Windows 10 Anniversary Update: The Road To Redstone
by Brett Howse on August 2, 2016 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Operating Systems
- Microsoft
- Windows 10
It’s already been a year since Microsoft launched Windows 10, and we have had a couple of updates since release. The biggest update yet though is the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, which was codenamed Redstone throughout its development. It’s the first major branch from the launch codebase, which was codenamed Threshold. With it, Microsoft has added a lot of new features, polished some of the interface , and overall provided a nice update to those on Windows 10.
The Road to Redstone
Windows 10 had a pretty strong launch, although the company did stumble a bit through some controversy over the last year: especially in the area of the collection of data from the operating system. Windows 10 was a big change in policy for Microsoft, with the goal of being able to improve the experience however there was a period of time where the answers from the Redmond company were vague at best. Much of that has been answered now, and although the answers won’t appease everyone the end result of anonymous telemetry data can certainly be seen with this update. With this update, we see fixes for many user interface issues, as well as the constant squashing of bugs. There was also plenty of deserved controversy around the underhanded Get Windows 10 dialogs on older versions of the Operating System. Confusing would be an understatement, and the dialogs got progressively more deceitful over the year, until only recently a large outcry resulted in the company accepting that they had gone to far and toned them back.
Despite the controversy, Windows 10 has been pretty successful over the last year. The last update from Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi on June 29th was that there were over 350 million devices running Windows 10 now, which is a pretty healthy number considering the decline in the PC market. Windows 10 is also a big part of the Xbox One, and it also includes IoT and Windows 10 Mobile. Microsoft had set a target of 1 billion devices running Windows 10 by mid-2018, and although they have admitted they likely won’t hit that goal now with the practical exit of the phone market, they still could hit that mark later in their 2018 fiscal year.
Part of that initial uptake in Windows 10 was due to the already mentioned free Windows 10 Update for all computers running Windows 7 or later. This was the first time ever that Microsoft has taken the tactic of eliminating the upgrade fee, but they had a couple of reasons to do so. In enabling their users to move to Windows 10, it would expand the reach of their built-in services, including OneDrive, Bing, and the Windows Store. The other motivating factor was that Microsoft was pretty eager to avoid another mess that they had with Windows XP, where a big chunk of their user base was stuck on an outdated version of the operating system. For the users, it meant a lot of money in support, as well as long term legacy teams back at Microsoft. Windows 7 was certainly set up to be the same, with a solid framework and stable platform, and we will see how they make out when Windows 7 starts to run into the end of its long term support window. Already they’ve seen some large corporations make the move to Windows 10, with many more actively piloting it now, so perhaps the XP mess might have been avoided.
But enough about the past. The Windows 10 Anniversary Update brings a lot of welcome changes to Windows 10, and many of them have been actively adjusted based on almost real-time feedback from what is most certainly Microsoft’s most successful software beta program yet. The Windows Insider Program has been a huge success for the company, with millions of active users providing feedback on changes, implementations, and bugs. The program has received over 70,000,000 pieces of feedback this year alone, and was a driving factor on many of the changes in this update.
Let’s dig into what’s new.
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BrokenCrayons - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
Mint is a good alternative for people willing to roll up their sleeves on occasion. I've been using it full time on everything but my headless desktop which really only exists to stream Windows-only games to my Linux box through Steam.sadsteve - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
Does that work well (streaming of games to Linux)? I've never tried it but it might be a viable option. I'm planning on only using Windows for steam gaming and Photoshop, all my normal computing needs can readily be handled by Mint. Was originally thinking of just dual booting but if I could setup a reasonable workflow on Mint for photo editing I could then use the streaming option for games.BrokenCrayons - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
Getting streaming setup was painless. Install the Steam client on both computers and have them running at the same time. They'll see one another on your local network and on each respective machine's library, there's an option to stream the game. You can also stream non-Steam games and even random applications like Internet Explorer or MS Word over it by manually adding them to your game list.It's not perfect though. Your mileage will vary greatly based on the performance of your local network. In my case, my desktop is connected via wired ethernet at 100mbps to my crappy DSL router and my laptop can connect at up to 144 mpbs over wireless. Streaming is doable up to 1366x768, but there's the occasional hiccup in network performance that'll cause the video stream to pixelate or hesitate. Even then, the encoding process reduces image quality slightly so things just don't really look as good. There's also added latency between 10-20ms which might put multiplayer shooters out since you'll be a bit behind in reacting to what's happening in-game. Steam recommends doing the streaming thing purely on wired connections and they're probably right that it'd work better under those conditions, but I think I lose too much flexibility by being wired to the laptop. Oh and some games refuse to stream at all, but I've only seen that happen with MMOs. There's a few that are oddly picky about slinging their video to another computer.
Now on the good side of things, just about any piece of garbage laptop made since 2008 running linux with a decent wifi nic has the compute power necessary to decode the incominng stream. Its nice to keep upgrade pressure off every box but the headless desktop and a little cheaper too. Plus, with summer heat bearing down on the US, I like not having my desktop in the same room, baking my proverbial beans with its heat output. I still keep Tight VNC installed on the desktop so I can remotely access the desktop from outside a Steam session.
In the end though, the best advice I can suggest is to just fire up Steam and play with it a little to see how it works for you.
sadsteve - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
Thanks, I'll have to give it a shot. I've got a gigabit wired home network so that should help some. I'll have to fire up Fallout 4 and see how it plays.:-) Sounds like UT2K4 would be out, I've already got a ping of over 100 talking to the server I play on in Chicago (I'm in California).
doggface - Wednesday, August 3, 2016 - link
I have two streaming windows PCs at home (GbE) (one for my wife and I) and i will say categorically that your results == how good your network is.I have two lappys that effortlessly stream over 5ghz and struggle on 2.4ghz.
Otherwise steam streaming is the greatest lock-in that steam has on my gaming purchases. Love playing AAA/indies/etc. on the couch with an xbox controller. A pain when i have to actually sit at my desk to game
Notmyusualid - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
I had an unused 8.1 Pro license lying around that shipped with my machine, so I installed it, and upgraded it on the last free day, so when I do sell my laptop (I change 'em every 2yrs), it would have the latest s/w for the new noob user.Anyway, I couldn't resist trying to run the Time Spy DX12 benchmark. What a mess. DX11 titles did work though without issue (but tried for short period only though). Tried updating Nvidia drivers - Nvidia 'Experience' was unable to sucessfully complete. Manually downloaded & failed also. Deleted existing, ran the install package as admin, failed again.
So no video drivers for Win 10 now at all. Even Windows itself is unable to update the GPUs.
Anyway, volume backed-up with Macrium Reflect for possible new machine owner, and partition deleted.
Still happy on 7 Pro.
PROUD tin-hatter here!
inighthawki - Thursday, August 4, 2016 - link
Sounds more like a driver issue than an OS issue. What video card are you using?Gurdas - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
"For now, the Windows 10 Anniversary Update will start rolling out in waves today, so check your Windows Update."What version of Win10 is going out with the media creation tool? I need to clean reinstall Win10 on a PC and wanted it to be the Anniversary update version right off the bat.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/w...
Michael Bay - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
10586 for now, I believe. I`d like to have a 14939 ISO myself.Hopefully those will soon show up on MSDN.
Gurdas - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - link
The Windows Blog posted on how to get build 14393 ISO :)https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2016/0...