Microsoft Announces Windows 11, Edge, Teams Updates at Build 2022

Microsoft at the Build 2022 developer conference has announced a list of updates that are aimed to make Windows, Edge, and Teams better productivity solutions.

The software giant announced a slew of Microsoft Store updates including the ability to serve ads and allowing users to restore apps when they switch to a new PC to give developers ways to make their apps more discoverable and retain their users.

Additionally, Microsoft partnered with Qualcomm to introduce Project Volterra as a new mini-PC to help developers build cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) solutions.

Microsoft has introduced Project Volterra for developers to create new AI apps

Microsoft is building toward a vision for a world of intelligent hybrid compute, bringing together local compute on the CPU, GPU, and NPU and cloud compute with Azure. Microsoft claims that in the future, moving to compute workloads between client and cloud will be as dynamic and seamless as moving between Wi-Fi and cellular on your phone today.

AI will require heavy levels of processing power beyond capabilities of traditional CPU and GPU alone. But new silicon-like neural processing units (NPUs) will add expanded capacity for key AI workloads.

Bringing Azure and Windows closer together will enable developers to bring new classes of applications for commercial and consumer customers. Microsoft has announced that this journey will begin with Windows 365, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Azure Virtual Desktop and will continue with cloud and NPU processing on more Windows devices.

New app-building tools

Windows users can expect more apps that will be compatible with their operating system. Developers will find it easier to build and run their apps on Windows, whether they're .NET, web, Android, C++, Linux, or any number of cross-platform frameworks.

For building Windows desktop apps, the Windows App SDK and the WinUI 3 platform make it easy to build native apps for Windows 11 using C# or C++, while still reaching users on Windows 10.

Windows 11 is getting the ability to look for apps available on the Microsoft Store directly from search

The latest Windows App SDK 1.1 update is in preview and will be released soon, with new features like Fluent visual materials in WinUI 3, updated desktop windowing APIs, enhancements to push notifications, new environment variable APIs for C++, and various performance improvements.

Widgets

Widgets in Windows 11 will also introduce some new changes. They will offer a glanceable and useful view of app content for users. Later this year, users will be able to start building Widgets as companion experiences for Win32 and PWA apps on Windows 11, powered by the Adaptive Cards platform.

Developers can also leverage capabilities of touch, pen, voice, and AI, to create features that increase engagement and differentiate their apps with more natural interactions for their customers.

Microsoft is enabling PWAs to have system's native UI for sharing files Photo Credit: Microsoft

Windows 11 is enabling developers to create widgets of their native apps Photo Credit: Microsoft

Microsoft also shared an early vision for how apps that create and store content in the cloud could start to integrate that custom content into familiar user engagement surfaces in Windows 11 like File Explorer, and common file dialogs. This would enable Windows to show your app and app content to users in the right context, providing a seamless app installation and content discovery experience across devices.

New Store Design

With Windows 11, the tech giant has rebuilt the Microsoft Store from the ground up for developers. The Microsoft Store on Windows gives you the choice to use the commerce engine that we provide, with revenue share, or their own commerce engine in their app, in which case they get to keep all the revenue

May 25, 2022