Newsletter Archives

• Win10 Creators Update will let you block apps from outside the Store

  Posted on February 27, 2017 at 07:40 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  This one’s starting to echo around the blogosphere.

  Windows 10 Creators Update brings several old settings – they used to be in the System applet – up to a new high-level applet called Apps.

  In the new Apps > Apps & features setting, there’s a new option called Choose where apps can be installed from. (Presumably, the wording will change before the final version ships, unless we get a new dangling participle option with.) You’re given three choices:

  • Allow apps from anywhere (that’s the default)
  • Prefer apps from the Store, but allow apps from anywhere
  • Allow apps from the Store only

  The buzz is about the last option, which should lock down machines so they can only install apps from the Store.

  Paul Thurrott has the most thorough explanation I’ve seen on thurrott.com, but the options function as you would expect.

  Of course, the worry is that Microsoft is creating a version of Windows that’ll be limited to Windows Store apps, possibly in conjunction with a “free” version of Windows that doesn’t work much better than Windows RT. It’s the “Windows 10 Cloud” direction.

  It might happen at some point, but I don’t think it’s cause for concern at this point. By the time Windows Cloud rolls around, we’ll have plenty of competing options.

  Windows News Windows 10 Cloud, Windows Store

• An unexpected update on Windows 10 Cloud

  Posted on February 7, 2017 at 05:29 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Kevin Parrish at Digital Trends kicked Windows 10 Cloud around a bit, and came up with some surprising discoveries.

  WinCloud, you may recall, is the internal name of the supposed “next” version of Windows. It was leaked on a Russian site over the weekend, and took the Windows blogosphere by storm, with lots and lots of contradictory rumors and guesses.

  Microsoft’s mum, of course, so we don’t have anything but an obviously pre-pre-release version of Windows 10 that runs on Intel machines.

  Parrish found a half-dozen features/settings that merit consideration, including the ability to install apps from anywhere (not just the Windows Store), and a test run of a converted Win32 app. There’s a list of very small differences between the current Win10 beta (15025) and this Windows Cloud beta. (One of the differences listed isn’t, in fact, a difference: Windows PowerShell will replace Command Prompt in the 1703 Power Menu.)

  If you’re curious about the way Windows may be headed late this year, take a look.

  UPDATE: WalkingCat, @h0x0d on Twitter, has just tweeted a retraction of sorts. It seems that the ability to restrict apps to Windows Store only is present in all editions of 1703. I can confirm that the setting is on my plain-vanilla copies of Win10 beta 15025.

  Where does that leave us? With a functional test run of a Desktop App Converter/project Centennial-converted app – and a Cloud version that’s more enigmatic than ever.

  ANOTHER UPDATE: Interesting conjecture on Twitter about Win10 Cloud’s positioning in the market.

  Windows News Windows 10 Cloud