The tech world has been anticipating the Windows 9 release date for quite some time now. And some reports and rumors said that its coming is set on spring 2015, plus a number of photos giving a glimpse of its interface and some of its features have been leaked online.

While the world continues to wait for the Windows 9 release date, some photos of the operating system rumored to be developed under the name "Project Threshold" were leaked online.

In one of the photos leaked by German site Computer Base, one can see the major difference between the current version and the new one, as the Start Menu sports a hybrid of the Windows 7 and Windows 8 Start Menus. The Start Menu also appears to have a search bar .

But that is only a part of what appeared to be a technical preview of the operating system, which is slated to be announced in October.

The Windows 9 will reportedly no longer have the Charms bar, which is what pops out when you hover your mouse pointer on the right side of the screen and reveals a number of options like settings, search and devices.

According to BGR,Windows 9 will also reportedly have a notifications center, which is akin to what smartphones have and will notify when a new email has been received or a new interaction on a social media account has been made.

With all these changes and upgrades, the next question one might ask is how much it would cost. And sources said it will be very cheap, if not free. If you're running on a Windows 8.1, the upgrade will reportedly cost as low as $20 or nothing. If you have installed Windows 7 or something older, you may have to shell out more.

While the Windows 9 release date has not been formally announced, a report said a September 30 reveal is very possible.