The Windows 10 Anniversary SDK
Build 2016 gave a detailed overview of some of the new innovations that are coming to Windows 10 in the Anniversary Update SDK:
Windows Hello
You can already use Windows Hello and biometric authentication to make your apps easier to access and more secure with Windows Passport. Yet, studies show over 80% of people use the same password across multiple web sites, managing around 20-30 different accounts requiring passwords. So with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update we’ve made it possible for you to use the same easy, yet strong, security of Windows Hello* with Windows apps and Microsoft Edge, the first and only browser to natively support biometrics, with supporting sites.
If you are web developer, you can now bring that same Windows Hello experience to your websites with JavaScript APIs in Microsoft Edge.
Bash is coming to Windows
For users of popular command-line tools, Windows 10 now has great support for Bash running on Ubuntu as part of our partnership with Canonical, and growing support for the universe of open-source command-line tools. Developers will be able to download the Bash shell from the Windows Store.
Converting Desktop Apps (Project Centennial)
Project Centennial is an app converter which will enable your Win32 and .NET apps to get access to UWP and the Windows Store. With the new installer technology, your app can cleanly install, uninstall, and update, and also get full access to UWP APIs including Live Tiles, Cortana, notifications, and more.
Windows Ink APIs
Microsoft provide a new natural ways of interacting with our apps with Windows Ink. More than 70% of us spend more than one hour a day using a pen. We lose notes in our notebooks, take pictures of whiteboards, and can’t do equations or music composition with a keyboard. Windows Ink is an all-new experience, putting the power of Windows in the tip of your pen, enabling you to write on your device as you do on paper, creating sticky notes, drawing on a whiteboard, and easily sharing your analog thoughts in the digital world.
Just two lines of code enable you to bring the “Hello World” of Windows Ink into your apps through the InkCanvas and new InkToolbar controls. One level down, the InkPresenter provides a powerful and flexible way to extend the InkToolbar and to create customize ink experiences. In all cases, the platform provides beautiful low-latency ink rendering, handwriting recognition, and ink data management.
Cortana APIs
Nearly 1,000 apps are already using voice commands with Cortana. Now Cortana allows you to go further and integrate proactive actions with your apps. As a developer, you can drive increased user engagement by registering actions with Cortana that she will use to connect users to your apps at just the right time. Check out the new Cortana portal where you can request access to the beta.
Windows Holographic SDK and emulator
The Windows Holographic SDK and emulator are now available for download and Microsoft HoloLens Development Edition is starting to ship to developers. These will enable you to create holographic apps using UWP. Documentation and <a href-"https://forums.hololens.com/" target="_blank">forums are up and running. Microsoft also share a number of open source projects, HoloToolkit, HoloToolkit-Unity, and Galaxy Explorer, which will accelerate your development of holographic apps, and give you an opportunity to contribute back to help others building on the platform. Developers can now bring existing UWP apps to HoloLens where they will work on 2D surfaces within the virtual world.
Xamarin
Xamarin will make it easy to share code across platforms while delivering native experiences for each. Also, open source Windows Bridge for iOS enables iOS developers to bring Objective-C code into Visual Studio, and compile it into a UWP app.
Xbox One Dev Mode
Microsoft is releasing the Retail Dev Kit Unlock for Xbox One which enables any Xbox One to be a developer kit with Xbox Dev Mode. Now anyone can develop UWP apps and deploy them to an Xbox One. Your apps can be tailored for the larger viewing distance and screen size of the living room and for Game Controller input, and you can test these optimizations on your own Xbox.
Connected Devices
A new ways for developer to connect to, communicate with, and manage multiple devices and apps. This technology enables Cortana extensibility and the new Action Center in the Cloud, and it’s being introduced today.
Background execution:
Now you have ability to run your application in the background without requiring two separate processes. Along with extended execution and opportunistic tasks, writing applications that run when they need to will become simpler and more powerful.
App Extensions
UWP now supports app extensibility allowing you to build an ecosystem based on your application. Microsoft Edge uses this technology for its own extensions.
Action Center in the Cloud
Enables your app to engage with users on all their devices. You can now dismiss notifications on one device and they will be dismissed everywhere.
Windows Store & Dev Center
Significate new tools include user roles in Dev Center, app flighting, improved analytics, an analytics API that allows you to grab your data and use it outside of the dashboard, user segmentation and targeting, A/B testing, app subscriptions, advertising improvements, and more.
If you’d like to be the first to try the new innovations coming in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, you can join the Windows Insider program and install the latest build. Starting today, developers in the Windows Insider Program can access the Windows <a href=@"https://insider.windows.com/" target="_blank">Anniversary SDK Preview to explore the new features.
