Windows 10 Anniversary Update: The Road To Redstone
by Brett Howse on August 2, 2016 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Operating Systems
- Microsoft
- Windows 10
Final Words
There’s a lot to like with the Anniversary Update, and as the first major update since Windows 10 shipped, it’s a good start for Microsoft on their new track of Windows as a Service. We’d already seen a couple of smaller updates since launch, fixing several outstanding items, but the Anniversary Update adds a lot more functionality to the operating system.
With the new Skype, Mail, and other Universal Windows Apps, Microsoft finally has a platform which works across all of their systems. It really has been a long dream, and only with the update to the Xbox One do we really have a universal platform. This should pay dividends going forward, with any app updates being available to all systems. For developers, there’s an opportunity to reach all of Microsoft’s platforms with a single app. Project Centennial should assist with those trying to bring older Win32 apps forward as well.
The updated tablet mode is all about small changes. Using Windows 10 in a purely touch environment is definitely a better experience. Windows 8.1 was pretty good here, but the app selection was weak at best, so Windows 10 is now a superior platform for touch on the Windows side.
The Bash shell was a pretty big surprise at Build, but it makes a lot of sense with the new Microsoft. They’ve embraced open source in a way that didn’t seem possible a few years ago, and their strive to bring developers to the platform has been the driving factor in the addition of a Linux system to Windows. They even call it Bash on Ubuntu on Windows.
Windows Ink is a better way to use the pen. Cortana has improved. But I think the biggest update was to Edge, which really needed extensions to even have a chance of getting use by many users. Edge has always rendered text very well, but it’s lack of extensions made it difficult to use daily. With this update, that should no longer be a problem.
Microsoft made thousands of changes to Windows 10, and there’s no way to go into all of them in a single article, but Windows as a Service has started out pretty well so far. The Anniversary Update really polishes a lot of the aspects of Windows 10, which didn’t necessarily feel rushed, but wasn’t exactly finished either. This update has helped out on a lot of the edges.
The Windows Insider Program has been the driving factor in the development, and it doesn’t appear to be ending any time soon. Microsoft has found a way to tap into millions of people’s feedback and ideas to improve their product. It’s been an interesting road to Redstone, and now that Redstone 1 has shipped we should start to see the new features coming to Redstone over the next several months. For now, the Windows 10 Anniversary Update will start rolling out in waves today, so check your Windows Update.
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Notmyusualid - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
To be honest, I only logged in to say I thought the article could have done with half a dozen pages on the data mining & privacy issues alone.But Michael, or similar will be along shortly to tell me it is all in my head.
But my firewall logs say otherwise.
jardows2 - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
Well, the article was about the update, and what has changed. There are plenty of articles from a year ago outlining your concern, so methinks you are just a hater.Daniel Egger - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
You're totally ignoring the fact that with update things got a whole lot worse: As usual Microsoft decides for you that for the things you actually still can opt out and have opted out before you probably wanted to opt-in with the update and is happily applying your changed mind to the configuration for you. Also Cortana can *not* be disabled; yes, you can sign-off but the option to automatically share your local searches with Microsoft is gone and instead all searches will be shared with Microsoft.Some of the changes are actually illegal in Europe (like the automatic opt-in to previously opted-out items) and at best dubious but as usual it will require a lawsuit before Microsoft decides to reverse the bogosity. Meanwhile all systems have automatically upgraded and applied the privacy downgrades -- clever. Hope some court actually slaps them with a hefty fine instead of just on the wrist...
Icehawk - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
I don't want Cortana, I want to be able to select my search engine, and so on - it's like MS is trying to go OSX by removing much choice from the end user - see their Store which I avoid like the plague. I am surprised they locked Edge into Bing, as I recall one of the many lawsuits they lost was related to similar issues back in (I think) the XP era. Also does this mean legacy IE is gone? If so I literally cannot update as one of my jobs requires the usage of a particular website which is not compatible with anything but IE and my other job's web portal and a few apps are the same.Brett Howse - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
IE is still there for exactly that reason.Daniel Egger - Wednesday, August 3, 2016 - link
> it's like MS is trying to go OSX by removing much choice from the end userThis claim is getting long in the tooth without anyone seemingly being able to back it up. Please, in gods name, tell me as an "any OS" power user (mostly OS X throughout the day, though) where OS X is removing choice. The only OS allowing more choice than OS X would be Linux but for many this is actually too much choice...
jlabelle2 - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Does Siri allow to work with Bing? I think people are confused. In the meantime, Edge is allowing you to use your search engine just fine.Notmyusualid - Wednesday, August 3, 2016 - link
Daniel Egger explains it nicely. Read on...Gigaplex - Wednesday, August 3, 2016 - link
That feature exists in Windows 7 too.Teknobug - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
Reading that they remove the ability to prevent bloatware like Cany Crush Saga from getting installed, why are we being forced to have stuff we don't even want ot use?