Windows 10 ISO Download

To download the ISO media file from Microsoft, you just need an internet connection. You can get this image directly from Microsoft using this official download. You will need a genuine Windows product key during the activation step during or after installation, but that should be a minor issue.

As part of this ISO file offering by Microsoft, the company has also created a relatively small check list of what’s actually required before beginning the download:

• Make sure you have:
  • An internet connection.
  • Sufficient data storage available on a computer, USB or external drive for the download.
  • A blank USB or DVD (and DVD burner) with at least 4 GB of space if you want to create media. Microsoft recommends using a blank USB or blank DVD, because any content on it will be deleted.
• Check these things on the PC where you want to install Windows 10:
  • 64-bit or 32-bit processor (CPU). You’ll create either the 64-bit or 32-bit version of Windows 10 that’s appropriate for your CPU. To check this on your PC, go to PC info in PC settings or System in Control Panel, and look for System type.
  • System requirements. See the system requirements before installing Windows 10.
  • Language in Windows. You’ll need to choose the same language when you install Windows 10. To see what language you’re currently using, go to Time and language in PC settings or Region in Control Panel.
  • Edition of Windows. You should also choose the same edition of Windows. To check what edition you’re currently running, go to PC info in PC settings or System in Control Panel, and look for Windows edition.
  • Microsoft Office products. If you just purchased a new device that includes Office 365, Microsoft recommends redeeming (installing) Office before upgrading to Windows 10. If you have Office 2010 or earlier and choose to perform a clean install of Windows 10, you will need to locate your Office product key.

To start the download, visit this page.

Microsoft Edge and the Windows 10 Anniversary Update

With the August rollout of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Microsoft Edge is definitely one of the topics Microsoft wants to highlight. The new Windows browser has become more efficient and accessible, as well as even more secure.

You can get more details on the Microsoft blog post, but they are very proud of the recent product updates that have put Edge at the top of the browser comparison scale in several areas.

Over the last year we’ve been hard at work taking Microsoft Edge to the next level with features and improvements that make every part of the browser better. In the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Microsoft Edge has support for browser extensions from the Windows Store, dozens of new features, and major improvements to power efficiency, and security. It’s also the most accessible browser we’ve ever shipped, and the first browser to score a perfect 100% on HTML5Accessibility.com! Let’s walk through some of what’s new and available for all customers today.

Pinned tabs

You can now create pinned tabs to keep your most used sites and web apps available just a click away – simply right-click any tab and choose “Pin.”

Pinned tabs always appear at the start of the tab row, and only show the site’s icon. Pinned tabs that are in your Microsoft Edge window when you close the app will come back the next time you open Microsoft Edge.

Paste and go

Starting with the Anniversary Update, if you have copied a link in your clipboard, you can right-click in the address bar and choose “Paste and go” from the context menu to instantly navigate to the site.

If you copy something other than a link to your clipboard, you will instead see a “paste and search” option.

Notifications from websites

Microsoft Edge now support notifications from open websites, so you can stay up to date with messages or updates from your favorite sites like Skype for Web, Slack, or WhatsApp.

Microsoft Edge will always ask for your permission before allowing a site to send you notifications, and you can manage notifications from Settings in Microsoft Edge or by right clicking a notification in Windows 10’s Action Center.

Swipe to navigate

You can now navigate back and forward with the swipe of a fingertip. On a touchscreen PC or a Windows 10 Mobile device, simply drag a finger across the page to the right or left to go to the previous or next page in your history.

Ask Cortana about any image

Right click on any picture on the web and select “Ask Cortana” to learn more about the picture you selected in order to identify related information or look up related pictures.

Better favorites

You can now import favorites from Firefox, in addition to Chrome and Internet Explorer. When you import favorites from any browser, they will now land in a separate clearly labeled folder, instead of mixed in with your existing favorites. Organizing your favorites is now easier using the new “tree” display in the Hub. You can expand and collapse folders to see the contents of as many or few as you like. You can now also sort favorites by name in the favorites pane, and easily rearrange or move favorites between folders with drag and drop. In the Favorites Bar, you can now right-click on the favorites bar to display icons only, rename items, or create new folders.

Better download management

Microsoft Edge now gives you a reminder of in-progress downloads whenever you close Microsoft Edge. This gives you the opportunity to complete downloads prior to closing Microsoft Edge. You can also set where downloaded files are saved by default. Just open “Settings”, choose “Advanced settings”, and find the new option under “Downloads.”

Drag and drop folders

You can now upload folders to sites like OneDrive, Dropbox, and Google Drive by dragging and dropping into Microsoft Edge.

Better tab behavior on Mobile

Microsoft Edge keeps your tabs under control when you use it with apps on your phone. If you tap on a link in an app that opens a new tab in Microsoft Edge, pressing the back button when you’re done will close that tab, then take you back to the app. Your tabs list stays lean and relevant, by smartly closing tabs you’re done with.

Tab previews on HoloLens

Hover over tabs on HoloLens just like you would on a PC to see a thumbnail preview of the page.

 

Configuring Windows 10 Virtual Machine in Azure

Windows 10 is the next version of the Windows desktop. You may love your Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 desktop, but you must understand the days of those Operating Systems being supported are limited. Now is a good time to start evaluating Windows 10, and an easy way to do that is using Azure virtual machines.

In this article by Prasanna Murali we get step-by-step instructions on how to crate a new Windows 10 virtual machine in Azure.

The following are the steps needed to create a Windows 10 virtual machine.

