Microsoft offers ‘Arm Advisory Service’ for developers

To bolster the development of native software for Arm-powered PCs, Microsoft has unveiled its "Arm Advisory Service for developers".

The new initiative aims to ensure app compatibility for Windows on Arm, a version specifically designed for the processor architecture.

Microsoft’s announcement comes in response to research from analyst firm Counterpoint which predicts a substantial rise in the marketshare of Arm-powered PCs, from 14 percent to 25 percent by...

17 October 2023 | Developer

BUILD 2023: Microsoft wants every Windows dev ‘to be an AI developer’

Microsoft announced significant investments in tools during BUILD 2023 to democratise app development for the AI era on Windows.

Regardless of the architecture you're developing for, be it x86/x64 or Arm64, Microsoft wants to ensure that developers can easily integrate AI-powered experiences into their Windows apps, whether they run on the cloud or at the edge.

At the Build conference last year, Microsoft introduced Hybrid Loop, a development pattern that enables hybrid...

24 May 2023 | Artificial Intelligence

Windows Subsystem for Android is now considered stable

Microsoft is making good on its promise to fully support Android apps on Windows.

Following the demise of Windows Phone, Microsoft has put its weight behind Android. The company adopted Google’s OS for its Surface Phone and said that Android apps will run on Windows 11 as if they were native.

In reality, Android app support on Windows has been limited in functionality and limited to Windows Insiders in some markets. However, as of this week, Windows Subsystem for...

21 October 2022 | Android

Microsoft sets out to woo regulators with ‘Open App Store Principles’

Microsoft is getting ahead of potential new laws governing app stores by announcing its Open App Store Principles.

Last week, Developer reported on Apple’s latest fight against such legislation after the company sent a letter to US lawmakers urging them to reject S. 2710—a bill that would force Apple to open its notorious “walled garden” and enable the sideloading of apps.

Microsoft has managed to avoid being the focus of high-profile antitrust investigations in...

10 February 2022 | App Stores

Microsoft: Universal Windows Platform is finally being sunset

Thomas Fennel, Principal Program Lead at Microsoft, clarified this week that Universal Windows Platform (UWP) is finally being sunset.

In an announcement on the GitHub repo for the Windows App SDK, Fennel says that UWP will only receive “bug, reliability, and security fixes,” and won’t be receiving new features. In other words, it’s being deprecated.

This won’t be of any surprise to just about, well, anyone, but Microsoft has skirted around what’s happening...

20 October 2021 | Platforms

Windows Subsystem for Linux is now delivered via the Microsoft Store

Anyone wanting to use Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) should now grab it from the Microsoft Store.

WSL enables Linux binary executables to be run natively on Windows 10, 11, and Server 2019.

The compatibility layer was previously obtained through the ‘Turn Windows Features on or off’ dialogue, which required a machine restart.

By decoupling WSL’s binaries from the Windows image and making it available via the Microsoft Store, Redmond says it will help...

12 October 2021 | Developer

Source code for the hopefully defunct Windows XP leaks online

Please say you’re not still using Windows XP.

Unlike the code released yesterday by Frictional Games for its Amnesia series, the leak of Microsoft’s source code wasn’t intentional. We can’t endorse looking at stolen code or link to it… but, well, we can tell you it’s out there.

Looking at what makes an OS tick can be a fascinating exercise (and it should leave you less breathless than the exercises that Joe Wicks fella put out throughout...

25 September 2020 | Platforms

Hey, Swift developers! You can now build Windows apps

Swift developers can now build apps for Windows using their language of choice.

In a blog post, Swift Core team member Saleem Abdulrasool announced the release of Swift toolchain images for Windows.

The toolchains contain various components required for building and running Swift code on Microsoft’s operating system.

Apparently, it’s taken over a year’s worth of work to port Swift to Windows.

“Porting Swift to Windows is not about simply...

23 September 2020 | Languages

Brad Smith: Microsoft was ‘on the wrong side of history’ with open-source

Microsoft president Brad Smith has admitted the company was "on the wrong side of history" when it comes to open-source software.

Redmond has had a rocky relationship with open-source software, especially Linux. Back in 2001, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer famously called Linux “a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches.”

Microsoft has a very different attitude to open-source today. In fact, the company is now the...

19 May 2020 | Developer