Microsoft boasts 270 million Windows 10 users, details Anniversary (Redstone) Update

Shawn Knight

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Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system is now being used by more than 270 million people. Windows boss Terry Myerson revealed the metric earlier today during the keynote for Microsoft’s annual Build developer conference in San Francisco.

As Computer World highlights, the figure was expressed in a software-as-a-service style. What that means is Microsoft isn’t measuring total device installations or daily activity, but how many people ran Windows 10 at least once over the past 30 days. What’s more, the figure isn’t exclusive to Windows 10 PCs as it includes smartphones, tablets and Xbox One consoles that are running the new OS.

Elsewhere, Microsoft said that the next major update to Windows (known up to this point by its codename, Redstone) will arrive this summer.

Dubbed the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, it’ll deliver a number of new features and improvements including Windows Hello authentication support for apps and websites, Windows Ink, the arrival of Universal Windows Platform apps on the Xbox One, proactive Cortana suggestions, the ability to access Cortana from the lock screen, background music on Xbox One, Xbox features on PCs and much more.

The update will also add the Linux command line to Windows 10, something the crowd of developers overwhelmingly approved of.

Project Centennial is another milestone Microsoft talked about at this year's Build keynote. The Desktop App Converter helps developers bring Win32 and .NET applications to the Windows Store, effectively turning them into UWP "Modern" apps. As you might recall, Microsoft pushing for UWP spurred some controvery recently when Epic Games founder, Tim Sweeney raised concerns about a Windows "walled garden".

The Windows 10 Anniversary Update will be free for everyone, Microsoft said.

Microsoft’s Build conference runs through April 1.

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"it’ll deliver a number of new features and improvements including Windows Hello authentication support for apps and websites, Windows Ink, the arrival of Universal Windows Platform apps on the Xbox One, proactive Cortana suggestions, the ability to access Cortana from the lock screen".

So in other words ."Nothing particularly useful".
 
I've been very happy with windows 10 thus far. We have also upgraded a number of client computers to it without any software compatibility issues.
 
"As Computer World highlights, the figure was expressed in a software-as-a-service style. What that means is Microsoft isn’t measuring total device installations or daily activity, but how many people ran Windows 10 at least once over the past 30 days. What’s more, the figure isn’t exclusive to Windows 10 PCs as it includes smartphones, tablets and Xbox One consoles that are running the new OS."

LOL, so in other words the numbers are bulls**t. Windows 10 *might* be on 10% of regularly used machines by now, but even that number is a little optimistic.

"it’ll deliver a number of new features and improvements including Windows Hello authentication support for apps and websites, Windows Ink, the arrival of Universal Windows Platform apps on the Xbox One, proactive Cortana suggestions, the ability to access Cortana from the lock screen".

So in other words ."Nothing particularly useful".

I dunno, that Ink thing is looking an awful lot like a sidebar - a REAL sidebar with a reserved area of screen. If you can put live tiles on it that might be enough to get me to try it again.
 
So another useless update to Windows 10. Microsoft wants to pretend that Windows 10 is taking over the PC space, but it isn't yet. Windows 7 is still the most used OS, and business's are still migrating to it. They won't touch Windows 10. There are many who stay with Windows 7 or 8.1 because of stability or compatibility issues that that Windows 10 causes. Windows 7 is still around until 2020, so anyway, enough ranting lol.
 
Anyone have a clue as to how many of those Windows 10 upgrades have been paid for? Wall Street seems to think Microsoft will be able to convert all those freeloading users into paying users. It seems to me it will be another Pandora-like pipe dream. It really wouldn't be ethical to force upgrades on users and then force them to pay for it. I'm waiting to see how Microsoft is going to be able to do this. Wall Street must think it's possible but I'm not so sure about that.
 
So another useless update to Windows 10. Microsoft wants to pretend that Windows 10 is taking over the PC space, but it isn't yet. Windows 7 is still the most used OS, and business's are still migrating to it. They won't touch Windows 10. There are many who stay with Windows 7 or 8.1 because of stability or compatibility issues that that Windows 10 causes. Windows 7 is still around until 2020, so anyway, enough ranting lol.

Many enterprises (and the Department of Defense) have been on Windows 7 for a number of years and many are testing Windows 10 images already. You're going to have a tough time finding an application that ran on Windows 7 that fails to function on Windows 10. This isn't the XP to Vista migration from years ago.
 
Was that OS, or should it be POS?
 
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It's free upgrade, so no surprises there.

Anyway, I'm happy with Windows 10. It just works for me. Smooth and fast.

People can mumble about privacy and other so-called issues. These are nothing new, and had been present before.

OSX has been providing free OS upgrades since it's inception. Microsoft is just following the same model.
 