Step 1: Login into to Azure Management Portal by clicking here.

Step 2: Click New button from Azure Management Portal, as shown below:

Step 3: From the new blade, click the virtual machine, as shown below:

You should read the entire article for all the details.

Microsoft: Windows 10 Anniversary Update on August 2nd

Microsoft has confirmed that the Windows 10 Anniversary Update will be available on August 2, 2016. This will be a free update for all current Windows 10 users, and Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President for Windows and Devices Group Yusuf Mehdi also said that there are now over 350 million devices now running Windows 10. The update covers these 6 major areas:

• Security – Additional security features with Windows Hello for apps and websites, an improved Windows Defender, and the addition of Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection and Windows Information Protection for enterprises.
• Windows Ink – A dedicated user experience for Windows 10 devices with touch screens and styluses.
• Cortana – Cortana will now be available on the lock-screen. Cortana is also getting many new features to make it a more powerful tool.
• Microsoft Edge – A faster and more accessible Microsoft Edge browser which will also support extensions and uses less power.
• Xbox One – A unified Windows Store that will include Xbox One games. The Xbox Play Anywhere program will also allow gamers to purchase a game on the Xbox One and play the game on their Windows 10 PC. This also includes shared progress and achievements across the two platforms.
• Schools – New tools for the modern classroom including faster and easier deployment as well as new features for educators.

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14367

Windows 10 Insider users have access to Build 14367, for PC and Mobile devices.

Microsoft says:

New keyboard shortcut for Feedback Hub on PC: We love getting your feedback, and want to make it even easier for you to get into Feedback Hub on PC builds. To capture a screenshot and launch Feedback Hub please use they keyboard shortcut Windows key + F. This opens Feedback Hub and attaches a screenshot of your PC (you can review and remove this before you submit). The old PC keyboard shortcut of Windows key + SHIFT + ? will stop working because of this change.

Also, as a reminder, on Mobile you can use VOL DOWN + POWER to launch Feedback Hub.

Handwriting Recognition Language Support: We are excited to announce 23 new languages for handwriting recognition as a tech preview. This includes Indonesian, Malay, and is our first time to support African languages like Swahili, Xhosa and Zulu. You can install them from language settings and use them in the handwriting keyboard. If you are a developer, you can also leverage them in your apps following the guide to recognize ink as text. Please check the list of supported languages, give them a try, and send us your feedback.

 A new tool to give your PC a fresh start: We’ve heard from many of you that are attempting to perform a clean installation of Windows that it can sometimes be hard to get started. To help, we are providing a new tool that enables an easy and simple way to start fresh with a clean installation of Windows. This tool is now available from the Settings app for Windows Insiders using the latest builds that installs a clean copy of the most recent version of Windows10 and removes apps that were installed on your PC. You can visit this Microsoft Community page (which has been updated) to learn more about the tool and download it.

Improvements and fixes for PC

• Cross-device notifications from your phone to your PC via Cortana are now more reliable and faster. You can also use quick replies from your PC for notifications that support that feature (there is a known issue in which this will only work if your phone’s screen is turned on – we’ll be fixing this!). Additionally, notifications from your phone to your PC will appear under its own Windows Phone group in Action Center – with a fancy new logo to boot!
• We fixed an issue where the emoji in cross-device notifications would appear as boxes. We also fixed an issue where certain emoji would appear as square boxes in some apps like Notepad.
• We have fixed the issue with the Desktop App Converter Preview (Project Centennial) however you will need to download the updated version here  http://aka.ms/converter.
• Fixed an issue resulting in the dialog when joining the PC to an Azure AD potentially being unexpectedly large on certain devices
• Quick Actions in Action Center that turn on and off different functionality in your device, like Bluetooth on your phone or Tablet Mode on your PC, now have a transient On/Off text indicator so you can clearly see the state change for these. We fixed an issue where the WIN + A keyboard shortcut to launch Action Center wouldn’t work if Action Center icon had been turned off. We also fixed an issue where certain notifications could result in the Action Center not launching until that toast had been cleared.
• We fixed an issue where Cortana wasn’t showing relevant system settings results for certain terms, in particular “typo” or “connect”.
• We fixed an issue where the text in the network flyout might change color from white to black when entering credentials if your PC is using dark mode.
• We fixed an issue where PowerShell shortcuts pinned to the taskbar could only create one functional window – subsequent windows generated from the pinned icon would not accept input.
• We fixed an issue where each newly opened notes in Sticky Notes would flash white and black after a certain number of notes had already been created.
• We added a new shortcut to turn on/off Private mode when using the Japanese Input Method Editor. This new keyboard shortcut is Ctrl + Shift + P. We also increased the width of the Japanese 12 key keyboard for small devices when in portrait, so as to improve ease of use and fixed an issue where no characters would be input when using this keyboard in a field where Input Method Editors are disabled
• We updated the Update & Security, Windows Update and Recovery icons in Settings, to be more reflective of the action
• We fixed an issue where the Office apps might not show up in Start’s “Most used” list.
• We fixed an issue where saying “Hey Cortana” would launch Cortana behind Windows Ink Workspace.
• We fixed an issue resulting in Explorer.exe crashing if you selected “Open Command window here” from File Explorer’s context menu.

