If there is a product that has marked the news of Microsoft in 2015, it was Windows 10. Having struggled considerably with Windows 8, Microsoft had to speed with a new version of its OS. And the company has three ways for the least unexpected.
Image: James Martin / CNET
- First, Microsoft has offered free upgrades from Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 first year, except for Windows Enterprise customers who purchase the operating system with volume licensing.
- Then, the new operating system has emancipated conventional process with the Windows Insider program. Certainly this was not the first time that Microsoft proposed public pre-releases for OS ,. But here the different “builts” proposed by the editor of Redmond have affected millions of participants.
- Finally, the Windows 10 Development Team is committed to provide continuous updates , promising to “keep up to date throughout the life of the device – no extra charge.” In July, less than two weeks before the official release of Windows 10, the company updated its Support Lifecycle page with details of this case.
Sure , Windows 10 would not be a major release of Microsoft without its share of controversy (in my opinion over-sized). And Windows 10 on this plane also hit the headlines this year. Some problems have been caused even internally, with members of Microsoft (certainly at the request of lawyers) publishing poorly written ads to the point that they seemed to hide something.
But many others were simply the result of a search of pure sensationalism from a specialized press begging an easy audience. After this brief reminder of the facts, so here are my 2015 report card for Windows 10
Adoption of Windows 10. A
Microsoft had set an ambitious target by publicly declaring its intention to set up Windows 10 over a billion devices in two or three years ahead. The company clearly takes the right direction on this point.
24 hours after the release of Windows 10, July 29, the operating system already running on 14 million devices. A month later, we were at 75 million units, a figure that reflects strong demand from early adopters. And on October 6, 110 million devices were running Windows 10 (it is the latest official figures).
Judging by the numbers of analysts, the update period shows a trend strong and stable until the end of 2015. At December 28, two sources showed impressive levels of adoption. And we would be today 200 million installations.
Upgrades and updates: C-
Many times described Microsoft Windows 10 as a tool “Windows as a Service”. A term for holding the idea that new features will emerge progressively to regular updates, two or three times a year, rather than being proposed at the proposed new versions about every three years.
The new system was tested for the first time in November with the transition to the 1511 version of Windows 10. This update has had its share of problems, and a particularly troublesome bug has forced the company to withdraw updating its servers a few days to put together a patch.
The monthly cumulative updates, however, are a welcome change and the November launch of Windows Update for Business eliminates worries many business customers for untimely updates that may interfere business.Reste that all this could be greatly improved. Microsoft must arrive at the size of the smooth upgrade files. That of November caused problems on this point. Here is one of Microsoft’s priorities for 2016
Privacy:. B
The level of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) for Windows 10 and the issue of user privacy data was pretty amazing this year. And Microsoft responded to the most paranoid criticism by dry communication and very legal.
The fears of users about privacy have fueled serious charges (and false). Windows 10 contain a keylogger (not true). Sting Windows 10 files on your hard drive (actually not). Windows 10 listen to your conversations (not yet).
In fact, Microsoft is in the software sector, not in the collection of personal data. Yes, Windows 10 collecting more data by telemetry that all previous versions, and default collection policies are more aggressive than in previous versions. The data is anonymised and used to ensure that the updates are working properly, but also to prioritize the development of features.
Then, yes, your files are indexed if you choose to download them to onedrive so you can search them. And you can give permission to Cortana to access your email and your contact list to find appointments and identifying the right person when you give it a touch. This is not to “espionage”. That’s just the way services operate online
. Security: A –
There are a lot of innovation under the hood of Windows 10, and most is absolutely invisible to mere mortals. Credential Guard, for example, adds a safety-based virtualization in Windows 10 company, making it almost impossible for hackers to steal credentials type attacks using Pass-The-Hash or Pass-The-Ticket. There are also improvements to multi-factor authentication with Device Guard functionality, which allows to lock a PC running Windows 10 so narrowly that malware may simply not work.
user side, the good news side security is the arrival of Microsoft Edge, rid of the legacy of add-ins and ActiveX which weighed on its predecessors. And full disk encryption is enabled by default on almost all new devices with Windows 10 as soon as you connect to a Microsoft account
. Applications: C
Despite some signs to ramp the end of 2015, the Windows application store 10 is still low compared to its rivals. The main reason is the enormous installed base of machines running Windows 7 that only work with office applications. If you are a developer, it is still and always the platform you are going to target.
The announcement by Microsoft early in 2015 an ambitious project of porting Android apps to Windows, and then, by year-end, its abandonment did not help either. For developers who have had to live the fiasco of Silverlight, all at more wicked sense of déjà vu.
The availability of mobile Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote) is finally a positive development, but there is still much work to do in 2016
Customer Support business. B –
Windows 10 offers some great tools for deployment and management for companies and all of its signatures management software for IT pros (System Center Configuration Manager, for example) has been made compatible with Windows 10. The most anticipated feature is Enterprise Data Protection, however, absent from the Update November 2016 and expected.
Given the languid pace with which companies move toward major OS updates, it does not pose a particular problem though. They have everything they need today to conduct pilot projects to large-scale updates in one or two years
Tablets and smartphones. A strengthening
The tablets equipped with Windows 10 are almost all of Surface, and the dramatic decline and global tablet sales does not bode well for the future.
At the very end of 2015, Microsoft has launched two new phones that work with Windows 10, but not new to the bottom that suggests that the platform could change something in the coming year to the position of Windows Mobile devices on the market.
Editor’s note: This article is a translation from ZDNet.com. Accordingly, the Notes mentioned are modeled on the North American system.
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