The Continuum feature, which doesn’t yet exist outside of Redmond, seems to have neatly solved this problem.
While Windows 8.1 and its subsequent updates address two or three of the main complaints these types of users had, it was clear to Microsoft that a total rethinking of its audience was necessary – and that traditional enterprises with keyboards and mice but no Windows tablets shouldn’t be relegated to second-class citizens in favor of consumer oriented devices.
Clearly, most business users rejected the touch-first, desktop mouse- and keyboard-second approach that Windows 8 provided. Microsoft has wrestled with this question for more than a decade, all the way back to the Windows tablet PCs that ran Windows XP Tablet Edition in the early 2000s. Windows Touch More Intuitive – But Corporate Users Won’t Noticeįile this one under HTFDWDWT, an acronym I just coined for “How the F- Do We Deal With Touch?” This new method of delivering Windows will supposedly allow for faster updates that have fewer negative consequences – although it’s difficult to be sure of this, given no one has seen this system in the wild yet.
There’s also speculation, fueled by job postings revealed over the summer of 2014, that Windows updates may be delivered in an entirely new manner, almost like subscribing to a branch of the Winmain code repository at Microsoft rather than relying on patch management systems such as Windows Update, Windows Server Update Services and others that use hotfix style updates to patch over and change key system files. The current plan consists of three update “cadences” for Windows: The breakneck consumer-oriented pace, the enterprise stability release and something in between, which I suppose you can call the Goldilocks option, as it’s not too fast, not too slow and, in fact, just right. Other massive changes under the hood involve the new way Microsoft plans to deliver updates and future versions of Windows.
A tailored experience for each device.” Myerson further details the Windows 10 vision: “There will be one way to write a universal application, one store, one way for apps to be discovered, purchased and updated across all of these devices.” That’s a tall order of course, but the end goal is an operating system, according to Terry Myerson, Microsoft’s executive vice president of operating systems, that will “run on the broadest amount of devices. This lets developers have an idea for an app and code from a single project the Windows application, the Metro app for it, a version for Windows Phone 8+ devices and, then, a way to keep all of those apps updated through a store experience or through a corporate deployment. Many of the underlying changes that aren’t necessarily visible to users and administrators are the technical foundations required to support “universal apps,” which are basically Windows Phone, Windows, Metro and Modern apps. I think the real reason Microsoft jumped version numbers is because of the massive changes required to the architecture of Windows to further some design goals. Major Changes to Kernel, Operating System Fundamentals Last week’s press event had an element of groveling and a small air of apology, too – as if Microsoft thought it was necessary to say, “Hey, we didn’t listen to you, but this is what we should have done two years ago.” I bet they really feel that way, too. From an end user perspective, though, are they worthy of a jump of two version numbers? You could be forgiven for thinking this was Windows 8.2, or even (if you successfully ignored Windows 8) Windows 7.5.
There’s a lot to like about the user interface refinements in the Windows 10 technical preview.