Improvements and fixes for Mobile

• For all of my fellow devs: you should now be able to deploy an app via Visual Studio 2015 Update 2 to a phone running this build. Thanks for being patient!
• We fixed the issue where Quick Actions in the Settings app were flipped from the order you saw it in the Action Center.
• We fixed an issue resulting in existing reminders failing to display in Cortana’s reminder section, and an error when attempting to save a new reminder.
• We fixed an issue where the text selection grippers would appear very tiny in certain places on high DPI phones, such as when selecting text in the reply textbox of an interactive notification.
• We reduced battery usage when Microsoft Edge is running in the background.
• We polished Action Center so that font size of dropdowns in interactive notifications is now consistent with surrounding text.
• We fixed an issue where Battery Saver wouldn’t be turned on after tapping the notification prompting you to turn on Battery Saver when battery is at 20%.
• We fixed an issue that could result in dropped keystrokes when typing in Outlook Mail or Word Mobile.
• We fixed an issue where, for phones that support it, the “3G Only” and “Only 3G or 4G” cellular options were not working correctly for some Insiders, resulting in 2G networks being selected.
• We fixed an issue resulting in the Japanese Input Method Editor not working correctly in the All apps list search box.
• We updated the Phone Update and Update & Security icons in the Settings app to be more reflective of the action.
• Quick Actions in Action Center that turn on and off different functionality in your device, like Bluetooth on your phone or Tablet Mode on your PC, now have a transient On/Off text indicator so you can clearly see the state change for these. We fixed an issue where if you swiped up on a full screen VOIP notification, the dimmed screen behind it would flash. We also fixed an issue where you may not receive notification toasts until the next time the Action Center had been opened if you had tapped on a notification on the Lock screen but then aborted the prompt to enter your pin.
• We fixed an issue where Lock screen page in Settings may show incorrect data while page is loading.
• We fixed an issue where Quiet Hours might unexpectedly turn off after having been manually turned on using the Quick Action.
• We fixed an issue where certain sample images were displaying in portrait rather than landscape when used as a Lock screen background and phone was connected to an external monitor. In fixing this, these sample images have now become available to select as a background for your second monitor using Continuum.
• We fixed an issue that could result in key presses sometimes being entered multiple times over Miracast.
• We fixed an issue where the “The accessory you’re connecting to isn’t working” error was truncated on the Connect settings page.
• We fixed an issue where the Windows Hello icon might get stuck on the screen after logging in.
• We fixed an issue where selecting a letter from the All apps list would sometimes scroll that letter to the bottom of the screen, rather than the top.

Known issues for PC

• Narrator does not launch when you toggle switch to “on” via Settings app > Ease of access > Narrator.

Known issues for Mobile

• We are investigating data issues with some Dual-SIM devices where cellular data doesn’t work correctly with a second SIM. Several issues relating to cellular data with Dual-SIM devices have been reported by Insiders with the last two Mobile builds and we’re investigating these reports. Thank you for giving us this feedback.
• There is an issue where certain apps won’t be able to set Start or Lock screen backgrounds.

Microsoft Removes 260-Character Path Length Limit in Windows 10

It looks like the 260 character limit to file path length is coming to an end. Windows 10 build 14352, a preview version of the upcoming Windows 10 Anniversary Update comes with an long overdue change that Microsoft hasn’t yet publicly announced. The 260-character path length limit in Windows 10 can be removed with the help of a new policy, thus allowing you to run operations with files regardless of their path or file name. While this new rule is not enabled by default, admins can turn it on by following these instructions.

Launch the Registry Editor by clicking the Start menu and typing “regedit.exe,” and then navigate to the following path:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy Objects\{48981759-12F2-42A6-A048-028B3973495F}Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Policies

Look for an entry called “LongPathsEnabled”, and if it does not exist, simply right-click Policies, select New DWORD (32-bit), name it “LongPathsEnabled” (without the quotes), enter value 1, and you’re all set.

Windows OneCore is Finally Happening

Microsoft’s long-time vision of uniting all its hardware under one operating system is coming soon. In an article by Peter Bright, he writes about the details of Microsoft’s road towards Windows OneCore.

Since the early 1990s, when Microsoft broke away from its shared OS/2 development effort with IBM in favor of its own Windows NT, the Redmond firm has been pitching the idea of Windows as a platform that scales from palmtops and handheld computers all the way up to large servers. Spanning the entire range of systems would be the Win32 API, offering developers a single set of tools and skills that could reach systems of any type.

Back then, this plan was enormously ambitious. Nowadays, Windows Server has carved off a substantial portion of the server market with both Windows itself and other products such as SQL Server, Exchange, and Hyper-V. But in 1992 when the Windows Everywhere ideal was first described, Windows NT hadn’t even had its initial release. Microsoft had no presence at all in the server space, and this domain was instead occupied by Novell Netware and various kinds of Unix. There was no presence in the workstation market, either. Windows 3.1 and DOS were used for PCs, but high-end machines used for serious computing tasks like CAD and engineering were, once again, Unix. Microsoft had an eye on the early forays into novel form factors such as pen-driven computers, but again, no product to actually run on them.

By the late 1990s, Windows Everywhere was a bit more concrete, but it relied on a broader concept of what it meant to be “Windows.” Windows NT was the “real” Windows. With native support for SMP, this was the platform that could scale from single-processor desktop systems up to large, multiprocessor servers. It was the operating system that had the complete, definitive implementation of the Win32 API. It was also Microsoft’s system built with an eye on the future. It was written as portable, platform-neutral C so that it could scale to different processor architectures should something ever rival x86’s dominance.

The summary of the article is there has been an astonishing amount of parallel development happening at Microsoft over the years. We are now seeing the evolution of Windows as one operating system for all hardware known as Windows 10.

