Articles about Windows 10 Anniversary Update

To keep enterprise users happy, Windows 10 includes both Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge. Internet Explorer may be included for legacy support, but just like non-enterprise customers, Microsoft is keen to get everyone shifted across to Edge or at least ensure the two browsers work well together.

To help encourage this migration, Windows 10 Anniversary Update brings support for a number of new management policies in Microsoft's newest browser. There's a clear need to continue to support legacy line of business (LOB) applications, but Microsoft also wants to make management as easy as possible.

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With online ad blocking becoming ever more popular, companies have to find new ways to push their products at people. With Windows 10 -- which is being aggressively pushed onto people -- Microsoft has found the perfect vehicle.

We've already seen ads in the Start menu and ads on the Lock Screen, but it doesn't end there. Windows Insiders are also treated to ads in one of the new features available in the preview builds -- the Windows Ink Workspace.

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In days of yore, filenames in Windows were limited to the 8.3 format -- just eight characters for the filename, and three for the extension. With the arrival of Windows 95, Microsoft stripped away this limit and allowed for much longer names.

That said, the Windows file system still imposes some restrictions such as which characters can be used in filenames, and the overall length of paths. For some time the maximum path length has been 260 characters, but in the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview, it is possible to use Group Policy or a registry hack to remove this limit.

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While there’s a lot of negativity surrounding Windows 10 at the moment, thanks mostly to Microsoft’s shady upgrade tactics, it is actually a very good operating system.

The upcoming Windows 10 Anniversary Update, out at the end of July, improves the OS significantly, introducing a wealth of new features, and one of the latest inclusions to be made available for Windows Insiders to try is Limited Periodic Scanning. This sets Windows Defender to scan your PC at intervals, even if you have another anti-virus program installed.

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If you believe what comes out of Microsoft's figurative mouth, these days the company is all about listening to feedback. That's certainly the message that has been put forward with Windows 10, with the Feedback Hub app being made available to everyone with the operating system installed. Microsoft makes much of the fact that Windows 10 is installed on around 300 million computers, but the reality is that a portion of these installations relate to people who have been hoodwinked into upgrading from Windows 7 or Windows 8.

The latest trick (tricking users in to installing Windows 10 by clicking a button that would suggest that the offer is being declined) generated such a backlash that Microsoft has been forced into an embarrassing 'u-turn'. Annoying people with Windows 10 is far from unprecedented, and these days it seems Microsoft just likes to see how much it can get away with -- with the possibility of then saving face by 'listening to feedback' and changing tack.

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Microsoft has quietly announced plans to reduce the number of updates that will be released each year for Windows 10. The company had previously said that there would be three 'feature updates' (like the Windows 10 Anniversary Update) per year, but this has now been scaled back to two.

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft has not made a great deal of noise about the change to the majority of Windows 10 users, choosing instead to make the announcement at the WinHEC conference in Taiwan. At the event, senior program manager Chris Riggs also revealed how the update scheduling will work for consumers and businesses.

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Ahead of the biggest update yet for Windows 10, Microsoft has published details of the minimum hardware requirements for Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Before you panic and start to worry that your current Windows 10 computer won't be able to run the update, the aim is actually to get the operating system on more devices.

The hardware requirement changes are aimed at developers, and open up both Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile to a wider range of screen sizes. The changes mean that Windows 10 Mobile can be run on devices with larger screens than before, while the desktop version of the operating system can be installed on smaller-screened devices. 32-bit devices with 1GB, however are being edged out.

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Ever hungry for more user feedback, Microsoft has decided to make the Feedback Hub available for anyone to use. Previously only open to Windows Insiders, the tool gives Windows 10 users the opportunity to tell Microsoft exactly what they think about the company's latest operating system.

The Feedback Hub has been built into preview builds of Windows 10 for some time, but now the app is available to download from the Windows Store. With the launch of Windows 10 Anniversary Update just around the corner, it's clear that Microsoft is keen to gather as many comments and as much reaction as possible.

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Since the release of Windows 10, the update of Microsoft Edge has been a little on the slow side. The addition of support for add-ons may help to increase the user base for Edge, but many enterprise customers still have a need for Internet Explorer.

When building Edge from scratch, Microsoft included Enterprise Mode to allow sites that rely on older technology to open with Internet Explorer 11 instead. With the upcoming release of Windows 10 Anniversary Update improvements are being introduced that will smooth out some of the rough edges of Enterprise Mode, including removing the friction that currently exists when switching browsers.

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The ability to view notifications for multiple devices in one place is something that has been tried in various forms before. Now fans of Cortana can take advantage of notifications about their phone on their computer.

The latest version of the Cortana Android app brings the previously hinted at app notification syncing that users have been asking for for so long. First noted by a Windows 10 user on Reddit, the feature is something that we can expect to see included in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update later this summer.

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While Microsoft has gone to great lengths to make it as easy as possible to upgrade from Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, purists will always prefer to opt for a clean installation. For seasoned Windows users, performing a clean install of Windows 10 is easy enough, but that's not true for everyone.

Acknowledging the fact that clean installations are not a piece of cake for all, Microsoft is beavering away on a new tool to simplify the process. Windows Insiders will be able to try it out before anyone else, and give feedback to help shape the final product.

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When Microsoft first introduced the idea of 'promoted apps' to the Windows 10 Start menu, it was decried by many as little more than pushing ads at users. If you found yourself among those upset by the appearance of links to apps you may have a vague interest in, things could be about to get a whole lot worse.

Later this summer Microsoft is releasing a major update to Windows 10 in the form of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. In July the update will be released to the masses -- although Insiders have the chance to try it out in the meantime -- and Microsoft has plans for more ads; the number of spaces for 'promoted apps' in the Start menu is set to double from five to ten.

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The growth of Windows 10 continues, albeit slowly, the latest figures from NetMarketShare show. The statistics for April reveal that, at long last, Windows 7 is no longer installed on the majority of computers, slipping to a 48.79 percent market share. Windows 10 saw slight growth to 14.35 percent (up from 14.15 percent), and Windows XP dropped below 9.66 percent.

Usage of Windows 8.x stayed largely stable (12.11 percent compared to 12.01 percent in March), but the balance between Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 (9.16 percent down from 9.56 percent) shifted slightly, with the older version seeing slight growth (2.95 percent, up from 2.45 percent). OS X's market share increased slightly, and Linux dropped a little.

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The past two Windows 10 Insider Preview releases -- Builds 14316 and 14328 -- have been packed with new features and notable changes.

The very latest Fast ring release, Build 14332, marks the start of the Bug Bash, in which Windows Insiders will be set quests to help Microsoft eradicate problems and fix flaws in the OS in preparation for the big Anniversary Update out in July. However, the new build is not only about fixes, there are some new features and improvements too.

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No one enjoys seeing a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) in Windows. It can be incredibly frustrating, especially if you were right in the middle of something important when it occurred, and you have no idea what caused it.

Armed with the information on the blue screen, and the stop code, you should be able to track down a cause and possible solution on the web, but this does require you to jot down the necessary details. However, that chore is likely to soon be a thing of the past.

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