Welcome back to another weekly Windows 10 news recap. It’s been a busy week for Microsoft, especially with the company’s Windows 10 platform. Let’s take a look back at some of the hot stories relating to Windows 10 in a special feature we call “Windows 10 news recap.”
Windows 10 Redstone build 11082 rolling out to Windows Insiders now
Microsoft has just released a new build of Windows 10 for Windows Insiders to begin testing over the new year. Today’s build release is 11082, and is part of the Redstone development branch RS1 meaning this is the first (of many, hopefully) builds from Redstone that Insiders will be able to test. 11082 was compiled recently, meaning Microsoft is not far ahead of build 11082 internally. We were starting to think we wouldn’t have any new preview bits to play with before 2016, but luckily that isn’t the case.
This build doesn’t include any readily apparent changes, but rather focuses on firming up the underlying Windows 10 fundamentals.
Windows 10 Insider Fast ring will get faster starting January 2016
The fast ring has always been there for Windows 10 Insiders who want to get their hands on every new build, and be able to participate in Microsoft’s beta testing process in a much more involved way. There have been people, however, who believe the fast ring isn’t fast enough. After talking about this issue internally for some time, Microsoft has found the way that they want to proceed.
In the Windows Experience blog, Gabe Aul put out a post where he addressed the issue. He acknowledged that many Windows Insiders aren’t satisfied with how the fast ring is going and announced that Microsoft is going to be dealing with that problem by loosening the criteria for what gets accepted into the fast ring. Now, the criteria will be much closer to that used to determine what goes to their internal rings.
Microsoft finishes up Windows Insider program for the year
Microsoft just finished updating both Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile Windows Insider builds, updating Windows 10 to 11082.1000, and Windows 10 Mobile to 10586.36. In addition, non-Windows Insiders have also been updated on the desktop version of Windows 10 to 10586.36, making a nicely wrapped package out of it all. With that, Microsoft has announced that it’s done with Windows Insider updates for the year, as engineers and corporate vice presidents alike head off for the holidays.
Windows Store reaches 2.5 billion visits since the launch of Windows 10
In a blog post also announcing the new Netflix Universal Windows app, Microsoft announced that the Windows Store has reached 2.5 billion visits since the launch of Windows 10. Windows 10 is currently installed on 110 million devices as Microsoft heads into the last days of 2015 according to the latest released numbers, although Vice President Yusuf Mehdi says he’s looking forward “to sharing an update on our overall progress soon”.
Microsoft saw promising Black Friday sales, with 75% of Windows Store purchases were being made by first-time customers. During Microsoft’s 10 Cent Deals promotion, they saw a high volume of repeat traffic to the Windows Store with almost 30 times the usual purchases.
So that’s pretty much it for this weeks top Windows 10 stories. Did you have a favorite? Let us know below.