Microsoft Desktop App Converter (Project Centennial) Updated

Microsoft has updated their Desktop App Converter program which assists app developers in converting their .NET 4.6.1 or Win32 desktop apps to the new Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app format used in Windows 10.

Here are the latest changes made with this update:

• Restored support for Pro edition of Windows.
• Converter -Setup flag now enables Windows Containers feature and handles base image expansion. Run the following from an elevated PowerShell prompt to do one time setup: PS C:\> .\DesktopAppConverter.ps1 -Setup -BaseImage BaseImage-12345.wim -Verbose
• Added auto-detection of app install path and moving application root outside of VFS to reduce any unnecessary file system redirections at runtime.
• Added auto-detection of the expanded base image as part of the conversion process.
• Added auto-detection for file type associations and protocols.
• Improved logic to detect Start Menu shortcut.
• Improved file system filtering to retain app installed MUI files.
• Updated the minimum supported desktop version (10.0.14342.0) for Project Centennial in the manifest.

You can read more about the update from Microsoft.

Windows 10 Insider Preview build 14342

The latest build for the Windows Insider group has been released and it active now. There are several new features that you might like to know about, even if you are not in the group testing these new features.

Bash on Ubuntu on Windows improvements include Symlinks within the Windows Subsystem for Linux. This is now functional on the mounted Windows directories. This fix helps support many scenarios including the npm installer. Users with non-Latin Windows usernames are now able to install Bash on Ubuntu on Windows.

Microsoft specifically makes note of AdBlock and Adblock Plus extensions, which many people have talked about. Extensions gives users a “Pin It” Button, Mouse Gestures, Reddit Enhancement Suite, Microsoft Translator, and OneNote Web Clipper to go along with them as the officially available extensions.

The Windows Ink icon has been updated, with a “more expressive ink stroke” and more consistency with other notification area icons. The new icon sizes better as well.

The ability to redirect websites to apps is coming soon. No apps support it, but a new page has been added at Settings > System > Apps to support the feature.

You can read more on the subject from Microsoft.

SSMS in High-DPI Displays

Running some applications when using modern High Definition displays doesn’t always work well. Some applications draw their interface incorrectly, causing some issues with the GUI and are less than ideal. In this article by Gianluca Sartori, we see some examples and learn a possible solution.

In Windows Vista, you had two possible ways of scaling applications: with the first one (the default) applications were instructed to scale their objects using the scaling factor imposed by the operating system. The results, depending on the quality of the application and the Windows version, could vary a lot. Some scaled correctly, some other look very similar to what we are seeing in SSMS, with some weird-looking GUIs. In Vista, this option was called “XP style DPI scaling”.

The second option, which you could activate by unchecking the “XP style” checkbox, involved drawing the graphical components of the GUI to an off-screen buffer and then drawing them back to the display, scaling the whole thing up to the screen resolution. This option is called “bitmap scaling” and the result is a perfectly laid out GUI:

In order to enable this option in Windows 10, you need to merge this key to your registry:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide]

"PreferExternalManifest"=dword:00000001

Then, the application has to be decorated with a manifest file that instructs Windows to disable DPI scaling and enable bitmap scaling, by declaring the application as DPI unaware. The manifest file has to be saved in the same folder as the executable (ssms.exe) and its name must be ssms.exe.manifest. In this case, for SSMS 2014, the file path is “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\120\Tools\Binn\ManagementStudio\Ssms.exe.manifest”.

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14316

The latest Preview Build version of Windows 10 is available and includes the updates to what Microsoft is calling the “Windows Anniversary Update” planned for consumer release later this year. Build 14316 is now hitting the Fast Ring for Insiders and with it comes a list of new features and improvements.

Bash in Windows

• Run native Bash on Ubuntu on Windows: In this build, you can natively run Bash in Windows as announced last week at Build 2016. To do this, you first need to turn on Developer Mode via Settings > Update & security > For developers. Then search for “Windows Features” and choose “Turn Windows features on or off” and enable Windows Subsystem for Linux (Beta). To get Bash installed, open Command Prompt and type “bash”. For more details, see this blog post.
• Cortana Cross-Device Features: Starting today, we will be releasing new features to Insiders on an ongoing basis that keeps you in perfect sync across all the devices where you use Cortana to stay connected and never miss a beat throughout your day. With today’s build, we are rolling out the below features. If you are an Insider who doesn’t have a Windows phone, these features will also work with Android devices too but you will need Cortana Version 1.5 or higher (Download here for U.S. and download here for China) for them to work.
• Low Battery Notifications: Cortana will now inform you of low battery power on your mobile devices. For example, if your phone’s battery is low, a notification will pop up on your PC so you can promptly charge it before your next meeting.

Cortana

• Find my phone/Ring my phone: We all lose track of our phone from time to time and now you can ask Cortana to find your phone, regardless of device, on your PC using the new find my phone feature. The feature will allow users to locate their phone from their PC through geo-location and by having Cortana ring your phone.
• Share map directions across devices: To date, people go through a lot of effort to manually connect the dots between devices—emailing links to open on other devices or re-doing a search on the phone to find directions to a location they were just looking at on the PC. Today, we’re breaking down one of those barriers by enabling you to access navigation details across devices through Cortana. Tell Cortana “directions to < place>” on your PC and she’ll send those same directions to your phone.
• Making Cortana easier to setup on your device: If you are in Cortana supported markets and struggled to get Cortana enabled, this will automatically download the necessary speech language, if needed, and enable Cortana for you.

