Windows 10 Throwback: September 30, 2014 (Premium)

On Tuesday, September 30, 2014, I sat in a small audience with Mary Jo Foley as Microsoft’s Terry Myerson and Joe Belfiore, the former Windows phone “B-teamers,” explained their vision for Windows 10. I’ve been thinking about that announcement a lot lately and it’s interesting to look back on that day, and the intervening six and a half years, and ponder what happened.

The central promise of Windows 10, as I saw it that day, continues unchanged, at least at a high level. Microsoft had made the wrong bets on “touch-first” user interfaces and mobile apps with Windows 8, but Windows 10 was a decided shift back to traditional PC form factors, and desktop user interfaces and interactions.

No, Windows 10 didn’t completely shed the nonsense of the past. The WinRT mobile app model evolved into the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) and the temporary insanity of “One Windows,” where developers could theoretically create mobile apps that could run on PCs, tablets, phones, Xbox consoles, and specialty devices like Surface Hub. The Windows Store eventually morphed into the Microsoft Store, adding new content types only to then remove them over time. And Windows 10, of course, expanded on what I had previously described as the “slippery slope” of in-box advertising, and then made things even worse with bundled crapware and user activity tracking that could never be turned off completely.

Windows 10’s early years were marred by the “Creator Update” nonsense and aborted “bridges” strategy of 2016-2017 in which developers would be able to bring their app codebases from the web, Android, iPhone, and elsewhere to Windows. There were privacy-based challenges triggered by the incessant tracking, and Microsoft’s hand-waving responses, which I referred to as “privacy theater” because nothing it did addressed the central concerns: We still can’t turn off the tracking if we want to.

Then there was the embarrassment of Microsoft proactively admitting that it would miss its goal of one billion users in “2-3 years,” followed by the even bigger embarrassment of pushing that reality out through a partisan third-party blogger who tried to bury the news. And it turns out that Microsoft had been lying about the usage numbers for the first couple of years too. And speaking of lies, how many features did Microsoft promise to add to Windows 10 only to never do so? It’s kind of a blur.

But the biggest issue with Windows 10, hands down, is what Microsoft calls Windows as a Service (WaaS), a wacky and unsuccessful plan to issue two major new versions of Windows every single year and keep as much of the user base as possible on the most recent codebase. Businesses rejected this plan outright, forcing Microsoft to extend long-term support at least twice. And the resulting Windows version upgrades have been so unreliable and problematic—again and again and again—that Microsoft hasn’t even issued once since the beginning of 2019. The previous three “feature updates,” as Microsoft euphemistically calls these things, have just been minor monthly cumulative updates masquerading as version upgrades. The result? Much higher quality and much less complaining from users.

WaaS is a great example of hubris in action but the problems we’ve experienced as Windows enthusiasts over the past several years are not all Microsoft’s fault, of course. Nor is it necessarily the fault of those who led Windows during this time. Or those who stood on stage, lying to us about the future, and then lying to us again when people like me called them on it. And yes, this happened repeatedly, with Joe Belfiore, with Kevin Gallo, and with others. Again. It’s a blur.

As a product now used by well over one billion people, Windows 10 is and has been impacted by changes in the market, changes in competitive products, and changing consumer habits. Microsoft originally embraced “touch-first” in the early 2010s because it saw, correctly, that most of its user base was moving to mobile devices, especially smartphones. But what it got wrong was pretending that a traditional and legacy desktop OS could somehow be a mobile platform. Competitors like Apple’s macOS and Google’s ChromeOS never jumped the shark that dramatically, but instead added mobile-inspired functionality and, more important, integration with mobile devices and apps, over time.

Of course, Apple and Google benefit from having both desktop and mobile platforms and being able to seamlessly integrate them: Realistically speaking, we lost Windows phone in 2015, just as Windows 10 was heading out into the world. Today, Microsoft is forced to work with competing mobile platforms, one of which, Apple’s, is locked down, preventing meaningful integration. So Windows 10 offers scattered and unreliable mobile integration features, and that’s only with Android. The iPhone, as always, remains closed to us on Windows. Thanks, Apple.

All of the issues I note above were unknowns, things that would happen in the future, when I sat down in a small audience in San Francisco in 2014, waiting to hear about the future. And it’s interesting today, so many years later, to look back on what I wrote then, and at the photos I took, and reevaluate that time with the full impact of the history that did unfold since then.

