Windows 10 preview builds for phone are 'roughly' every month, Tile re-sizing options not definite

Nearly a week ago, Microsoft unleashed an early release of Windows 10 for phones through their Insider preview program. Considering that Windows 10 is far from finished, there are a lot more questions than answers at this time for consumers as to the endgame for Microsoft's new OS.

Gabriel Aul, who has become the default spokesperson for the Windows Insider program, has taken to Twitter to respond to the myriad of inquiries from users. Here is a recap of some of the bits we have learned recently.

  • Windows 10 for phone preview builds go out once a month, "roughly" (Source)
  • New tile sizes, like the 'double tall' for People hub and extra-large for Cortana are experimental; no decision made yet on whether they will be used or not (users feedback is requested) (Source)
  • More tile sizes or designs may be forthcoming (Source)
  • The Spartan browser is being tested internally, but nothing set yet for its release to public previews. When it meets certain criteria, it will be released (Source)
  • Existing Silverlight apps will still be supported on Phone, and Silverlight apps for PC continue to be supported as well (Source)
  • Preview for Developers and Windows Insider are two different programs. The former is more of a "very close to release" version of the OS, where Windows Insider is very early in the development process. It looks like Preview for Developers will continue. (Source)
  • Regarding USB On The Go support: "Nothing to share about OTG at this point, we know it's a popular request." (Source)
  • Aul advises against installing Windows 10 to non-supported phones due to risks (Source)
  • No ETA for new Outlook apps for PC and phone (Source)

Although not everyone's questions are answered, Aul certainly has responded enough to keep us satisfied. The new builds of Windows 10 for phones every month should ensure that those updates are quite significant. It is not yet clear how Microsoft will utilize Fast and Slow tracks for the preview program, leaving some wiggle room for release dates.

Windows Insider for Windows 10

In terms of installing Windows 10 for phones on non-supported hardware, Aul is reflecting on increasing 'bricking' reports from users who are running into issues with trying to hack the OS onto their phones. As such, we are still advising users to not attempt this trick, and instead drop $50 on a Lumia 635 instead.

Microsoft clearly has a long path ahead to finalize Windows 10 for general release, something expected later this summer. Users are encouraged to standby, give feedback where they can, have patience and continue to watch the show.

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

412 Comments
  • Crossing my fingers that win 10 for phone gets some much needed adoption.
  • Would benefit us all.
  • Ain't gonna happen
  • It will if apps become universal
  • Universal apps between windows 8 and windows phone 8 already exists for a while now, i think MS should buy xamarin or make something in house to make universal apps really spread across other platforms as well, preserving almost the same code, this really could attract some developers and also make difference between apps closer.
  • Doubtful, people are entrenched, I'm a business expert....true, no shit..not impossible, nothing is, but doubtful. I hope I'm wrong.
  • I support this view. I have been trying to shift onto the system for over one year now and the OS still doesn't meet my requirements for work. Also, i went from Galaxy Note II to the Note 4 because the Lumia 1520 i have (and the OS) miss so much stuff that it is impossible to use the device as a working one (I mostly miss language tools and language imputs + Office + a decent browsing experience + a good mail client/mail functionalities). I have now reinvested money on a set of Android apps so my 1520 gets used even less than before. At this stage for WP platform to get more adopters it really needs to come up with some head-turning ecosystem+market+set of functions leading people to leave other OS' they have invested on and that is hard.
  • I'm happy you see the truth, however it fucking hurts as a WP fan. I dont know, well actually I do understand the psychology, how we pick a side or team. Interesting.
  • I cannot believe I waited so long for this so called Windows 10 on phone. Seriously you guys took two years to make extra toggles and adjustable keyboard?
  • Upvote
  • Ummm... This is a technical preview. The first build of Windows 10 for PC didn't have the notification center, didn't have Cortana, etc. People like you that don't understand what a tech preview is need to quit reading tech sites.
  • Agreed
  • Spot on
  • Seconded, facepalm to sosan for not understanding "technical preview"
  • This site would be so much more enjoyable if it didnt attract such blithering idiots that cant read, nor have no real tech understanding
  • @Sosan, you have a fundamental misunderstanding of this Preview. So much so, it hurts my head. The big technical achievement in this preview is something you do not see: Microsoft has the same core OS running on PC, tablets and Phone. The fact you throw your hands up and exclaim "that's it?" is truly breathtakingly naive. The UI changes and improvements are still coming. This preview is about the foundation of the OS.
  • @Daniel That is what MS keep saying, but I don't see the level of unification on mobile and PC. What I am trying to say is Apple can say they have the unification on iOS and Mac too.
  • "Apple can say they have the unification on iOS and Mac too."
    Umm, no they can't. Apps written for OSX are different than on iOS. Just because YOU do not see something does not mean it is the other party's fault. I don't understand String theory. That doesn't mean it is wrong either.
  • Actually most physicists regard string theory as "junk" science, not unlike wacky postings regarding Apple's unification system or lack therof. Just tell the OP to check ot the very limited number of apps available to OSX.   
