MSFT Win 10 Update

When you think of cool tech, Microsoft Windows probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind.

You're not alone. Even after Microsoft got into the business of selling sleek, powerful gadgets like its Surface tablet-laptop hybrids, the company has struggled to convince people it's on the cutting edge of tech.

   

Case in point: Windows 10. The highly regarded operating system -- launched last year and designed with mobile devices like Surface in mind -- runs on slightly more than 12 percent of the world's PCs. That doesn't sound too bad until you consider that more than half of the PCs running Windows out there use a version released by Microsoft more than six years ago.

   

So while Windows may be the world's most popular software, people aren't rushing to use the latest versions on PCs, let alone on the phones and tablets that are the biggest growth engines in the tech industry today.

   

That's why the company that Bill Gates co-founded 40 years ago needs to work on changing its image this week at its annual Build developers conference in San Francisco. The world's biggest software maker is expected to talk up refinements to Windows and unveil new tools that encourage developers to make their iPhone and Android apps work on Windows, too.