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
Developer and Enterprise Features
Bash shell
At their Build developer conference, Microsoft announced that the Bash shell would be available in Windows 10 with the Anniversary Update, and they have delivered. Bash has been available in the Insider Program for quite a while, so it’s been well tested already. For those wondering why Microsoft would go to the trouble of adding another shell, the goal is to make Windows 10 more friendly for web developers who often have toolchains in Bash.
Image Source: hanselman.com
Microsoft partnered with Canonical to provide user-mode binaries, so most of the commands which work in Ubuntu will work in Windows 10 as well. The Bash shell is not running Linux in a virtual machine behind the scenes either. This is Ubuntu binaries running on Windows 10.
For those that wanted to leverage open source toolkits but could not do it on Windows before, this should be a nice addition to Windows.
Centennial Apps
Project Centennial is Microsoft’s solution for existing Win32 apps being moved forward to the new Universal Windows App (UWP) platform. With the Anniversary Update, Microsoft is bringing official support for Centennial Apps on Windows 10, where as prior to this it was all part of the testing phase.
Once a Win32 or .NET app has been converted to UWP, it will have the ability to do push notifications and have a Live Tile, just like all UWP apps. The install process is much cleaner, and uninstalling ensures that all traces of the app are gone. A converted Win32 app can be transitioned to the new XAML layout as well, which would allow for scaling of the UI much easier than any sort of DPI method.
Converted apps can also be put in the store, and updated through the store. For those that prefer to offer the app in a more traditional download and install way, the converter creates an AppX package which can be loaded onto any Windows 10 PC.
The app will have a virtualized file system and registry, and it won’t work for apps that have to run as administrator, but there are certainly some upsides to having Win32 apps converted to UWP. We’ll have to see how this goes over time, since it’s a brand new feature. Certainly apps that are no longer developed will never move to this model, it’s a smart way to at least offer the UWP platform to traditional Win32 developers.
Enterprise Features
Microsoft can’t leave out the Enterprise, since that’s a huge part of their business. The Anniversary Update brings some updates here too. Things like Windows Hello which are also usable by consumers will of course be available, but there are a couple of features targeted specifically towards the enterprise.
The first is one that we’ve heard about for about as long as Windows 10 has been around: Windows Information Protection. This feature was previously known as Enterprise Data Protection, and it is a mechanism to prevent data leaks by employees, either wittingly or unwittingly. Files can be designated as Business files based on where they are located, or where they came from, and end-users won’t be able to copy those files or their contents without switching it to a personal file, and whether or not they can do that is controlled by policy through Mobile Device Management or System Center Configuration Manager.
We’ve discussed this in the past, but there’s a great TechNet article now that the feature is being made available with this update.
The other big enterprise feature is Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection, and yes the name is a mouthful. WDATP will help administrators detect, investigate, and respond to attacks to their infrastructure. It combines a client built-in to Windows 10 along with cloud infrastructure to provide tools and dashboards to see what’s going on now, and what’s happened in the past. It should be a powerful tool for IT admins. You can read more at TechNet as well.
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tipoo - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
I hope you don't use any google services, or heck even just have a continual web presence at all since no doubt you're being run through a number of analytics programs already.Me, I couldn't care less that some anonymized telemetrics are sent to MS. It already happened with earlier error reporting.
JoeyJoJo123 - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
Then I'm sure you wouldn't mind a camera being placed in every public toilet, so that the government could watch you do your business, you know, just in case a terrorist decides to attempt to blow open another toilet with explosives. I mean, everyone uses the bathroom, right? There's nothing wrong that you're doing, so you wouldn't abject to being monitored while you do your business, right?Here's my point:
Just because you're doing nothing wrong gives nobody any right to monitor your every movement across the net. Being blind to the fact that Microsoft is literally spying on millions of people and also monetarily PROFITING from that surveillance just makes the situation worse by establishing that online surveillance is "OK" for millions of normal people using their computers and internet services in law abiding ways.
