Technology Ramblings

Today June 30, just 1 day after the release of build 14376, MS released Build 14379 for both PC and Mobile to the Fast Ring. So much for my thoughts that MS might slow the pace of build releases as the Anniversary date approached.   14379 is actually the 9th build released this month.   The announcement only called out 4 fixes for PC We fixed an issue where the size of the Credential UI might not be big enough to display the contents on a PC with High DPI.  We fixed an issue where Action Center might crash after dismissing a large number of notifications.  We fixed an issue where Centennial app launches from Start or Cortana wouldn’t count towards those apps bubbling up in Start’s “Most used” list.  We fixed an issue where no note would have keyboard focus after minimizing then reopening the Sticky Notes app.  and 2 for Mobile We fixed an issue that could result in a stray focus rectangle becoming visible in certain apps, such as Groove or Cortana, after bringing up the

On June 28, Microsoft's Terri Myserson confirmed Tuesday Aug 2, 2016 as the release date for the Anniversary edition of Windows 10 for PC, Mobile and xBox. In that press release Terri mentioned that in the 11 months since Windows 10 initial release that some 350M devices are now running Windows 10.  That is obviously a combination of new devices plus those who took advantage of the free upgrade from Windows 7 and 8/8.1 and Enterprise upgrades. That keeps MS on schedule to meet their goal announced last year of having 1B devices running Windows 10 in 2.5 years.   Another key takeaway from the announcement today is that the free upgrade offer from Windows 7 & 8/8.1 to Windows 10 ENDS on July 28 - 11:59p.  So just a few days before the release of the Anniversary Edition.   So if you are interested in Windows 10 - please do NOT wait.  Upgrade NOW if your machine qualifies and is capable of running Windows 10 and then you'll get Anniversary Edition for free.  If you wait

On June 28, MS release Windows 10 PC & Mobile build 14376 to Fast Ring Insiders. MS have gotten into a pretty consistent rhythm since the beginning of the June Bug bash campaign of releasing 1 to 2 new builds per week as the run up to the Anniversary date release date of August 2nd approaches. The August 2 date was confirmed this morning by Terri Myerson and the expectation is the PC, Mobile and xBox editions will release on that Tuesday. One of the key takeaways from today's confirmation of the August 2 release was that the free upgrade from Windows 7 and 8/8.1 period ENDS on July 28 - 11:59P.   So meaning if you think you should wait until the August 2 date to upgrade - you'll going to end up paying for Windows 10 - which you just should not do.  Upgrade NOW for free and then you'll get Anniversary for free as well. What is interesting is that MS called out that 14376 actually contained some 1800+ fixes over 14372, but only listed around 20 in the announcemen

June 28 marked the 5 year Anniversary of Microsoft Office365.  Office365 combined Microsoft's core user productivity apps - Microsoft Office and the associated back end services, Exchange, Sharepoint and OCS/Lync into a bundle that enterprises could consume to provide that functionality in a by-the-user subscription model. By providing capabilities like 50GB Mailboxes and integration with on-premise services, along with the by-the-user pricing model, Enterprises saw real value and began migrating in droves. Over the last 5 years, Office365 has become a multi-billion dollar line of business for Microsoft and has effectively replaced the traditional on-premise model that effectively drove the careers of many an IT professional and well as sold a ton of compute, storage and networking gear and licenses. While in the early days of Office365 there were some very notable outages that drove a lot of press, today the service is pretty much as you would expect from a modern cloud ba

As typical with most corporate organizations - I was provided a phone and most recently I chose an iPhone 6s.  Previously I had also had a Galaxy S5 and in my case this time was not even given the choice of a Windows Phone. As a user of all 3 phone platforms, it's pretty easy to see why iPhone maintains a nearly 44% Market share here in the US while Windows Phone is under 2%. Let's start with the obvious - "it's the apps stupid" The app portfolio available on iPhone is second to none.  From Financial, to Travel, to Social, to Corporate, to Home - for every touch point that I want to have a mobile capability for is available on iPhone.  It's night and day from the Windows experience.  Even the MS apps like Word, Excel and PowerPoint, through MSN apps, Groove, etc are better than their native OS counterparts. Regardless of all the promises MS made around apps - they never got the traction with the developer communities and never will.  The modern mobi

Just one day and one build after the release of 14371 - MS released build 14372 to Fast Ring Insiders for both PC & Mobile.   But I have to ask the question why? The official blog post called out some statistics regarding a large number of Quests and Feedbacks in recent days as a part of the June Bug Bash campaign there was only a mention of a brief number of fixes - but not what they actually were. There was only provided a very short list of Known Issues and mention of EverNote Clipper for Edge - yawn.    As with any Insider - I look forward to new builds that continue to move forward towards the Anniversary release - but without an understanding of what really changed and therefore what to provide feedback on just doesn't make sense.   Is build 14372 the release build ?   I don't think so.  I think we'll see that soon probably just after 4th of July holiday.    As with all builds - I installed across a portfolio of PCs, Laptops, Tablets and Phone.  The upgrad