  • @Daniel Well obviously you are right, but I can kinda relate to what the argument is ACTUALLY all about... It's about disappointment.. We all love Microsoft, we all love Windows Phone and we would really, really love to see, our favourite OS overtake and kick the butt of Android and Apple. The FACT is that after all these years and years and all these radical changes and enhancements WINDOWS PHONE IS STILL PLAYING CATCH-UP and still not even making any real ground on it's competition. the FACT is that Microsoft is still struggling to give their user base something that Android and Apple took far less time in figuring out! We want Windows Phone on top but I think I speak for alot of people here when I say Microsoft is doing an amazing job at it... They are just taking too long and wasting too much time on implementation....
  • Man I tell you its frustrating
  • So because Apple has a minority desktop device share compared to windows, does that mean in your eyes that it is a fact that apple are playing catchup?
  • When it comes to desktop, of course they are!! That is obvious! It is any companies goal to reach the top and sell their product to the highest amount of consumers and until they reach that goal, pertaining to a certain product or service they are trailing the leader and playing catch up... Problem is that WP is a far, far...., FAR 3rd place and in the last 3 years they haven't made any real progress in this regard concerning a global effort!
  • People can't really see the bigger picture of Windows 10. That's what's disappointing. Posted via my HTC One M7
  • Are you talking about that huge thing called a surface hub... Not all of us can afford that! LOL!!! (joke)
  • Really?? Since when?
  • That's the fundamental misunderstanding Daniel is talking about. smh
  • What apple has is not unification. It is synchroniztion, the ability to get data such as phone calls, texts, web pages, on another devices by synching the data through a cloud server. Microsoft has some of these abilities too as does Google. They don't have the ability to answer a call on a tablet yet. However, I doubt that is a feature many will use. I know my wife asked me to turn it off.  What Microsoft will have once windows 10 goes live is the ability to run an app on any device, with just the UI changing to adjust for the different screen sizes, and the data will also sync from that app. I think this is a much bigger deal than synchronization and it should bring in a lot more developers to the platform.
  • To do this, you need to have universal apps, there are very few of these. Hopefully they will increase, but I think it will be slow progress.
  • You undervalue the convenience which Apple is offering its users with the synchronization of Handoff, in my opinion. I salivate over the prospect of being able to send and receive calls and text messages at my desk via my PC. I have requested this feature in every section of Windows Feedback where it seems even slightly appropriate. I'm all in with the Microsoft ecosystem (four Lumia devices, two Surface tablets, and a desktop PC), and I love their vision for unification across all devices, but I will be extremely dispapointed - to the point of contemplating defection - if they don't offer a Handoff-like functionaliy within the Microsoft ecosystem. These is absolutely zero reason not to. Imagine the scenario where you are sitting on your couch, browing they web on your SP3. All of a sudden a text message, intiated by your Lumia sitting just out of reach on the coffee table, pops up right there on your tablet. You quickly type out a response without moving an inch. Fantastic! If Microsoft fails to implement this type of synchronization, you will have to get up, put down your tablet, pick up your phone to check and reply to the incoming text, put the phone back down, and pick up your Surface. That's a lot of damn work, and I'm too lazy for it! Seriously, though, the former scenario is so much easier and more desirable. If it works right, it's a big deal, and will feel much more like the future than Microsoft's OS unificiation. In my opinion, at least.
  • I would love to see handoff-like feature in Windows 10
  • I think that's something MS touched upon during the Jan 22nd event. I suspect this is something they have planned but haven't revealed yet. Like you said, there is no reason for them NOT to implement such a feature, given that it is more likely to succeed than Apple's HandOff simply because there are more people using Windows PCs than those using Macs.
  • Agreed Posted via the Windows Phone Central App for Android
  • Lol you have a flawed understanding of ios and mac too! You are very wrong.
  • It is more than toggles. It is more of the backhand changes that makes 10 the biggest update of Windows. You will see more apps coming out that gets updates faster. You will see individual core elements of the OS get updated faster since an OS update wouldn't be required as now the core elements are APPS. Universal apps. Ever heard of calculator getting updated with more conversion features or new UI? W10 gets this done. And this is the first build for God's sake. There is Spartan coming, interactive live tiles(maybe), and lot more. What about actionable notifications? New tile sizes, new background?
    I think OTG will definitely come in future builds and so will WiFi Direct (no news about this yet)
    And the fact that this is a technical preview and not a consumer preview clearly tells that we are far off from the actual OS. And tbh, 8.1 was released an year ago and it was a substantial jump from 8(I'm talking about WP all the time here) Posted via the Windows Phone Central App for Android
  • Exactly, those refinements are the last piece to come.
  • If it were the same OS, we would have multi-user instead of kids corner. We would have networking support. Also, the start screen and personalization options are much different. IMO, Win10 on phones is a marketing gag to tell a wider audience about the status quo: Universal apps.
  • As people said before... Windows 10 on computers didn't have nearly as much as it does now. No notification center (It borrowed the Charms menu from Windows 8), no Cortana, etc... Windows 10 on phones it's the same... It literally JUST came out dude... Its going to have the same path, its just "borrowing" the Kids corner as a temporary thing from Win8, untill it has multiple users implemented, just like Win10 on PCs did with the charms menu....