Here we go.

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Microsoft Announces Windows 10

Not Windows 9, not Threshold, not Windows TH
Paul Thurrott
September 30, 2014

Microsoft finally surprised us all: At the eagerly awaited first briefing for the next Windows, the firm revealed that they had decided to skip the 9 and call it Windows 10 instead. From a features perspective, we only learned about a few minor new features that hadn’t already leaked. And as promised, the technical preview won’t ship until October. Which starts tomorrow, by the way.

To say that this was a different kind of Windows event is a major understatement. I want to focus on the details of the announcement here, but it’s at least worth pointing out that Terry Myerson’s team is approaching Windows 10 with a completely different—for the better—approach. Not just when compared to the past few releases. But when compared to every Windows release from the past 20 years. Everything is new again.

OK, let’s look at what was announced, what was said, and what wasn’t said.

We already knew (almost) everything. From a mile-high, if you’ve been reading along about the new Windows here on the SuperSite [my previous website], you already know about virtually every feature that Microsoft revealed today. The name is new, of course, and Microsoft also showed off some new Snap-related functionality that was new to everyone. But that was almost literally it.

Why “Windows 10”? Windows 9 was the “natural” name for this release, Terry Myerson said, and was indeed the original name. But after joking about a few fake names—like Windows One—he noted that this isn’t an incremental release. It’s a major new Windows that will run on everything from headless Internet of Things devices to phones to tablets to PCs to the Xbox to the cloud. They really wanted to segregate it from current Windows versions.

One platform, not one user experience. Answering the obvious questions about scaling one system across such diverse platforms, Myerson was quick to point out that the platform was consistent, but the user experience would vary. The same team—led by Joe Belfiore—is working on the Windows 10 user interfaces for phones, tablets and PCs, he said. It’s a single product family with one store, and experiences that are tailored for each device. He called it “Microsoft’s most comprehensive platform. Ever.”

Why the enterprise focus? Today’s event was short on end-user niceties and consumer features. Microsoft wants to focus instead on what is arguably its most important customer base and the one that was arguably the most disappointed by Windows 8: businesses and, more specifically, the biggest businesses that are collectively called the enterprise. Future milestones will focus on consumers (early 2015) and developers (April 2015).

Enterprise value. Windows 10 will focus on four key areas for the enterprise: It will provide a familiar, compatible, and productive environment for upgraders. It will support modern management capabilities, including advanced MDM (Mobile Device Management) that works with all PCs and devices, not just smartphones and tablets. Enterprises will be able to customize the Windows Store for their users. And it will protect corporate data by separating personal and corporate data on all devices.

An upgrade for both Windows 7 and Windows 8. One of the more interesting aspects of Windows 10 is that it is designed as an obvious upgrade from both Windows 7 and Windows 8. In both cases, you should see what you expect to see. Windows 7 users will get a Start menu, taskbar, and desktop. And Windows 8 users with touch devices will get a Start screen and updated versions of the touch interfaces they understand. But both will benefit from new advances, including the updated Universal app model that will now work right on the desktop.

Build number. The build of Windows 10 that Joe Belfiore demonstrated was 9841. Not sure yet if that is the same build as the Technical Preview.

Features we already knew about. Joe showed off the new Start menu, floating Universal app windows, Task View multitasking and multiple desktop access, and Task View access from ALT + TAB.

Minor new features. Snap has been updated with a Snap Assist UI that suggests apps to snap on the other side of the screen when you snap an app. Snap also supports tiled displays, not just side-by-side (which, ironically, looks like Windows 2.0). The command prompt is being updated to support universal keyboard commands and actions (like SHIFT selection and CTRL + C for Copy).

Changes to touch devices. In the Technical Preview, the Charms will still appear on touch-based devices, but that UI is going away. Microsoft will keep or adapt other touch UIs from Windows 8, too. Switcher is gone, for example, but when you swipe in from the left edge of the screen, you’ll now see the new ALT + TAB interface, which makes plenty of sense.

Continuum: One major new feature. Of course, Microsoft still needs to address the problem of switching between the two interfaces that collided in Windows 8—the mobile environment formerly called Metro and the classic desktop interface—especially on 2-in-1 devices. For example, if you have a Surface Pro 3 and unplug the keyboard, should Windows still work the same way? A feature called Continuum, not available in the Technical Preview, will introduce tablet and keyboard modes that react on the fly depending on the hardware you’re using. So we won’t know for a while how well it works.

