New roadmap gives an inside look at what's to come.
The new features for Windows 10 keep on coming, and it can be hard to keep track of them all, especially for enterprises that want to decide whether to allow the update that installs these new features on their PCs.
Credit Microsoft for keeping people well-informed as to what is coming because between all the preview builds of Windows 10 and individual feature additions, it can get really confusing. So, the company has published a roadmap of upcoming features for Windows 10.
The list is broken down by Recently Available, In Public Preview and In Development. Recently Available and In Public Preview are features that users have access to through the Production ring or the Insider Program, respectively.
In Development has only four features/functions: enterprise data protection, multifactor authentication for apps and websites, extensions for Microsoft Edge and pinning tabs in Edge.
The Enterprise Data Protection is designed specifically with BYOD in mind by preventing accidental data leaks. This includes blocking the ability to share data on non-enterprise apps, warning employees if they do something unsafe and encrypting data when it is downloaded to a device.
The multifactor authentication would allow a Windows phone or Android phone to serve as an authenticator for your Windows 10 laptop. The Edge extensions have been well-documented, and the pinned tabs are kind of neat. It simply opens a web page in Edge every time the browser is loaded. So if there is a site you always visit, such as Salesforce or a content management system, it will always be opened when you start Edge.
Separately, Microsoft also announced it would begin to include release notes for the built-in Windows 10 apps that it ships with the operating system, providing changelogs detailing what’s new in the update. This is a bit overdue, as Microsoft has not really told people what changes it was making in the Windows 10 apps when it issued an update. This didn’t sit well with people for obvious reasons.
Microsoft said it will detail the changes and/or fixes through two methods: an in-app feature called Spotlight that gives you the highlights in major updates, and the What’s New page under Settings with the app. That will go into greater detail on changes released early to Windows Insiders, as well as features that have been released to everyone, so you know what’s new and what’s coming.
