Windows 10 Anniversary Update due this summer

Microsoft confirms the launch of the new OS version at its Build 2016 conference

Microsoft has talked up the successes of Windows 10 at its Build 2016 conference, at which it confirmed the latest version - the Windows 10 Anniversary Update - is due to launch this summer.

Microsoft said there are now more than 270 million active devices running Windows 10, which was released eight months ago. This represents the "fastest start in Windows history", Microsoft said, adding that the number of devices running the latest OS is 145 per cent higher than Windows 7 during the same period since launch.

Microsoft said people are spending more time on Windows than ever before - more than 75 billion hours combined. This is the time period it would take to watch The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring film, which runs for almost four hours, 18.75 billion times, or to drive from Paris to Vladivostok and back continuously 257 million times.

This summer, Windows 10 users will be able to download the Windows 10 Anniversary Update for free.

The update includes "key innovations" such as Windows Hello, which is a way for users to sign into their devices with "enterprise-grade security" using a fingerprint or eye movement.

"Studies show over 80 per cent of people use the same password across multiple websites, managing around 20 to 30 different accounts requiring passwords," said Microsoft's Windows boss Terry Myerson on the Windows blog.

"So with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update we've made it possible for you to use the same easy, yet strong, security of Windows Hello with Windows apps and Microsoft Edge, the first and only browser to natively support biometrics, with supporting sites."

Elsewhere at Build - Microsoft's annual developers' conference which is being held this week in San Francisco - the vendor announced the immediate availability of HoloLens, its hologram technology.

"HoloLens mixes holograms into our world, enabling all new ways for us to communicate, create, work and play," Myerson added.

"It's the only device that enables holographic computing natively with no markers, no external cameras, no wires, no phone required, and no connection to a PC needed. And customers across industries are embracing the potential of holograms already, including NASA, Case Western Reserve University, Volvo, and more."