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Build 2016: Microsoft Announces Windows 10 Anniversary Update

Build 2016: Microsoft Announces Windows 10 Anniversary Update

Microsoft’s Terry Myerson took to the Build stage today in San Francisco and confirmed that the next major update to Windows 10 will arrive this summer and will be known as the Windows 10 Anniversary Update.

He started off by revealing the first set of momentum numbers we have heard for Windows 10 since early January.

Back then there were over 200 million active devices using Windows 10. Microsoft counts an active device as one which has used Windows 10 within the past 30 days.

In today’s keynote, Myerson revealed that number has now grown to over 270 million active users.

That is an average growth of 23.3 million users per month in the last 90 days.

This growth since the release of Windows 10 in July 2015 has exceeded Windows 7 over the same time frame by 145%. He also mentioned that over 4 million enterprise customers will upgrade to Windows 10 over the course of the next year.

He also poked back at Apple and their old PC comment during his presentation:

“We are on track to reach our ambitious goal of one billion Windows 10 devices in the next few years. We welcome everyone to Windows 10, whether you have a new PC, a five-year-old PC, or a brand new Mac – we are building the most secure, productive, and fun platform for you.”

The Windows 10 Anniversary Update will ship for all Windows 10 capable devices and here is a rundown of the new features they shared on stage and demoed.

- Windows Hello will incorporate the ability to use biometric security for signing in to apps and through websites in Microsoft Edge.

- Inking is going to gain an even bigger role in this update and incorporate more tools that adapt to the on screen environment. The 3D Map demo was impressive in how the inking was added to a flat image and then when shown in 3D it adjusted properly for the display.

- Cortana will be available on top of the Windows 10 Lock Screen for the first time and there is now a new Cortana Collection in the Windows Store that highlights apps that are optimized to work with Cortana.

- Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps will arrive on Xbox One as previously rumored thanks to a new unified Windows Store experience. For devs the console can also become a dev kit device through the use of an app and a console reboot. Phil Spencer also mentioned that gaming on Windows 10 will support mods and overlays as well.

- HoloLens appeared on stage once again with a couple of different demos and a shipping developers kit was also brought on stage. It is great to see more of the HoloLens videos occasionally displaying the users Field of View which is important for clarity.

While today’s keynote was in progress, but likely unrelated, Microsoft also released Windows 10 Build 14295 from the Redstone branch to Windows Insiders in the Slow Ring on PCs and Mobile devices.  This is the first slow ring release from the Redstone branch, aka Anniversary Update, for Windows 10 this year and means ISOs should be available for download shortly for PC users.

Windows Insiders will likely have a new build of Windows 10 soon that will include some of these Windows 10 Anniversary Updates available for testing.

But, wait...there's probably more so be sure to follow me on Twitter and Google+.

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