Edge and Apps

• New and Updates Extensions for Microsoft Edge: A few weeks ago, we announced the availability of extension support for Microsoft Edge with more on the way. Today, we are excited to share with you some new extensions that you can try out – Pin It Button and OneNote Clipper. In addition, we have updated versions of Reddit Enhancement Suite, Mouse Gestures, and Microsoft Translator. To install these new extensions, just click on “More” (…) at the top right in Microsoft Edge and click “Extensions” to open the Extensions pane and click “Get extensions”.
• Please note: There is change in this build that will break existing extensions installed on your PC in Microsoft Edge if they were previously installed using an older build. You can download the new installation files and re-install the existing extensions using the new installers.
• Try out the Skype UWP Preview app: You can try out the Skype UWP Preview app announced a couple of weeks ago on the Skype blog. The Skype UWP Preview app includes a lot of the basic Skype functionality – with more features and functionality to come in the next couple of releases. We are first releasing this for PCs only, but we will be making the Skype UWP app available on for Mobile in a future build.
• Action Center Improvements: We have added the ability to select which app notifications are more important to you in Action Center. On your device, you can manage the notification settings for individual apps by going to Settings > System > Notifications & actions. Just click or tap on a specific app to adjust its notification settings. You can prioritize its notifications in Action Center to be one of 3 levels: Normal, High, or Priority. Additionally, you can also adjust how many notifications are visible per app. The default is now 3 per app. If an app has more than 3 notifications, just click or tap to expand and see all notifications for that app. This was a top request from Insiders

Emoji

• Our new emoji also supports skin tone modification across a wide variety of people glyphs.
• Personalization Improvements: We’ve added the ability to universally toggle between dark and light modes via Settings > Personalization > Colors.
• Updated Emoji: We wanted to share some cool work from our design team that is showing up in this build. We are updating the entire set of font-based emoji in Windows 10 that aligns with the Microsoft Design Language with a distinct visual style as well as the Unicode standard.
• These new emoji are designed to be detailed, expressive, and playful. Their larger size takes full advantage of every pixel and the two-pixel outline allows for emoji to appear on any color background without loss of fidelity.

Battery

• Updated Battery Settings and Battery Saving Experience: We have renamed “Battery Saver” settings page to be “Battery” since we believe a single entry point for all battery related settings including Battery Saver simplifies the user experience.
• We also updated the Detailed Battery Use page so you can now manage the per-app background settings inline without going to a second page and added a new background settings option called “Managed by Windows”.
• With this option, not only will the app stop running in the background when Battery Saver is enabled, but it will temporarily turn off apps with high battery drain that you haven’t used in a while or pinned to your Start screen till you next launch the application (shown as “Turned off by system” on the Detailed Battery Use page). We also added a prompt asking the user if they’d like to turn on Battery Saver when battery is at 20% – something we had with Windows Phone 8.1 that Insiders wanted to see us re-implement as we merged Battery Sense into the Settings app for both PC and mobile.
• Updated Windows Update Settings: You can now set the time in which you are most active on your device by adjusting active hours under Settings > Update & security > Windows Update. Windows Update will avoid automatically installing updates during your active hours on your device.

Microsoft has begin shipping Surface Hub

According to Brian Hall, general manager of Microsoft’s devices marketing division, the Microsoft Surface Hub has finally started shipping to customers. This massive touch-based interface, 55 inches and 80 inches, costs either $9,000 or $22,000 respectively.

The 55-inch model packs a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution at 120Hz, an optically bonded sensor capable of 100-point multitouch input, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD powered by an Intel Core i5 processor and Intel HD 4600 graphics chip. The 80-inch has similar specifications, but ups the ante with 3,840 x 2,160 resolution and a fourth-generation Intel Core i7 processor with Nvidia’s Quadro K2200 graphics solution. Both solutions include Windows 10 and Office.

You can get more details here.

 

 

Complete Update to File Explorer for Windows 10

Since last July, when Microsoft Windows 10 was officially available, we have seen several new and interesting features. Microsoft has continued to collect feedback from users to make sensible changes to the operating system. Microsoft recently revealed that it is working on a new File Explorer, which will launch in the coming months as part of a Windows update.

Right now there is no official word on what features the updated file explorer will offer, but there’s a possibility that we may get to see an improved version of the explorer specifically for use in tablet mode.

Windows 10 Auto-Delivered to Angry Users

Recently, some Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users have begun to scream in anger over the practice by Microsoft to automatically upgrade their computers to Windows 10. These users are saying that they were never given a chance to decline the upgrade before it began installing. Microsoft has described its strategy of pushing Windows 10 to devices running older versions of its operating system as voluntary saying “Customers continue to be fully in control of their devices, and can choose to not install the Windows 10 upgrade or remove the upgrade from Windows Update (WU) by changing the WU settings,” in an emailed statement.

That’s not what some users experienced recently.

Microsoft regularly updates their Windows Update settings, and some of those updates have switched user-selected settings or pre-checked optional updates. Recent refreshes of Windows Update may have done just that, triggering the automatic upgrades that should have been blocked from a forced upgrade.