Michael Bay - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
MS does not profit from it directly, you`re thinking of goog.Notmyusualid - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
+ 48^12 upvotes.prophet001 - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
TrueMeteor2 - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
You best stop using computers which are connected to other ones.MrTuKer - Wednesday, August 10, 2016 - link
I don't understand the criticism from people here, lot of people seem to think MS can do no wrong even if they are copying tactics that other companies use that are criticized by everyone ?What Google and Apple do is not right and by MS copying them it still doesn't mean that it is right ! Didn't you mom ever tell you that two wrongs don't make a right well let me tell you a little secret three wrongs still don't make a right either !
And who in their right mind doesn't think MS doesn't profit directly from its surveillance needs to goto the funny farm ASAP - Indirectly or directly it doesn't matter - Yes I'm talking aboy both MS and going to the funny farm !
Yes I have used MS Windows since Win 3.0 and have used most but avoided Vista, Millienium, and Win 8.0/8.1 - I jumped straight from Win 7 64 Pro on day 1 of Win 10 release obviously after imaging my SSD to another SSD, I went through the pain of trying to be acclimatised to Win 10, I gave it 3 months but finally gave up and went back to Win 7. Even then it took me a day or two to become re-familiarized with Win 7, then slowly over the next 3-4 months I noticed Windows updates taking longer and generally my i7 Alienware was starting to feel generally sluggish. I had heard about the backporting of telemetry to Win 7 also and finally I had enough one night thought I would just give Linux a bash on the Win 10 SSD and I haven't looked back since.
No this is not a Win 10 bashing, no it is not a Linux advert.
All I can say is that in my opinion and OS should just be that - An OS, nothing more nothing less.
It can have a GUI or not, its your choice.
But it should not spy on you - hey Google and Apple and Microsoft are you listening - That is what all Governments do even though they never like to admit it and I don't agree with that either unless it is done with a warrant from a Judge - But I digress !
An OS should be an OS and nothing else, the apps that you want you install or maybe a selection are installed for you but these can be uninstalled to be replaced with your chosen one's or not - whatever the case maybe !
An OS should not lock you into a particular browser or search engine or whatever, this is taking choice away from the user and the excuse that well if the user doesn't like it then they can always use another OS is not the right attitude.
Also stopping the uninstalling or removing of certain features is not good for the user only the OS supplier who is collecting your private data !
Remember when a certain company was forced to have it's browser removed in Europe as it was seen as being unfair to the competition !
Well, MS needs to be careful as it could happen again, EU is already looking into MS with Win 10 and its data mining and transferring said info back to the USA as a breach of EU Laws !
I'm sure I could say many other things and some clever spark with counter my comments with sarcastic one's or just call me a Windows hater but I have been using Windows since 1990 so I can counter that point, what I will say is I just prefer the old Win 7 64 Pro, its style, its responsiveness before Win 10 came along ! Because whatever MS was doing via the WU it certainly slowed my i7 Alienware (16GB Ram 512GB SSD 980M GPU) and its not a low spec machine aswell as Win Updates were taking ages to download aswell as all the other stuff MS were trying to do to get people onto Win 10 - MS is the reason I decided to leave the Windows ECO system - its is that simple - Linux serves my purposes 100%, it can do everything that Windows did for me and more, it even has a lovely Win 7 style GUI called Cinnamon. But the one reason alone that I love it above all else - What I do on my machine is private, what I do on the Web is not, what search engine I use means they can data mine that, what websites I visit will data mine me etc, I don't use cloud services so no worries there , I don't have Cortana or any other mic software listening or viewing my webcam without my express permission. If I use email and I acknowledge that its not private unless its encrypted.
But what I do on my PC is private, its that simple !
BrokenCrayons - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
"Every other company is doing it on the web, so it's okay for Microsoft to do it at a local level using the computer's OS." -tipooNotmyusualid - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
Anonymous?Your wi-fi password being shared out, because your brother has 'friended' someone on Facebook?
Your contacts being read & collected?
Your keystrokes being read & collected?
Come on.
Mr Perfect - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
Or more simply put, "Microsoft catching up with Google and Apple".