by default for Outlook, Outlook.com and Skype (all owned by Microsoft) contacts. You do have to give permission to make it available to your Facebook contacts. Your contacts in any of those three services who are using Windows Phone or Windows 10 can access your Wi-Fi networks via Wi-Fi Sense.

Obviously, your contacts must also be within range of one of your Wi-Fi networks. They must also have Wi-Fi Sense enabled, sharing their Wi-Fi networks with you and their other contacts.

If you are concerned about this sharing technology you can disable it in one of two ways. You can go to the Windows Wi-Fi Settings menu and uncheck the box labelled "Share Wi-Fi networks I Select" option. Alternatively, you can add the string “_optout” (note the underscore) to the end of your Wi-Fi access point’s SSID (part of your routers online settings).

Ultimately, Wi-Fi Sense probably isn't the most secure feature in the world, but it isn't that bad either. As with many things in life, you have to choose between convenience and absolute security.

File Explorer Enhancements
File Explorer has been given a little bit of a makeover. You now have a Quick Access area to which you can pin and unpin any folders you want to regularly access. In the 'home' screen of File Explorer you can also see Frequent Folders and Recent Files. This all makes File Explorer a much more helpful tool for everyday use.

You can pin things permanently to Quick access by right-clicking them and selecting Add to Quick access.

There are a lot more file operations that you can access on the ribbon at the top of the window without the need to use the right-click menu.

The old Windows 8 Share logo is now used for File sharing from all apps. You can choose to email a file straight from the File Explorer window or add it to a zip file.

As you'd expect, OneDrive is also incorporated within File Explorer. While it's now an integral part of Windows 10 it's not a pain to dismiss, and you can quite happily use Windows 10 without it, if you want to.

Note: The free Windows 10 upgrade offer is only available until 29th July 2016.