Windows Insider Program. To get the Windows Technical Preview, you need to sign up for the Windows Insider Program. It starts tomorrow, and the first version will offer upgrades for Windows 7/8.x users with x86-based PCs and tablets. In the future, other form factors will be supported too. But ARM is up in the air, and we weren’t able to get a firm answer about whether ARM-based Surface devices and other devices will ever get the upgrade.

Schedule. The enterprise-focused Technical Preview starts tomorrow. In early 2015, Microsoft will ship a consumer-oriented milestone and detail new user experiences. In April 2015 at BUILD, the firm will reveal the Windows 10 developer story. And then Windows 10 will ship later in the 2015. How much later? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Free? Rumors suggested that Windows 10 would be free to Windows 8 users, but Microsoft refused to discuss pricing, SKUs, or other things that will be decided closer to release.

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Microsoft Seeks to Please Everyone with Windows 10

And it may just succeed
Paul Thurrott
September 30, 2014

Microsoft announced the next version of Windows at a special event in San Francisco on Tuesday. But instead of calling it Windows 9, as was originally planned, Microsoft will brand the release as Windows 10 to further distance it from Windows 8. The marquee feature? It will please fans of both Windows 7 and Windows 8.

“I think we’d all say Windows was at a threshold,” a tongue-in-cheek Terry Myerson said while opening the event. (“Threshold” was the original codename for Windows 10.) “Let’s talk about the new Windows.”

After stepping through some joking references to names that Microsoft considered but dropped—Windows 9, the “natural name” for the release, and Windows One, which would follow the One Microsoft naming convention—Mr. Myerson said that this new Windows was so big they needed to skip a version number. So Windows 9 became Windows 10.

“This isn’t an incremental release,” he said. “It’s a new Windows.”

Windows 10 is a single product family that will run on devices as diverse as Internet-connected sensors, phones, tablets, PCs, game consoles and even cloud-based data centers, Myerson said, and features a single store and application platform. But it will feature different, tailored experiences depending on the device type. Tuesday’s event was all about PCs and tablets, but Microsoft will address server and cloud, phones, and other device types at later events.

Tuesday’s event also focused specifically on enterprise-related features, though Microsoft will reveal consumer features in early 2015 and then developer features in April 2015. It expects to ship Windows 10 by mid-2015, though the final release will be based on user feedback.

While many will focus on very specific features—check out my articles Microsoft Announces Windows 10 [above] and Windows 10 for the Enterprise [below] for a rundown—the big advance here is a bit more general. With this release, Microsoft will provide a familiar and usable upgrade to both Windows 7 and Windows 8 users.

How it does this, given the separate mobile and desktop environments that currently grace Windows, is interesting. For Windows 7 upgraders, or any one on a traditional, non-touch PC, Windows 10 will look and work much like the system to which they’re accustomed, and will present a familiar desktop-based user interface. For those on tablets, however, Windows 10 will work much like Windows 8 and will provide improved versions of the so-called edge UIs provided on that system.

Microsoft will even address the 2-in-1 PCs that provide both interfaces in a unique way, though that functionality won’t debut until after the Technical Preview that ships to interested parties on Wednesday via the Windows Insider Program. Through a feature called Continuum, Windows 10 will adapt between tablet and keyboard modes on the fly.

“The diversity of the Windows audience is finally addressed by Windows 10,” Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore said that the Tuesday event. “We’re adapting the core user experience to handle that diversity of users and devices.”

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Windows 10 for the Enterprise

Microsoft takes steps to win back its best customers
Paul Thurrott
September 30, 2014

About two weeks ago, Microsoft promised that it would unveil the enterprise features that will differentiate the next Windows version from both Windows 7 and Windows 8. Oddly, the announcement event for what is now called Windows 10 was actually pretty light on enterprise information. So here’s a more complete look at what you can expect.

First, the name. Microsoft has been working on the next Windows version since early this year under the codename Threshold. The firm originally intended to call it Windows 9, as it is the follow-up to Windows 8 logically and technologically. But in a bid to further distance itself from that train wreck, Microsoft decided recently to brand the release as Windows 10. See? It’s a big deal.

