How Windows 10 may have gotten its name

One of the most unexpected surprises to come with the Windows 10 announcement was the fact that it was called Windows 10 and not the expected Windows 9. There could be any number of reasons why this is the case, but the rumors are not just limited to the blogosphere. A redditor posting in the /r/technology subreddit and going by the screenname of cranbourneclaims to work as a developer for Microsoft and suggests that there are rumors floating around Microsoft offices too regarding the name.

According to cranbourne the issue revolved around third party code which searches for "Windows 9*" (with the star being a wildcard). The code which conducts this search is looking for Windows 95 and 98 versions. Internal testing reportedly found out that this style of code was common enough to be an issue of consideration for Microsoft and their dev team.

Rumors suggest the reason Microsoft skipped over "Windows 9" is because of Windows 95 - Neowin

Well.... That could explain a lot.

Interesting...also highlights the rather poor coding techniques employed in the 'old' days...

Sounds like that may be a good reason too. I guess computers aren't smart enough yet?

The funny part is that any program that checks for Windows 95/98 is probably not going to work well (or as intended) on Windows 8, let alone the upcoming 10. So it really wouldn't matter much.

No, those programs probably treated non-Windows 9x as NT, which would then work more or less fine in Windows 8.

Windows 10: Why Microsoft skipped Windows 9 - Gadgets and Tech - Life and Style - The Independent

Indie developer Christer Kaitila has revealed how many applications use that now-problematic code: it’s well over 4000.

Windows 10: Why Microsoft skipped Windows 9 - Gadgets and Tech - Life and Style - The Independent

This also explains why Windows has started lying about it's version number in the API, and started using GUID's instead as well...

Interesting...also highlights the rather poor coding techniques employed in the 'old' days...

Yea. In the "old days"....

Maybe they are trying to outdo Linux Mint with their 17. lol