  • You haven't done any software development, don't you? If kids corner is present in W10P, then it basically means they forked the last WP8 build, not W10. If that is the case, we still have two OS implementations. It's easy as that.
  • @daniel: i think you should calme down a little bit especially as an editor. it's you and microsoft who are asking for the people's opinion! and i think feedback is a good thing in the technical prview stage... and honestly: i think a lot of people are right to make certain points (in order to get the desired result at the end of the develpment process. My opinion: so far i can't see any huge progress between windows phone 7/8 and windows 10 regarding certain ui elements (start screen apart from background image, most core apps, logscreen, etc.). and i really hope that we will see more ui refreshment in the upcoming builds as win 10 looks outdated imho compared to its rivals... and people don't really care if there are under the hood changes (as there were between wp7 and wp8). developers might care if we are lucky...
  • MS were pretty clear on stating the fact that this build of Windows 10 for phones is more about testing the foundation of the OS. They said they have not released most of the UI changes in this build.
  • The fact remains that MS is sloooooooow. Tirvial features such as vibrate+ring is missing in a WP phone. A feature that's present in feature phones. When there's a call, the phone only vibrates once. Consequently, using a WP in a noisy environment leads to missed calls cos there will be no way to distinguish a call from an IM alert. You may decide to ignore some IMs instead of always bringing out your phone at every vibration, but doing that leads to a higher risk of missing a call. There are several other trivial features missing in WP 'smartphones'.
  • And to get this early Technical Preview ( god knows when it will be Alpha) I have to wait another month on my L1520.
  • Life is super hard, right? Imagine that, you have to wait a month to see an OS on your phone that is not set for release for like anther 5 months. The suffering involved is unbearable.
  • I think its funny how ppl expect everything to be done in a couple hours. im not a OS writer or anything likely, but I expect things to take a while to do. I want a good product not a fast finished one. People seems to never be happy with what they got!
  • This is exactly what happens with me on my robotics team. They get 5 and a half weeks (2 weeks more than they were supposed to get) to build the thing, but the second it's done the programming better be perfect and finished in an instant, because heaven forbid we take 10 extra minutes! People just don't understand that programming takes time, too, and it's not just typing!
  • We are talking about a Beta build not a RTM or GA grade one.....  
  • What do you think about an august release....can i be confident of that?
  • I think we should all expect Fall 2015.
  • I guess people still don't understand what a Technical Preview is. They expect this to be a fully functional OS build. They still can't wrap their heads around the fact that Windows 10 is still in active development phase, and not in support phase.
  • So, you imply there is nothing worthwhile but are pissed because you can't get it?
  • "The food is terrible and the portions are too small". :P
  • Tis a good time to share a laugh about MS, 10, and the 1520
    ..
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3nXHAQa-gQ&sns=em
  • Funny as hell!!! :)
  • Ye are welcome, it is funny.
  • The real truth is that Microsoft's board of directors are all hooked on a radical new form of LSD and tripping out on holograms.... They are spending all their R&D budget on Hololens and Holograms and gave Windows Phone as a time waster hobbyist project to a couple of intern exchange students. Getting high and trippin balls on holographs seems to be the fetish of Microsofts leadership right now..... LoL (Just a silly joke guys :)
  • Well, I got a pretty good laugh. Wouldn't be surprised if it was true though.
  • It is funny. I want everybody to see it just for the comical part.
  • And the funny part of that is, Microsoft don't even know what a hologram is... lol ;-)
  • "Alpha"? It's not certain whether there will be an alpha or a beta phase at all.
  • What do you care? You're just going to bitch and moan one way or the other. Spare us your personality disorder, nobody here takes your insignificant twaddle seriously.
  • "1st world problems" huh?
  • I don't how much that affected your life. As for me, I am fine even without the Windows 10, and now that first it was announced, and then now it is being used by other people on their phones as preview, at least I can see it coming, so there something for me to be excited. But whether it comes or not or maybe late, my life should go on.
  • Exactly wtf were they doing this whole time?
  • I don't know, unifying their desktop and mobile operating systems? Give me a break...
  • i think ! it is a bit annoying , that time spent developing and the changes are small.. but Does microsoft has more features already done but not included in the build for more testing ? if not so what a long time for small change !! i assume they payed much attention to the desktop version ! 
    but to give a credit .. no other platform offer that kind of OS updates that early with that type of interactions with the customers ! so if i am in other platform i will have to wait complete year to get an update !
  • Learn English, BoB. Or write in your own language and we will use Bing Translator - we would understand more that way, than trying to decipher your comment here.
  • Learn o.O Mr.Mikelo90 you didn't get the idea behind my comment this doesn't mean My English is bad! Why didn't you think that you couldn't figure it out even serendipitous . Do I have to write in formal grammatical language! Dude life is too short for these kind of stuff!
    Anyway .. This is Off Topic :/ I'm eloquent to hear topic-related stuff!
  • If you couldn't understand that then YOU are the one needing English lessons! Go learn 2 more languages then you come back here with some much needed perspective and hopefully some respect also!
  • Preach..
  • Although it is a good technical achievement, I can't see it making a blind bit of difference for that moment when a person walks into a shop and chooses a phone...
    There is very little improvement from WP8.1 > 10 in terms of what is going to attract a prospective customer.