My 5 Technology New Year’s Resolutions for 2016

Keeping the new year in mind, have you created your technology New Year’s resolutions? This isn’t about losing weight or working out more often, it is instead about what technology changes you promise to make in 2016. First, let’s discuss the items from 2015:

1. Learn C# – I said I was going to start using C# by learning and embracing C# as my primary programming language. I don’t do much programming, so this was difficult for me personally, but I did push other people under my influence to move from their existing language of choice to C#. I think I was able to move between 4-8 people to make C# their primary programming language.
2. Embrace the Cloud – I promised to put together an intelligent and coherent strategy for using the cloud. In 2015 I assisted my company in moving from a 100% on-premise environment to one that uses AWS and Azure. While we are not 100% cloud, we have definitely moved to a company that is open to cloud solutions on a case-by-case basis.
3. Windows 10 –  2015 was the year I promised to organize and plan the move to Windows 10 the corporate users at my company. I met mush more resistance to this idea than I thought possible. I was thinking the technical team would be happy to get users onto a new operating system, especially one as great as Windows 10. It turns out they would still be using Windows XP if I would allow that, and they have no desire to learn or support anything new or challenging.
4. Consolidate Databases – I knew this effort would be difficult because the instances range from SQL Server 2000 to 2012, and the Windows versions range from Windows Server 2003 to 2008 R2. I was unable to build the type of team consensus that leads to the mindset that makes this project possible.
5. Attend User Group Meetings – I promised to support my user groups more by attending more meetings. I had more difficulty in scheduling around business meeting than in previous years, and failed to make this goal possible.

I have a few changes I want to make, and I am resolving to make it happen in 2016:

1. Embrace the Cloud – With cloud based technologies becoming more popular, I will continue to investigate the cloud as possible solution to all projects. In 2016 I promise to continue using a strategy for using the cloud as much as possible.
2. Windows 10 – I currently am using Windows 10 on my Surface Pro 3. I still think Windows 10 is the best solution for Windows users, and I still don’t like Windows 8 or 8.1. This year I still plan on organizing an effort and promoting a plan to move my corporate users to Windows 10.
3. Consolidate Databases – This year is the year to consolidate my SQL Server instances into two or three primary instances. This still has great benefits that include simpler administration and reduced licensing costs. This will still be difficult to complete, but I haven’t surrendered.
4. Read Technical Books – I enjoy learning and appreciate a good technical book. I have browsed and skimmed several books in 2015, but I intend to completely read at least 4 technical books in 2016.
5. Technology Leader – I plan on making a more complete move from technical expert to technical leader. This means doing less detailed technical work, and spending more time educating and leading my team (and this blog) on how to make good technology decisions.

What are your technology promises for 2016?

Open Sourcing Edge’s Javascript Engine

Microsoft has announced another product that they are taking to open source. The ChakraCore is the JavaScript engine behind the new Edge browser included with Windows 10. Chakra is the engine used to execute JavaScript that was developed from scratch in 2008 and has the most compatibility with the ECMAScript 6 standard over other engines, including Google’s V8. While Chakra is at the core of only the Edge browser, it is used across Windows 10 to power Universal Applications on Xbox, Windows Phone, and Windows-based tablets.

ChakraCore, which will be made available on GitHub soon, is a self-contained JavaScript virtual machine that Microsoft now allows developers to implement inside their own products. You can read more about the announcement here.

SQL Server and Windows 10 Compatibility

 

Using SQL Server Management Studio with Windows 10 is supported, but you must install SQL Server 2012 or 2014 (or even the public preview version SQL Server 2016). SQL Server versions before 2012 are not supported. You can read more information on the topic from Microsoft here.

Before you install SQL Server on a computer that is running Windows 10, you must make sure that you fulfill the following minimum requirements, as appropriate for your situation.

For SQL Server 2014

You must apply SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1 or a later update. For more information, see How to obtain the latest service pack for SQL Server 2014. 

For SQL Server 2012

You must apply SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 2 or a later update. For more information, see How to obtain the latest service pack for SQL Server 2012. 

Note Please check known setup issues when you install SQL Server 2012 on Windows 10. 

For SQL Server 2008 R2

SQL Server 2008 R2 is not supported on Windows 10.

For SQL Server 2008

SQL Server 2008 is not supported on Windows 10.

Windows 10: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Windows 10 is the latest version of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, currently scheduled for availability in July of this year. This version of Windows is really different in that it keeps some of the more popular features from Windows 8/8.1 while it also takes a few steps back to the Windows 7 interface, including the Start button.

The Good

This version of Windows is much better than Windows 8 or 8.1, and it is easy for users accustomed to the Windows 7 interface to make the transition to Windows 10. While change can be good, a business faced with re-training hundreds or thousands of employees on a different operating system can be difficult and too expensive. Moving from Windows 7 to Windows 10 will require minimal training for users or the technical team tasked with supporting the software.

The Start button can be set to mimic the appearance and functionality of the Start button in Windows 7. Most software that runs in Windows 7 will continue to work exactly the same way in Windows 10.  Some of the new features include Cortana and a search tool you can control with your voice similar to Siri on the iPhone. You can also mount ISO images directly, without additional software.

The Bad

Everything is an app. The start button is an app, there are default apps in the Start menu, and there is a Windows app store. Microsoft is pushing the idea of distribution of applications through their app store, but it remains to be seen if there is enough value to that distribution model for software companies and small distributors to feed their programs through that channel.

I have been using the preview version of Windows 10 for many months, and while the operating system offers much promise, it is too early to tell if everything will come together in the initial release of the software. Microsoft has a long history of not getting it right with version 1, and buyers having to wait until version 2 or the next service pack, before things start working well. Microsoft is saying that will no longer be the story starting with Windows 10, because they will continuously update this software for many years, similar to what Apple does with their iPhones and laptops.

