Some of the best apps in Windows 10 remain essentially unchanged from Windows 8, including Sports, Weather, News, and Money. They’re excellent sources of information. Sure, your broker may have more concrete insights than the Money app, and ESPN might deliver a more comprehensive view of the July baseball trade market. But for the casual fan (are there casual fans of weather?), the topical Windows 10 apps fit the bill. (Microsoft has decided that some of its other apps, such as the Travel app, will eventually be relegated to websites.) One exception to these is Microsoft’s People app, which I’ve never quite understood. People filters information like a traditional Rolodex: name, phone number, email, et cetera. I’m just not sure how many people use People as their jumping-off point for reaching out. If I want to email someone, I open Mail or Outlook and enter my contact’s name. Ditto for my phone, Facebook, or Twitter. People is sort of the appendix of Windows past, and I probably wouldn’t miss it if Microsoft’s engineers removed it.
Microsoft also includes some other somewhat insignificant apps within Windows 10: Alarms & Clock, for example, does nothing that your watch or phone (or Outlook) doesn’t already do—although it can pop up a visual alert at a given time, too. In the case of the Calculator app, the drab appearance hides several useful calculators and converters. For basic arithmetic, however, remember that you can also ask Cortana. The Windows Accessories folder also hides some of the older apps, including WordPad, Paint, and the Clipping Tool. None of these seems to have been updated, and the Math Input Panel seems as useless as ever.
I probably should have listed Microsoft’s Solitaire Collection among the best apps Windows 10 offers. Just look at it: It’s gorgeous, with design elements I would have loved to see influence other apps within Windows 10. And it’s not just one game—it’s a bunch. Minesweeper’s there, for example—not only is a version of the classic game included, but so is a new derivative, Treasure Hunt. There are several Solitaire variations, Mahjong, Sudoku, slots, and bingo. Eventually, there will be leaderboards, Microsoft promises. (Note that the app can still kick you out to the Microsoft Store to download apps, however. One question: why does a game like Mahjong take almost 250 megabytes? Microsoft doesn’t actually include a Skype app in Windows 10. Weirdly, there’s a Get Skype app that’s simply a “Hey, click this link to get Skype” webpage. Finally, for those who wish to use Windows 10 to connect to a 3D printer, there’s the 3D Builder app, which we didn’t test. There's even some apps, like Movie Maker, which emerge from the hidden underworld of Windows Essentials 2012 and appear in Windows 10.
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