    MS needs to chuck everything they have at Windows Phone (and that includes replying to customer's who have genuine grievances - such as those of us with 1020/925 phones that constantly freeze).
    There has got to be something more - something truly exceptional. Maybe the 1040 will herald a change in the public perception of Windows Phone. Perhaps it'll be that halo device that gives the whole platform a much needed shot in the arm.
    I hope so.
  • This is laying the ground work for that to happen.  Also keep in mind that Windows 10 for phone likely won't be out for another 6 months or more.  They are still adding features to every version of Windows 10.  Several people seem to think they need to do something dramatic to get adoption.  I don't see it that way, and I don't think Microsoft does either.  Windows 10 adoption on the desktop is key.  If they can get the type of success from Windows 10 that they did from 7, developers will put a lot more time in developing for the OS.  The number of PCs with Windows exceeds the number of devices with iOS.  Those devices will give MS the numbers to get developers to create apps for Windows 10.  Universal apps will help them bridge the gap between desktop/tablet, phone, and xbox.  If a developer creates a Windows 10 app for desktop, they already have the incentive to make it compatible for phone and xbox since most of the work for the other platforms is already done.  MS is trying to improve on that too by making 100% of the universal app code compatible with all Windows 10 devices.  A unified OS is the foundation for that. Once they have the apps, they will finally be competing on a level playing field.  People will start choosing their product based on functionality and eco-system rather than app support, and MS already competes well in those two areas.
  • Maybe adding the retail screensaver to settings? You know, when you walk into a carrier store and every phone has a video advertisement playing in a loop until you tap the screen? A lot of customers pay attention to those little nuances. Time to add some Zazz to this OS, Microsoft.
  • but but but you just had a break :)
  • Daniel I'm sorry but if this is the direction they're going its all bad the only great things I see were the new browser,the giant live tile square,speech to text,interactive fast messaging and the keyboard MS fanboys are to becoming like Apple praise any bs they bring out come on man this platform is turning into crapdroid I'm a passionate WP user ever since the first release of the HTC HD7 in 2011 on the first day I bought because I feel in love with how beautiful the OS now they're killing it instead of improving it they seem like they're losing alot of focus because they don't which way to go right now
  • Microsoft asked us for feedback and if the feedback is very negative we hear a lot of excuses from all sites (even from the media). A Technical Preview isn't the final version but it also isn't an internal alpha build. It is meant to showcase the direction and to get feedback. If "unifying their desktop and mobile operating systems" is their (only) major goal, this may be a disaster for their mobile business. In the real world, nobody cares if an app or a system is "unified" with another platform. What matters are features, the specific experience on specific devices and apps. Until now, Microsoft wasn't able to show *why* unified systems are a good thing, it may only save developers a little work. But we have seen that the mobile experience (read: touch) may get worse on tablets and phones with Windows 10. Rewriting everything from the built-in apps, the browser to the core of the system takes time and resources, yes, but will there be real-world benefits?
  • Though I am hoping for the best in the end, I share your apprehensions. I agree with you that the changes we have seen so far from both previews have only served to make the touch experience worse on phones and tablets. Not the direction we should be seeing. Mobile is the future (present), right? The changes we have seen to the touch interfaces on our Windows phones and tablets make using them unneecssarily more complicated and time -consuming. It makes me want to use them less. This is not good. Let's see, which is a more user-friendly UI: a menu button on the top left corner of your cell phone's screen, or a menu button on the bottom right hand corner? Well, considering the vast majority of people in the world are right-handed, I would have to say the bottom right location is far more ideal for one-handed phone operation. Every change I have seen has hurt the touch-based mbile experince in wasy similar to this scenario. The loss of swipe from left to cycle apps, the loss of the Charms bar, et cetera. I am sad.
  • I hope the user feedback is letting MS know it's not okay to put the menus up top on the wrong side of the screen. Many elements of a universal app need to adjust to screen size, and the placement of the menu needs to be one of the adjustable things, not hardcoded at the top for all devices. It's okay on PCs, annoying on tablets, and showstopping on phones. Universal apps are only a good idea if the app can adapt to the current device better than we've seen so far.
  • The real-world benefits is that going forward they only need to do everything once, instead of making several versions. Like they made zune, then xbox music native for windows, xbox music app for win 8, then xbox music app for wp8.1, and all the while they keep making the same thing repeatedly instead of getting one version right. Now they can focus on making each app not suck only once per app, and they can be consistent by just having the one app to update.
  • @daniel: do people care?!
  • @t.cross I ask what where you doing all this time? hmm? Since your so-uber-capable why don't you try to design, code, compile, test and reiterate an entire o/s for a vast array of devices? If I had a penny for every single entitled post, I would happily retire to the bahamas after buying the entire region.
  • Well said, I can't believe the level of entitlement some people show here! Despite Daniel's repeated explanations, some people feel building and supporting an OS ecosystem on the scale of W10's ambition is like maybe writing "hello world" and compiling. It's so exhausting reading many silly comments here. Has any of the detractors written mission critical software of millions of lines of codes and libraries for a living? Supporting nearly infinite platforms and form factors from phones to big screens to gaming consoles???
