Top IT stories this week: Surface Pro 4, Windows 10 and the Large Hadron Collider

Here they are, in case you missed them: our seven most popular stories from the past seven days.

7. How businesses are benefiting from the technology behind CERN's Large Hadron Collider

The big data spin-offs resulting from bashing small particles together at high speed are as useful to business as they are to science, says physics professor and former CERN researcher Dr Michael Feindt.

6. Met Police on the verge of outsourcing hundreds of jobs to SSCL

The Met Police is set to outsource three back-office departments to private firm Shared Services Connected Limited (SSCL) imminently. Finance, procurement and HR services are likely to be affected.

5. 'GPs could be breaking the law if they provide insurers with medical records - even with patient consent, ICO rules

Insurance firms who request medical records under the Data Protection Act are abusing fundamental rights that are protected under EU law, and GPs who do hand over records could even be in breach of the law themselves, the Information Commissioner's Office has said.

4. Is Windows 10 opening upgraders to more risks than it should?

Backwards compatibility is a great thing in a new operating system, but allowing Win 7 applications to run on Windows 10 could be its Achilles' heel, warns security vendor Symantec.

"[Backwards compatibility] not only allows users to leverage the enormous legacy of applications written for prior versions of Windows, but unfortunately also means that many malicious applications will continue to run too," says Symantec, believing users will "see few additional benefits from Windows 10 built-in security features".

3. Microsoft launches Windows 10 – world rejoices

Apparently there's a new operating thingy out.

2. From Fortran to Swift: The world's most important programming languages

"There are only two kinds of programming languages: those people always bitch about and those nobody uses," said Bjarne Stroustrup, inventor of C++.

So which are the languages that people have bitched about over the years, and which are they bitching about now? You may be able to guess a couple of them from the title.

1. Microsoft Surface Pro 4: Everything we know so far

Computing's analysis of the rumours and leaks coming from the supply chain and Microsoft insiders was our top story this week.

Will we see a 14-inch Surface Pro 4 alongside the 12-inch one? What will Intel's Skylake processor mean for speed and battery life and what about wireless charging?

Time will tell, of course, but there are plenty of hints as to the form that Redmond's new tablet will take.

The world, apparently, still cannot get enough of Microsoft.