The latest Windows 10 update (version 1803) is set to be released today, offering a range of new features for enterprise and personal users.
The company has continued to wrestle with bugs behind the scenes however, with the initial launch date of April 3 delayed as the company opted to create a new build with fixes included – rather than following up with a large update package.
As Microsoft’s Q1 results showed last week, commercial use of Windows 10 has grown notably for the company, with enterprise use up 79 percent year-on-year and the update, code-named Redstone 4, will come with several new features for enterprise users.
These include Delivery Optimization enhancements, which allow for one device to download an update and then use the local network to deliver that update to peers (reducing bandwidth by up to 90 percent) and numerous other system admin-friendly tools include Windows AutoPilot that allows admin to ensure policies, settings, and apps are provisioned on a device before a user gets to the desktop and begins interacting with it, to boost compliance and security.
Changes to Networking Stack
The Readiness Toolkit for Office (RTO) meanwhile has been designed to help with Office VBA, Macro, and add-in compatibility, while an Application Health Analyzer (AHA) tool, which can assess the dependencies of internally developed apps and help ensure they remain compatible with Windows 10 updates, will follow in coming months.
Windows is also transforming the networking stack after 20 years through the Net Adapter framework: “This framework introduces a new, more reliable, network driver model that inherits the goodness of the Windows driver framework while bringing an accelerated data path. In this build, we are introducing a new and improved Mobile Broadband (MBB) USB class driver based on this Net Adapter framework,” the company’s Dona Sarkar and Brandon LeBlanc said in a blog on April 25.
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(These follow changes made last year in Windows 10 (version 1703) that saw the Windows Driver Kit (WDK) include a Network Adapter WDF Class Extension module (NetAdapterCx) that enables user to write a KMDF-based client driver for a Network Interface Controller (NIC), making it easier to write a driver for an NIC).
Other New Gizmos…
Other new gizmos for users include an upgraded dictation tool, that allows users to press Win+H to start transcribing the spoken word. A user-friendly Diagnostic Data Viewer, which Microsoft says will make it easier for you to know and control what data Microsoft gathers about you, alongside upgrades to Microsoft Edge, Cortana and new feature “Timeline” that lets users rapidly resume earlier activities – synched across devices also feature.
The precise date of availability for the free download?
Microsoft still says that it is “coming soon”.