    No other OS on the planet even comes close to what MS is aiming for with W10! Pls give them a break!!
  • I'm actually going to school for software programming because windows phone 7 inspired me alot
  • Working obviously. The bottom line is that's its going to be a long long time before WP10 is ready.
  • A whole lot more than you are doing commenting on a tech blog, instead of working. Just look at the developement of teh other OSes. IOS didn't have cut & paste in the beginning. It took over a year to add that feature. It didn't have a notification center. They got siri by buying the software from another company. Google bought android from another company and each year only has fairly minor improvements that have added up over time. Microsoft just started 2 years late. However, I think they pretty much caught up as far as the OS is concerned. They are only lacking in developer support and hopefully unifying the OS will get them on board.
  • Unfortunately either most people's memory doesn't span that far back or they have "conveniently" forgotten. Since they keep harping on about it didn't take Apple / Google "that" long to get to where they are; as if it happened over night...
  • When WP 7 came out the OS did not have Copy/Paste as well, when MS added a Notification Centre? While I personally like what I am seeing running W10 on some of my devices, it is a work in progress so I will wait for the RTM Build to express an opinion. Said that while i like the "concepts" behind" WP as far as OS functionalities and fexibilities go I still find, personal opinion of course, WM 6.5 was by far superior.  
  • OK, let's go into some history. Windows Phone 7 launched with a development model based around Silverlight. Silverlight was the eventual branding for what was originally Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere (WPF/E), a cut-down version of WPF which was originally code-named Avalon back in the Longhorn era. WPF was powerful but not very efficient. It was designed by Developer Division. When developing Windows 8's Modern app mode - Windows Runtime - the Windows team had a bad case of Not-Invented-Here syndrome. WPF was used as inspiration but the Windows team decided it was just too inefficient and too hard for C/C++ developers to use. They also used it as an opportunity to clean up the more erroneous and error-prone parts of the .NET Framework, and to generally make the platform easier to develop for if you were starting from scratch. That decision doomed Windows 8 to start life from a completely blank slate, very few apps in the store at launch. Writing a new operating system API is hard work. Apple took five years for Mac OS X 'Cocoa' and they started from OpenStep which had been in development for 10. To get a leg up, the Windows 8 team used lots of the features that were already in the big pile of libraries that ship with/make up Windows 7, collectively usually called 'Win32'. However, Win32 isn't well-factored at all, lots of things depend on each other, which resulted in the Surface RT tablets shipping with only 15GB free of their 32GB built-in storage. The aim for Windows Phone 8 was primarily to replace the lowest levels of the system, moving from using Windows CE as a base to using the Windows 8 kernel, and from .NET Compact Framework to CoreCLR, the core of the desktop .NET Framework and of the desktop version of Silverlight. The challenge was just making that fit and be compatible with WP7 applications, while adopting as much of Windows Runtime as possible. They only managed to achieve use of WinRT for everything except the user interface - they would have had to rewrite all of the Windows Runtime code to remove the Win32 dependency, or sort out the Win32 dependencies to just include the necessary bits, and they just didn't have time. Windows Phone 8.1 basically sorts out much of that dependency mess. I'm not sure how much was rewritten and how much was ported, but WP8.1 manages to deliver WP7 Silverlight, WP8 Silverlight, WP8.1 Silverlight and Windows Runtime stacks in under 2GB. You can now use Windows Runtime for the user experience, but there are still some concepts that are different - for example, app bars work completely differently between Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1. In the mean time, Windows 8.1 also moved on so really WP8.1 was chasing a moving target. While the Windows Runtime - or large chunks of it - are common between WP8.1 and Windows 8.1, the built-in apps are quite different. A few things, like the phone dialer and the email app, still have their origins in Windows Phone 7 code, where they were written in native code rather than Silverlight for performance reasons. These are, I believe, becoming proper apps in Windows 10 so that they can be updated through the store and (where necessary) share their code with Windows 10 for large tablets. We can already see that Settings is the same code between Windows 10 for phone and Windows 10 for desktop, although many of the actual settings apps are still inherited from WP8.1. These big platform shifts are what have consumed most of Microsoft's time. The UI and the built-in apps are something of an afterthought, because the team have been trying to stabilise the lower levels before committing too much time to the top. That was the mistake they made with Longhorn, trying to do too much at once - it made app developers very unproductive because they never knew whether bugs they were hitting were their own errors, or bugs in the lower levels. That's why Windows 8 shipped with a very thin PC Settings app, with most of the settings still in the legacy Control Panel, and while Windows 8.1 has more in PC Settings, you still have to go to Control Panel for others. Windows 10 should have everything in PC Settings except for legacy plug-ins like Flash or Java.
  • Exactly 8.1 wow they need more of those lol windows 10.1 massive overhaul smh....as long as they do it again hopefully not before everybody hates it already lmao
  • I truly do not understand what you are trying to say. =/
  • And make it so Windows for Desktop store/metro apps run on the phone, and redo the kernel model again, and basically take win10 for desktop and cram it down to work on 512MB-1GB devices. You know, no big deal. What does it take to make some people happy?
  • Either I am failing to explain this to certain people in our audience or the naivete of the internet age is rearing its head. Clearly people are missing the point here possibly due to the inability to comprehend.