"As Computer World highlights, the figure was expressed in a software-as-a-service style. What that means is Microsoft isn’t measuring total device installations or daily activity, but how many people ran Windows 10 at least once over the past 30 days. What’s more, the figure isn’t exclusive to Windows 10 PCs as it includes smartphones, tablets and Xbox One consoles that are running the new OS."

LOL, so in other words the numbers are bulls**t. Windows 10 *might* be on 10% of regularly used machines by now, but even that number is a little optimistic.



I dunno, that Ink thing is looking an awful lot like a sidebar - a REAL sidebar with a reserved area of screen. If you can put live tiles on it that might be enough to get me to try it again.
I have no idea what that "Ink" thing is all about but if I can't find a use for it hopefully I can disable it and forget about it.
 
Many enterprises (and the Department of Defense) have been on Windows 7 for a number of years and many are testing Windows 10 images already. You're going to have a tough time finding an application that ran on Windows 7 that fails to function on Windows 10. This isn't the XP to Vista migration from years ago.

The U.S. military is still running Windows XP in many scenarios due to the cost of upgrading infrastructure to Windows 7 or beyond. The U.S. Navy for example has only in more recent years begun to look at Windows 7. I know this, because of a friend who served in the Navy. Just the cost involved to test systems before deployment is crazy, since it takes years of testing and more testing. Hell, there are a lot of companies or enterprises who didn't migrate to Windows 7 until after Windows XP's April 2014 life cycle ended. And they won't be moving to Windows 10 for the foreseeable future. I know, as I saw this at a regional bank that I replaced one of their branch locations workstations with Windows 7 machines.
 
Walled garden? Apple's walled garden is worse and had existed long before.

The Two Wrongs fallacy. Apple's sins don't excuse anyone elses. And there's another big problem with this defense. Apple customers go in with the expectation of a walled garden, and many want it. Windows users have never had this expectation, and are now having it thrust upon them.

So, if you'll pardon the pun, it's apples and oranges.
 
Many enterprises (and the Department of Defense) have been on Windows 7 for a number of years and many are testing Windows 10 images already. You're going to have a tough time finding an application that ran on Windows 7 that fails to function on Windows 10. This isn't the XP to Vista migration from years ago.

The U.S. military is still running Windows XP in many scenarios due to the cost of upgrading infrastructure to Windows 7 or beyond. The U.S. Navy for example has only in more recent years begun to look at Windows 7. I know this, because of a friend who served in the Navy. Just the cost involved to test systems before deployment is crazy, since it takes years of testing and more testing. Hell, there are a lot of companies or enterprises who didn't migrate to Windows 7 until after Windows XP's April 2014 life cycle ended. And they won't be moving to Windows 10 for the foreseeable future. I know, as I saw this at a regional bank that I replaced one of their branch locations workstations with Windows 7 machines.
The US military still use XP and 7 because MS allow them to. The government last year or so gave MS over 500 million just to keep XP on IRS computers till they get around to upgrading.

At some point whether you upgrade now for free or later on, MS wins. Just how it is. Win 7 support isn't going to last long. MS is moving faster to 10 than most had thought. Whether by force or not, the change is happening now and MS is no longer waiting for people to decide.
 
Our business keeps getting calls from customers confused by the change made by their computer to Windows 10. We check the list of uninstalled programs to see if there was anything they used on it. Print Shop 20 was removed on one customers computer for no known reason. Mostly, we educate them on setting the start menu so the garbage tiles are unpinned, telemetry is set to Basic, update sharing is disabled, their default programs are returned to what they have been and want to keep using, and all Background Apps, except Weather, are turned off. Once the Start menu is cleaned up, they feel better about it and don't mind using it in almost all cases. We then set up File History, one of the best apps built into Windows 8 and 10 that few know about. Automatic file backup to an SD card is wonderful. We set it to save old versions of changed files for one month. The default of forever seems ridiculous. We also tell them that there are still thousands of bugs being worked on, including over 6000 Edge bugs, as announced by MS at Build. We never set Edge as the default browser. It just sucks unless you like no real control over favorite positioning, and all the ads on every webpage. It'll just get better over time.
 
I have no doubt in my mind that Microsoft UWP Apps is the way to go for a new standard for developing Windows apps that run on all devices with a single compiled code.

Microsoft has been the industry standard leader for "productivity computing" on every level, and it is very well positioned to remain so with its new Windows 10 OS and UWP standard.
 
The US military still use XP and 7 because MS allow them to. The government last year or so gave MS over 500 million just to keep XP on IRS computers till they get around to upgrading.

At some point whether you upgrade now for free or later on, MS wins. Just how it is. Win 7 support isn't going to last long. MS is moving faster to 10 than most had thought. Whether by force or not, the change is happening now and MS is no longer waiting for people to decide.

Very true. And 2020 is coming around faster than most people think, when it comes to Windows 7.
 
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