The current market state for Windows Phone is pretty dismal. Gartner reported that Windows Phone has a 0.7% Worldwide market share as of Q1 2016 - selling only 2.4M devices.   On May 16th, AdDuplex posted their monthly usage statistics for Windows Mobile and the numbers show how little Windows 10 is moving the needle. AdDuplex stated that only 10.9% of all Windows Mobile devices are running Windows 10 Mobile.   Of those running Windows 10 Mobile - nearly 78% performed an upgrade to a legacy device and only 22% had purchased a "Windows 10" device - so a 550/650/950.   Similarly of all Windows 10 Mobile devices only 14.4% are running Insider Builds while the remaining 85% are running "Production".    Basically this means that the pool of Insiders is very small and that most are testing Windows 10 Mobile on legacy devices that don't support several key Windows 10 Mobile features and may not be supported past the Redstone 1 release.    MS also has the

On June 21, MS released Windows 10 Mobile build 14371 to Fast Ring Insiders. Just 4 days and 4 builds after 14367 - this build contains another batch of 20+ fixes as well as an update to the MS Wallet app that supports NFC Tap-to-Pay. 14371 downloaded & prepared fine on my Lumia 735 - but did hang up at reboot.  Once past that situation the update installed and worked fine. Looking at the list of fixes - I had experienced none of the problems listed - so difficult to validate if any of them worked.   But there are still some basic functions that are struggling.  For example clipboard.  I attempted to clip a UPS tracking number out of an email and paste into Cortana and Edge to see tracking status.  In both cases it failed.    Another was the Live tile updates for Mail & Calendar.  Even though all emails in all accounts where marked as read - the tile still showed 11 unread.   When a calendar item was removed - it still showed a reminder for that meeting on the live tile

Late on June 16, MS released Windows 10 Build 14367 for both PC and Mobile. This was just two days after the 14366 release for PC and 14364 release for Mobile. As a part of the June Bug Bash campaign this came as a surprise and both PC and Mobile builds contained 15 & 20+ fixes each.   There was also a nice new option provided for PC Reset and Clean Install that would allow folks to speed that process.  Also for Enterprise admins there is an new Automated Deployment Kit that provides for easier management of multiple images and system configuration settings. As a part of it's strategy to focus more on Enterprise - the Kids Corner capability has been removed.   According to MS - it just wasn't being used.   The update installed easily across all my devices - PC, Laptop, Tablet and Phone.  I was not experiencing many of the issues listed in the fixes so not a whole lot to report specific to those fixes.  Overall 14366 & now 14367 are very stable and are really

The same day that MS released Windows 10 Build 14366 for PC - they also released 14364 for Mobile.    14364 contains just 11 fixes from the 14361 build release back on June 9 - But overall my Lumia 735 felt much snappier after updating, screen scrolls were very smooth, apps loaded well and some of the annoyance fixes like having to perform an unlock when Cortana wanted to read a message have been fixed. So similar to the PC build scheduling, the question now is how many more of these bug fixes builds will be coming out before Anniversary date of July 29. My guess is just 2 - One with the first wave of Bug Bash fixes next week and then second wave in early July - after the 4th. The big question to me will be if MS will continue to support legacy devices past the anniversary build.   Just as a portion of the portfolio was left behind with Threshold, I expect similar with Redstone.   With the major shift that MS has taken in Mobile with more focus on enterprise customers and par

Late on June 14, MS release Windows 10 PC Build 14366 to Fast Ring Insiders. This is the second Bug Bash build release (the previous in April) and is just 5 builds newer than 14361 released back on June 9.   14366 included some 24 fixes across broad spectrum of areas and did not include any new features/capabilities.   The main focus here is on fixes and the accompanying Bug Bash "Quests" for Insiders to exercise specific areas and provide feedback. With the Anniversary date just 6 weeks away, I expect this same pattern of 20 - 30 fixes per release until probably July 15 or 22 - when the Redstone 1 branch will end and the Anniversary release will be made public on or about July 29. The question is how many more cycles like this will we see.  I am guessing 2 - maybe 3. As always I installed 14366 across PC, Laptop and Tablet platforms and in all cases installed cleanly with no issues.  Some 11 apps were also updated via the Store post install that include Mail & Ca

On June 8, Microsoft release Windows 10 build 14361 for both PC and Mobile to Fast Ring Insiders. Installation was easy and straight forward across my standard portfolio of devices, PC, Laptop, Tablet and Phone.    The big focus of 14361 was continued fixes based on issues collected by Insiders - about 25 or so each for PC and Mobile. But there was a big new surprise on the PC side.  Additionally a very large collection of apps were updated.  On my PC is was over 30, so alll MSN, Groove, Movies, People, Mail, Calendar, Maps, you name it.  So similar to the core OS itself, MS is pushing to get ready for Anniversary release. That surprise was the native support for Docker with Hyper-V containers that would allow you to build, ship and run containers based on the Windows Server 2016 Nano Server Preview.  So while this is a very enterprise focused feature it certainly shows MS's commitment to containers.  This opens up a new potential for enterprises wanting to provide micro serv

Late in the day on June 1, MS released Windows 10 Mobile Build 14356 to Fast Ring Insiders. I was relieved to see this build released.  In an earlier post I had called out the previous 14432.xxxx build numbering and the release of the .1000, .1003 and .1004 versions over a 5 day period as the potential that Windows 10 Mobile had shifted Windows 10 Mobile Redstone into "support" mode since it was the same approach taken with the 10586 builds back in November and that 14432 was where Redstone for Mobile was going to stop.  I really didn't understand why MS took that approach and then didn't release a 14532 build when the PC version was released.   To be honest I was concerned that based on the recent announcement with discontinuation of the Lumia line and brand along with the release of Lumia resources that MS was going to pause or potentially even halt further development.  14356 contains a couple of new Cortana features, but is primarily focused on nearly 30 fix