  • Daniel, your explanations have been flawless thus far. THANK YOU for continuing to update us on this, no matter what the trolls say. Honestly, I do not want Windows 10 TP on my Lumia Icon right now. From what I hear, it could brick my phone and it is extremely buggy. So I'll happily wait for a later build. In the mean time, I will just be glad that Microsoft has allowed us a window into their OS development process and HAS LISTENED TO OUR FEEDBACK unlike various other fruity or open-source companies.
  • Personally I do not find it buggy at all; it is running on a 920, a 1520 and a 920 and so far I had no issues whatsoever. Actually, and this is very surprising, it seems a little bit quicker and battery usage is either the same as with 8.1 or no more than 5% higher.
  • Daniel the issue with this is that it's Microsoft doing it. Had apple done or even attempted something like this it would make perfect sense to everyone. They look toward apple to see what's next or what should be done, meanwhile the concept of ACTUAL innovation runs right past them.
  • spot on
  • What's happening is the deepening entitlement and general crappiness of the current Windows Central community. Nothing is good enough, everything is rubbish or ugly or unfinished or unfair or whatever.
  • Agreed. It's hard to please people over here
  • Expand WC community to world and you'll be in the right ballpark
  • No, I think you're explaining it well Daniel. Some will always miss the point - or at least seem to because their wants outweigh their capacity to understand or concede a point. I am nervous though, about the platform as a whole. There is a feeling that this is the last shot at trying to gain momentum in the mobile / phone space. If I can feel it, I'm sure others can as well. The feeling is somewhat bone-chilling
  • Daniel, you already made a good explanation to it. You're awesome (even though I personally know those facts). Thank you anyways. People jus like to complain to complain for no logical reasons.
  • Daniel I've been on windows central for 2 years. And in that time I've seen you go from calm replies to replies that scream of frustration and frankly i don't blame you. The amount of stupidity on this website has grown exponentially in these 2 years. The fact that your still able to do this without using the f words is astounding. Hats off to you.
  • I'm glad 1520 doesn't have TP just yet, as the delay reminded me not to use on my daily driver handset. I'll only use pre release software on my 1520 when we are near the official public release. Its so annoying to read so much impatience in peoples comments.
  • If you do not like Betas... do not use them, fair enough. And yes what we are talking about here is software Beta grade not DP grade.
  • This isn't even beta. Beta testing is done after completion to find bugs that couldn't be detected at the alpha stage. Here we have a list of unfixed bugs and unfinished features. This is somewhere between alpha and beta. The fact that Microsoft is allowing access to this is great. People should just stop complaining and not use it if they don't like it.
  • Dead wrong... Features are added, removed and modified during Beta stages...
  • Your company must follow a different type of beta testing. Cause during my four years of studying computer engineering and three as a software developer I've always had the understanding that beta testing is done completed products not things that are under development. Atleast that's how we do it at my company.
  • No, not "my company; the company i work for does not make software. What I am referring to is my personal experience as a beta tester, which began testing XTree Gold; furthermore I was specifically referring to how Microsoft ran its, at the time, Private Beta program. The first prgram I was enrolled in was Windows 95, code name Chicago, and I kept testing both software and hardware for it till that megalomaniac of Sinofsky destroyed it because his ego was unable to deal with anybody who was not a yes-men.
  • If you don't know how to write software or how software is written in general then you need to go away
    Just....go far far away
    And die.
    Thank you.
  • I know the basics of software development. Today I saw the risk of the HACK and decided to wait for the update and later then I got this news that I have to wait for a month to get the W10 update.
  • You know the basics so just keep quiet. There is a full unification of the OS for not just phones but Xbox etc. as well. It's MUCH more than software development, it's layouts, function, familiarity, making sure it's convenient on any device used and MUCH more; everything needs to feel unified in order for their vision to happen and for us to enjoy and appreciate their ecosystem even more. This build is a tech preview, so changes are still bound to come and it's logical for MS not to show newer features on a tech preview considering competition is watching closely. Be glad MS is even giving us the option to be testers rather than wait till final build. I dont have it installed and dont plan on installing it yet because ive decided to wait for a more finished product such as dev preview but I appreciate that MS has given us the freedom to test and give feedback. Top put it simply sosan, this is by no means a final build, it's more like the skeleton they are evolving.
  • Not that you'd be impressed when you got it anyway judging by your earlier comments
  • You have to wait one month for a software that you are not supposed to get. No other company apart from microsoft is even trying to involve general consumers  at this level........Try to appriciate the hard work...and when you get it in near future, try to provide some positive feedback instead of just pointing out how buggy it is....
  • Still months before everyone else, oh the horror.
  • With people who bitch and moan about these Technical Previews I am surprised that we even get them. You realize Microsoft does not have to do this? They could be like most companies and not even release these to the public! We are so lucky to love Windows Phone enough and have a company developing it that is even willing to announce features this early! So how about you don't complain about a Technical Preview?
  • Let us be straight here: MS releases these Builds because it wants feedback and realized that those telemetry algorithms that Sinofsky laoved and bragged so much.... were not so accurate after all.
  • So? They still don't have to release them to the general public! They could make it availible to developers only, or to a select amount, but they're awesoem and do this.