The Ugly

There are still a lot of questions about what is coming next. Not just what features will or will not make it into Windows 10, but what price you will have to pay. Microsoft has said that properly licensed versions of Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 will be allowed to upgrade to Windows 10 free of charge. There is some questions to be worked out for businesses and how their volume license will work, but consumers should easily upgrade to the latest software similar to downloading any other Windows update.

The big question is “Then what happens?” Once Microsoft gets you on this new version for free, how will they continue to make money? There is some concern that Microsoft might start charging a monthly fee, often called “Windows as a Service”, so that you will be allowed to continue to get updates or access to new features. Will there be a free version and a paid professional version? At some point will there be an option to pay or have your free version crippled?

Some features are no longer in Windows 10. The Windows Media Center is gone, and so are desktop gadgets. Windows updates will be automatic and the user may not be allowed to reject or even postpone the downloads.

Summary

I recommend you take the free upgrade to Windows 10 as soon as it is available. It will be mostly painless and your existing hardware will probably support the upgrade without incident. You should see an icon appear in Notification area on your desktop near the system clock, telling you that Windows 10 is available for download. This notification should start appearing soon. Good luck.

Installing Local SQL Server Help under Windows 10

If you are going to install the help update in SQL Server on Windows 10, you may run into an issue with the process of installing the local help files. The process is fairly standard, you want to install the SQL Server 2014 help files to your local drive, but Windows 10 adds a slight twist. The local (off-line) help is useful in secure environments where the instance can’t be allowed access to the internet, or to use while traveling without real-time access to the internet.

1. Click the Download button on this page to start the download.
2. Click Save to save the download to a USB drive or other portable media that can be carried into the firewalled environment.
3. Double-click the self-extracting EXE to unpack the contents.
4. Specify a location of your choice to extract the contents to. For example, a network share that is accessible to your destination server.
5. Launch Help Library Manager by going to Start, All Programs, SQL Server 2014, Help & Community, and right-clicking Manage Help Settings and selecting “Open File Location”. You must do this from the folder where the file is installed, as a local administrator. Right-click the program file and select “Run as Administrator”.
6. In Help Library Manager, click Choose online or local help.
7. Select I want to use local help and click OK.
8. Click Install content from disk and browse to the directory where you unpacked the downloaded EXE.
9. Select the HelpContentSetup.msha file and click Open.
10. Click Next.
11. Click Add next to the documentation you want to install.
12. Click Update. It should take less than 5 minutes to process your requested changes.
13. Exit Help Library Manager.

You can also just choose to use the online help.

Microsoft Product Roadmap for 2015

There has been several recent announcements from Microsoft, outlining there proposed product releases for 2015. There has been so many announcements it might be difficult for you to keep track ofthem all, but the good news is there are people tracking the announcements for you. In this article from Gladys Rama, we get an easy to follow list of announcements from Microsoft.

Windows 10 (UPDATED 5/4) Anticipated release: Summer of 2015 Windows 10 for Phones (UPDATED 5/5) Anticipated release: Fall of 2015 Office for Windows 10 (UPDATED 4/20) Anticipated release: Fall of 2015 Office 2016  (UPDATED 5/4) Anticipated release: Fall of 2015 SharePoint 2016 and Exchange 2016(UPDATED 5/8) Anticipated release, SharePoint: Q2 2016 Anticipated release, Exchange: Second half of 2015 Skype for Business (UPDATED 5/5) Released Dynamics CRM (UPDATED 5/4) Spring update: Released Anticipated release, fall update: Q4 2015 Power BI  (UPDATED 4/14) Anticipated release: Second half of 2015 Visual Studio 2015 (UPDATED 4/29) Anticipated release: Summer of 2015 Windows Server 2016 (UPDATED 5/4) Anticipated release: 2016, with previews throughout 2015 System Center 2016 (UPDATED 5/7) Anticipated release, System Center: 2016 Anticipated release, SCCM: Q4 2015

6 Tips and Tricks for Windows 10

Windows 10 is currently undergoing testing in a pre-release mode called a “Technical Preview”. While Windows 10 testing can be difficult, it can also be fun. Here are some possibly little-known tricks and tips for using this experimental operating system from Microsoft.

1. Experiential Mode in Internet Explorer – By opening your Internet Explorer in Windows 10, you can type the phrase “about:flags” into the address bar and be greeted with some experimental setting to try. Use caution or you may find IE is useless.
2. Cortana – You can enable or disable her various feature in Setting, including enabling or disabling her ability to hear you speak.
3. Office 2016 – You can download free “preview” version of some of the Office products for evaluation, if you want to give the tough-enabled features a run on your tablet. Just open the beta Store application and download the free applications to your device.
4. Command Line – You can now use the powerful new copy and paste features of the command line tool. Now Ctrl-c and Ctrl-v work just like in any other Windows application.
5. God Mode – The legendary GodMode, a hidden standard for Windows power users, makes an appearance in Windows 10. Just create a new folder and rename it to following:GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} Don’t forget the period after “GodMode”, and you can later rename the “GodMode” portion whatever you’d like if you want another name for the folder.
6. Offline Maps – You now have the ability to store offline maps for use when the internet isn’t available. Click the Settings icon in Maps, then select Download or update maps under the “Offline maps” header.

