Microsoft Corp. announced a technical preview of its upcoming operating system on Tuesday, Windows 10, saying it will work with the developer community to create an OS with upgraded business functionality.
The Windows Insider program is the company’s largest open collaborative development effort ever. Program participants will receive a technical preview of the new OS and a constant stream of new builds. User feedback will used through out the development cycle to determine the features of the OS.
The OS will be designed to work across all platforms–desktop, laptop, tablet, smart phones–including on the autonomous devices that have collectively become known as he Internet of Things (IoT).
“This new Windows must be built from the ground-up for a mobile-first, cloud-first world,” Terry Myerson, executive vice-president of Microsoft’s operating system group, wrote on Blogging Windows. “Some of these devices have 4 inch screens – some have 80 inch screens – and some don’t have screens at all,” with a variety of input methods. Myerson says it won’t be a “sngle operatingsystem to rule them all,” but a family of products customized for different user experiences.
The new business-oriented features are largely focused on security, identity management and data loss prevention. By containerizing and separating data at the application and file level, the company says data is protected as it moves from device to USB key to cloud.
Organizations will also be able to customize app stores to their needs, allowing volume licensing and flexible distribution and licensing management, the company says. Appa from the Windows Store will run in a window like any other application on a desktop or laptop, allowing resizing and maximizing or minimizing them.
The “snap” feature has been improved to allow four apps on the same screen, and user can switch among a number of desktops for different purposes and projects.
Microsoft says the technical preview will shortly be available at this link.