  • What developers have to do with this? The feedback now comes from potential buyers and this is what MS needs to avoid another OS with very low adoption.
  • Downvote
  • Maybe there's more..we don't know.
  • There's a hell of a lot more to Windows 10 than just those two features. Not quite sure what point you're trying to make, but it doesn't come across very well.
  • Take a look at the forum post on new features. Or keep looking like an idiot. I'm guessing you'll choose the latter.
  • -635
  • I can't believe you appear to have such a flawed understanding of the changes in Windows 10 for phones
  • My big problem is that they release a video online, on the day of the Technical Preview's release, with Joe Belfiore showing off a number of exciting new apss and features (new Calendar, Powerpoint, Excel, Word, Office, et cetera) that are NOT in the initial build. This was absolutely senseless. I'm not mad that we don't have these things yet, I realize it all takes time. But there is absolutely no reason to show off these features in a video that launced alongside the prieview if they weren't going to be a part of it. Sure, I didn't have to do it, but I ordered a Lumia 635 (which I absolutely didn't need - it's my fourth existing Lumia device) immediately after viewing this video, so excited was I to play with all of these new features. I was pretty upset when I installed the preview on my new phone and found almost all of the new features I had been expecting were completely absent. Honest, a part of me wonders if they didn't orchestarte all of this to spike sales of these six devices. I am annoyed.
  • And sound recorder. And a better calculator. And conversions. And stopwatch and timer apps. And a much more intuitive Action Centre. Did I mention the new Start Screen and Photos app? Those are new too.
  • I can see both sides of this: On the one hand, this is a very early stage of the build process. Much is changing behind the scenes to bring parity to the process of developing apps. While this is largely invisible to the end user ("What's in it for me?") it has the potential to bring the widespread adoption, aka popularity, from Windows for the PC to boost Windows Phone's success from its distant third place currently. It also sidesteps the chicken/egg issue of how do you get users without apps? But how do you get apps without users? Etc. Making it easy to port over apps built for PCs means a much needed boost in available apps. That is benefit one to the end user. Benefit two is that wider acceptance of the platform means more support from places like carriers offering more options for phones, and third party apps more likely to spread beyond the current two-platform offerings. This whole preview is to vet out the viability of this new OS in as many varying environments of hardware as possible so that it is ready for primetime, ready to achieve the potential I wrote about above. On the other hand, I do understand the frustration. When the change from Windows 8.0/8.1 to 10 is so impressive, this can feel disappointing. There are reasons for that, of course, not the least of which being that the desktop OS is farther along in development, and also that it is much more vital to Microsoft's bottom line. Things like an ever-present taskbar, better app switching, Continuum, Spartan, integration of the Start Screen into the Start Button for a singular OS experience are not only impressive, but so on-the-mark, that they're practically clairvoyant on Microsoft's part. To then hear, you might get a couple different sized tiles when the latest greatest OS finally gets here--if we approve it, is quite disappointing. Moving the background photo from the tiles to the background behind the tiles is another lateral move. As a group, WP users have offered up some really great suggestions and concepts, so by contrast, what we can see so far is rather underwhelming. As was stated earlier, the comments to that effect should be taken as FEEDBACK rather than complaining, as this is exactly what Microsoft is seeking. There are definitely certain features we have been requesting for a long time, features with tens or hundreds of thousands of upvotes that are still missing, so it is hard to get excited about toggles. There are some things which are noteworthy, such as the joystick cursor button on the keyboard, which if it works as advertised, leapfrogs the competition. And the addition (finally) of a timer. I hope that Daniel is correct in his assessment that we have barely seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of improvements to the coming OS. I really hope to see a lot more of the customizability from the desktop on the phones, and much more rapid response to user requests. That said, it is a understatement to say that it is highly premature to forsake the OS at this early stage.
  • Why people r so dump??
  • dump ?  that's dumb....
  • Is this been released by ATT for 1020?
  • What? Why would AT&T be releasing an OS beta build for the 1020?
  • Hmm, preview for developers!!
  • Yes! Well, this is most likely sometime around //BUILD/, but I hope they release new tools too hopefully with less limitations toward the WP OS.
  • Double long tiles don't look good I believe..
  • Why not? I can see how some apps could use it beautifully, we have learned that every option it's good as long it's an option
  • Agreed. Long-Tiles are perfect for News apps, Calendar apps, Note taking apps, Fitness apps and so on.
    It would be a shame to remove this Tile-size as it def. can be put to good use.
  • They look ridiculous. Their only practical use I can think of at the moment is some calendar app tile showing a list of appointments. But then the WP calendar tile sucks at the moment
  • Yeah, it only shows one appointment at a time in v8.1. Should definitely get better in v10.
  • I really like it for the People app :)
  • We need multiple start screens ...swipe left or right and have more, like ios and android. Then each screen could have a category name like 'social' or 'dashboard'. I hate having a super long vertical screen.
  • +1020! We should be able to swipe right for more start screens. I don't want to have to chuck all my apps into a folder just to make things fit.
  • No way. What device are you using?
  • That completely defeats the purpose of the start screen
  • Agreed
  • Agreed, don't be Google.
