Windows 10 All-in-One For Dummies. Woody Leonhard

has developed a new way of naming versions of Windows 10, all to make it look like Windows 10 is an immutable object.

      Far from it.

      The first version of Windows 10, which didn’t have an official name, arrived in July 2015. People are now calling it Windows 10 version 1507 — where 15 stands for 2015 and 07 stands for July. Some people call it Windows 10 RTM, but that’s a blasphemous approach because Windows as a Service never reaches Release to Manufacturing status. It’s constantly changing. Constantly improving, to hear the marketeers talk about it.

      

In late 2017, Microsoft vowed to turn out a new version (of “the last version” of Windows 10!) every six months. Many people — present company included — think that’s crazy because it forces customers to install a new version of Windows every six months, more or less. The six-month horizon gives very little time to create anything new that’s worthwhile.

      But that’s where we stand.

      Here are the versions of Windows 10, to date:

       Version 1507 –RTM released July 29, 2015 — contains the basic elements of Windows 10, few of which worked properly.

       Version 1511 — Originally Fall update and later November update released November 10, 2015 — became the first stable and generally usable version of Windows 10.

       Version 1607 — Anniversary update, released August 2, 2016 — spruced up the Start menu and Microsoft Edge, added the Notification (er, Action) Center (Book 2, Chapter 3), started adding features to the Cortana personal assistant, fleshed out a few of the Universal apps (see Book 4), improved Windows Hello to recognize your finger and your face, and added digital ink so you can draw on things.

       Version 1703 — Creators update, released April 11, 2017 — had small improvements for Cortana and the Microsoft Edge browser, a new privacy settings overview, an easier way to control updates (for Win10 Pro only), and lots of stuff for folks who draw in 3D and use virtual/augmented reality.

       Version 1709 — Fall Creators update, released October 17, 2017 — made OneDrive usable again with Files on Demand (Book 6, Chapter 1), and touches up My People (Book 3, Chapter 3), Cortana, and Microsoft Edge.

       Version 1803 — Spring Creators update, released April 10, 2018 — got Dark Mode, another tweak to My People, more Cortana and Edge, and not a whole lot more.

       Version 1809 — October 2018 update, released October 2, 2018 — got the Timeline, an improved clipboard that syncs through the cloud with other Windows 10 PCs you own, improved Search, the Your Phone app (see Book 10, Chapter 2), and Snip & Sketch, a new app for taking screenshots.

       Version 1903 — May 2019 update, released May 21, 2019 — delivered minor improvements to the Start menu, separated Cortana from Search (thank goodness for that), Windows Sandbox (see Book 7, Chapter 2), and a few other quality-of-life improvements.

       Version 1909 — November 2019 update, released November 12, 2019 — improved minor aspects in File Explorer, the Calendar, and notifications. It was one of the most underwhelming updates in terms of new features. Microsoft’s focus was mostly on bug fixing and improving reliability.

       Version 2004 — May 2020 update, released May 27, 2020 — gave users more control over their Windows updates (hooray for that), Cortana was separated even more from the operating system, Task Manager was tweaked to show more useful data, Search got faster, and other minor improvements were made.

      

Of course, each new version of Windows 10 is “the most secure version ever.” That’s been a constant claim since Windows 3.0.

      You may have a version later than 2004 (type About in the search box and press Enter), but chances are good the new features aren’t going to make your life much more interesting.

The Different Kinds of Windows Programs, Er, Apps

      Windows 10 runs two very different kinds of programs. Permit me to go back to basics.

Computer programs (call them applications or desktop apps if you want) that you and I know work by interacting with an operating system. Since the dawn of Windows time, give or take a bit, Windows apps have communicated with Windows through a specific set of routines (application program interfaces or APIs) known colloquially and collectively as Win32. With rare exceptions, Windows desktop apps — the kind you use every day — take advantage of Win32 APIs to work with Windows.

      

In early June 2011, at the D9: The D: All Things Digital conference in California, Steven Sinofsky, and Julie Larson-Green gave their first demo of Windows 8. As part of the demo, they showed off new immersive or Metro apps, that interact with Windows in a different way. They use the newly minted (and still evolving) API set known as Windows Runtime or, more commonly, the WinRT API.

      Microsoft started calling the WinRT based apps “immersive” and “full screen.” Most of the world settled on Microsoft’s internal code name, Metro. Microsoft, however, has since changed the name to Modern UI, then Windows 8, Windows Store App, New User Interface, Microsoft Design Language, Microsoft style design, and more recently Modern and Universal. The preferred terminology used to be Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app, although the tech support folks reverted to Universal app all the time. In recent times, Microsoft has decided to ditch the UWP platform, and add its functionality to non-UWP software development platforms. Therefore, UWP is now dead. I continue to use the term Metro in normal conversation, but in this book, to minimize confusion, I use the terms Windows 10 app or app.

      

Don’t be confused. (Ha!) They all mean the same thing: Those are the names for Universal Windows applications that run with the WinRT API.

      Windows 10 (Modern, Metro) apps have many other characteristics: They’re sandboxed — stuck inside a software cocoon that isolates the programs so that it’s hard to spread infections through them. They can be easily interrupted, so their power consumption can be minimized; if a UWP app hangs, it’s almost impossible for it to freeze the machine. But at their heart, Universal Windows Platform apps are written to use the WinRT API.

      Windows 8 and 8.1 (and Server 2012) support the WinRT API — Universal apps run on the Metro side of Windows 8, not on the desktop. ARM-based processors also run the WinRT API. You can find ARM architecture processors in many smartphones and tablets. In theory, apps should run on any Windows 10 computer — a desktop, a laptop, a tablet, a phone, a wall-mounted Surface Hub, an Xbox, and even a HoloLens headset. In practice, however, it isn’t quite so simple. For example, only the simplest app that works in Windows 10 will run in Windows 8. So “Universal” is something of an aspiration, not a definition.

In Windows 10, UWP (Modern/Metro/Tiled) apps run in their own boxes, right there on the desktop. Look at the Weather app — formerly a UWP app, now a Windows 10 app — shown in Figure 2-3.

      All the other Windows programs — the ones you’ve known since you were still wet behind the WinEars — are now called desktop apps. Five years ago, you would’ve just called them programs, but now they have a new name. After all, if Apple can