That naming is part understandable, part fanciful. Windows lead Terry Myerson noted at the announcement event Tuesday in San Francisco that Windows 10—really, the core, underlying part of the platform—would run on a vast array of device types, from Internet of Things-type gadgets and sensors to phones, tablets, PCs and even the Xbox. Which sounds impressive. But Windows already does that, really.

Myerson and his cohort, user experience lead Joe Belfiore, provided a lot of information about Windows 10 at the event. But there were two problems. Thanks to leaks, we had heard about most of these features previously. And as noted, contrary to the aim of the event, few of the features they showed off were really enterprise focused in any way.

But that shouldn’t undercut the central message, which is this: Windows 10 will be a natural and obvious upgrade for both Windows 7 and Windows 8. And if Microsoft can pull off that seemingly impossible feat—and I think they will—then Windows 10 will deserve its I-just-skipped-a-grade moniker.

Please check out my article Microsoft Announces Windows 10 [above] or a rundown of the Windows 10 features Messrs. Myerson and Belfiore did show off. Here, I’d like to focus instead on the enterprise stuff. Here are some of the advances coming in Windows 10:

Unified, customizable app store. With Windows 10, the now-separate Windows and Windows Phone online stores will be unified into a single Windows Store. But the big deal for enterprises is that they will be able to control which apps their users see in this Store, making it finally relevant to businesses. Today, all businesses can do in Windows 8 is side-load their own apps. With Windows 10, you’ll get a much richer experience.

Better management. One of the unique things about Windows 8 is that offers both traditional, powerful and complex Active Directory/Group Policy-based management capabilities and modern, simpler Mobile Device Management (MDM) capabilities, but only on mobile devices. With Windows 10 for the first time, you will be able to choose between Group Policy and advanced MDM on any device, including traditional PCs. And thanks to the new capabilities in Microsoft’s MDM stack, which I’ll be writing about very soon, you will be able to control not just the devices, but also the user’s ID, apps, and data. This is an advantage its MDM competitors will never meet.

Updates when you want them. One of the central disconnects between the enterprise and Microsoft’s rapid release mantra today is that enterprises don’t necessarily want to instantly provide updates to their users. With Windows 10, enterprises can choose how their users’s PCs and devices are updated. They can opt into a fast track updating schedule—the norm for consumers—or they can lock down their environments and manage the schedule themselves. Or they can mix and match, segmenting their user base and providing updates on the schedules that make the most sense.

Faster, more reliable in-place upgrades. Today, the worst thing about upgrading Windows is … upgrading Windows. That is, the unreliability of upgrading from one version of Windows to the next is one of the major reasons many enterprises don’t do so. With Windows 10, this will be greatly resolved thanks to improvements to the in-place upgrade process, which has been designed to work with your existing management infrastructure.

Data separation and protection. As we sometimes see on modern mobile platforms, Windows 10 will support separating personal and business data so that enterprises can wipe data remotely without impacting a user’s baby photos or vacation shots too. Windows 10 will also take data protection technologies like BitLocker to the next level, providing container-based data file protection even for files that leave the PC or device.

As I write this, these descriptions are just words. I’ve not had a chance to experience Windows 10 or see how—or whether—these features work in the real world. But that’s about to change: Starting on Wednesday, October 1, you can download and install the Windows Technical Preview on any Intel-type Windows 7 or 8 PC or device and see for yourself. I’ll be doing so as quickly as possible. I recommend you do so as well.

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Short Takes: October 3, 2014

An often irreverent look at this week’s other news
Paul Thurrott
October 3, 2014

An often irreverent look at this week’s other news, including a silly urban myth about Windows 10 naming, …

This is not why Microsoft skipped Windows 9 and called in Windows 10

A Reddit poster claimed this week that Microsoft had to skip the name “Windows 9” and settle on Windows 10 for its new OS because of version-checking code in “many third party products” that would see the name Windows 9 as being “Windows 95” or “Windows 98” and would thus mark the OS as out of date. That’s ridiculous. Version checking occurs with the actual version number of the OS, which explains why products like Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and now 10 all have very similar version numbers: 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, and now 6.4, respectively. Any product that checks a name string like “Windows 9” deserves to fail. But then that’s not how it works in the real world anyway.