Windows 10 Developer Tooling Preview

Microsoft has a Windows 10 preview program that is active right now. Their goal with this preview release is to give developers the opportunity to experiment with the cool new platform capabilities while they continue working to finish Windows 10. As you go through what’s new in Windows 10, you can explore some key aspects in this preview release:

• Adaptive UX: Windows 10 provides the ability to use a single UI that can adapt from small to large screens. For developers with an existing Windows 8.1 app, you can quickly try this one out by (a) removing one of your UI projects (and going from three Visual Studio projects to one!) and (b) add the improved ViewStateManager to control how your UI adapts at runtime.
• User controls: A number of their Windows 10 UI controls will determine, at runtime, how the customer is interacting with your app and render the appropriate user experience (e.g. on a laptop with a touch-screen, an app fly-out control will provide larger touch-targets if tapped with touch, as opposed to clicked with a mouse).
• API contracts: With Windows 10, you can directly verify if a Windows feature is available rather than inferring based on the operating system version. This empowers you to start checking, at runtime, if a Windows feature is available on the device before you call a related API. A good API contract for you to try out in your code to see this in action is HardwareButtons, which is present on phones (via the Mobile Extensions SDK), and thus available on the phone and mobile emulator but not available on the desktop.
• Visual Studio Tooling improvements: As you experiment with the new developer tools, there are a number of improvements you’ll want to check out. You can see how this will work in Visual Studio 2015 in this post.

Developer Content

In addition to the preview tooling, they are also releasing a number of resources to help you quickly come up to speed on the new universal app platform capabilities:

1. Introducing the Universal App Platform: From Mobile World Congress 2015, Kevin Gallo provides a first look at the platform and how to build universal apps to target it.
2. Windows 10 Jumpstart Preview: A first look at the upcoming Jumpstart training content. These videos provide you with the information you need to bring a Windows 8.1 app up to Windows 10.
3. What’s New in Windows 10 for Developers: The Windows 10 developer documentation is online on the Windows Dev Center. This page provides a nice overview of what’s new in the documentation, with deep links across the relevant topics.
4. Code samples: New with Windows 10, documentation code samples will be published on GitHub.

You can expect additional content on this subject as we approach the Build conference in late April 2015.

Explaining Windows 10 Upgrade Options

Are you confused about what Microsoft is doing with the Windows 10 rollout this summer? Microsoft seems to have issued conflicting statements recently, so Ed Bott wrote an article to help explain what he thinks Microsoft is doing.

Back in January, Windows 10 was going to be a free upgrade for everyone, with only Volume License customers excluded. Why is the word consumer now creeping into official statements? Will people using Windows PCs for business purposes get a free upgrade, or will they be forced to pay up?

Based on previous experience, I’m afraid there’s going to be an unwelcome surprise for business users later this year.

And then there’s the second part of the statement, which is dense with legalese. I’ve snipped some throat-clearing from the beginning, along with a gratuitous discussion of the hazards of pirated software. This is the relevant part:

With Windows 10, although non-Genuine PCs may be able to upgrade to Windows 10, the upgrade will not change the genuine state of the license. Non-Genuine Windows is not published by Microsoft. It is not properly licensed, or supported by Microsoft or a trusted partner. If a device was considered non-genuine or mislicensed prior to the upgrade, that device will continue to be considered non-genuine or mislicensed after the upgrade.

Here we go again.

What is a Windows app?

Microsoft and their marketing team can be confusing. Just recently they changed the branding on “Metro Apps” to “Universal Apps”. Now, in another announcement they have changed the name again to “Windows Apps”. Confused yet? In a presentation by  Don Box presentation in Shenzhen, China for the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), he used the term “Windows Apps” and compared those applications to Windows Desktop Applications.

I have written about this before in this post, but this is important technology that may be lost in the marketing shuffle and confusion that is happening at Microsoft right now. Let’s hope they get everything resolved soon.

What is a Windows Universal app? [Updated]

[Update: Microsoft has changed the name again. Read the April 3, 2015 post here.]

The software we use today, whether you call it a program, an application, or simply an “app”, almost always runs on top of an operating system. And most of these applications we use communicate with the operating system through a set of routines collectively called the application programming interface or (API). The Windows API is known as Win32, and almost 100% of the desktop apps we have ever run have used this set of API routines.

But in early June 2011, Microsoft revealed a new set of APIs called Windows Runtime, more commonly know as WinRT. As part of the rollout of this new technology, Microsoft demonstrated new “Metro” apps, which would interact with Windows in a very different way. These new apps would use the newly developed WinRT API set.

While it seemed that Redmond would never settle on a final name for WinRT-based applications (they have used “Modern UI”, “Windows 8 apps”, “Windows Store apps”, “New User Interface”, “Microsoft Design Language”, “Microsoft style design”, and simply “Modern.”), they have now selected a new name. With Windows 10, these apps are now called “Universal”, although it is anyone’s guess if this will be the “final” name.

These “Universal” apps have other characteristics that set them apart from what you may think of as “classic” Windows programs. Some examples of their new features.

• They run in a sandbox – makes it harder to spread infections through them.
• They’re are easily interrupted – helps minimize their power consumption and it’s unlikely it will freeze the entire machine.
• One Version – one version of the application can run on multiple devices, as long as they run Windows with the same API.

WinRT API support started with Windows 8/8.1 and Server 2012. Current Windows phones run Windows Phone RT API, which is vaguely similar to the WinRT API. Soon Microsoft will provide the same API to all Windows devices.

Microsoft is taking a calculated risk with WinRT, as there is a low risk that developers may not support the technology. You can read more about WinRT here, and here.