  • The whole point of the start screen is so you don't have to swipe. Yes they could add groups, but we already have start screen folders.
    Maybe they could add groups like Windows 8.1/10
  • Some of us find it easy having one column of apps than swiping left right trying to reach something
  • iOS and Android have no app list. In WP, I would consider this an anti-pattern.
  • @TonyR - Interesting idea. While I don't mind scrolling down on my start screen, having the option of multiple start screens could be useful. Perhaps similar to multiple desktops; one for work and the other personal.
  • So you;d much rather have a super wide horizontal screen instead? No. This is windows phone. The vertical layout is part of the DNA of what windows phone is. Its core design principle. Want horizontal? Then go to see the other two guys.
  • vertical scrolling only isnt windows dna or what about vertical AND horizontal scrolling in windows 8/10 desktop?! just give people an option to have a secondary/third, etc. screen when swiping to the left
  • The app design ethos on Windows Phone is horizontal....yet the start screen is vertical.
    Why not have a horizontal start screen layout option. I don't want to hide all my apps away inside folders on the start screen. I want to have 3 or 4 'start' screens dedicated to particular functions (social/entertainment/office/camera).
  • totally agree! its fast to swipe left/right than to scroll all the way down. and grouping would make everything less messed (more space) and more clearly arranged. and just give us the option to do it...
  • Ok how about a smaller tile, then we can go back to the "less tiles" look.
  • I think they are great
  • What about changing the UI of the hamburger menu, to be fully colored, or has a gesture?
  • Or at least change the icon to be an actual hamburger. So delicious.
  • That 1x/month builds tweet was about PC !! Not sure if it relates to phone !
  • False. Context of the tweet was all about Windows Phone, specifically Lumia 1520 and partition stitching issue.
  • I read your comment, but picturing you as Dwight from The Office.
  • What's ur hurry, man? Can't u wait, it will be released soon enough..
  • Please
  • I installed it on my 620 snd faced nothing major so far!
  • If ew didn't get it wrong luckily doesn't means everyone will get it right.. So plzzz stop misleading..
  • What? The guy just said that he had no problems after installing it on his 620, presumably after using the recently publicised hack. How is that statement of fact misleading anybody?
  • You people have a very bad grammar I guess? I clearly said "NOTHING MAJOR" so far.m, which means there are bugs. First get your facts right idiots!
  • It has not been released for 620.YET. stop this non sense -_-
  • he used the hack you see, probably not trolling.
  • You did not keep up with the latest news, did you? A hint: XDA......
  • Really?
  • Yeah, really, look it up on xda.
  • On my 920 i cant see any resuming screen any more.even in this early version
  • The blue screen that you see when you open an app? That's the resuming/loading screen. So it's still happening.
  • Actually I do not see it but, as usual when delaing with Beta software, users experience, even on same hardware, can greatly differ.
  • Same on my 730. No resuming screen. Not even for the Xbox music. A little thing that not many noticed..
  • Just wait a month until the next update. Then don't come running here if your phone gets bricked
  • Why he should come here if his device get bricked? plenty of wanna be Solon here.... XDA would be my first choice.
  • All I'm saying is that he can't say we didn't warn him
  • " don't come running here if your phone gets bricked" is what I am commenting about....
  • And that's what I replied to you about :)
    That's what u meant. That windows central warned against doing the hack so if something goes wrong don't say we didn't warn you.
    It's like a figure of speech
  • Yay how many times are you going to say the same thing! I did it on my own risk and will not blame anyone if something goes wrong. Retards.
  • Hey chill man I was just explaining to geminus what I meant. That second content wasn't meant for you, clearly. And go clean your mouth with soap.
  • I hope the next build works on my 1520.   Some of the sizing issues (dialer) with the 635 dont seem like they'd be a problem on the 1520.
  • Silverlight apps????I didn't understand this......
  • Then do not be concerned about it.
  • There you go danny boy
  • The wise words of our Editor-in-Chief :)
  • THAT WAS RUDE @DANIEL ........I WAS CURIOUS TO KNOW ABOUT IT
  • Then go look it up. Jesus, some people...
  • Indeed! Plenty of born already knowledgeable people here....
  • Here: This video will help: http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2014/2-550
  • *upvote* That's good you are using your keyboard to help others than showing rudeness.
  • Or you know, heaven forbid somebody might actually type google.com into their browser, followed by words such as: silverlight apps on windows phone. Why does everybody have to be spoon-fed these days. Geez...
  • Windows Phone 8.1 apps basically.
  • WP8 apps, primarily, actually. 8.1 adopted WinRT for majority of the apps except some camera lenses. Silverlight is kind of slowly getting killed off.
  • I wish they kill it right away and
    step by step increase the API as Pure (my View) 
    The OS should have more open functionality than any
    Windows Mobile 6 / WP7 / WP8 xap API *EVER* had
    Include Full color choices for the UI elements ( warning for white/white )
    Include Full Font choices, too.
    Let 3rd party to do Themes & download directly as Test Mode
    then if everything seems ok, Apply permanently
    and have Factory UI Reset / Previous restore Customize, customize, customize - Yeah - the Start Screen is already nice! <3
  • There may be an issue with third party themes/fonts... Viruses. So I imagine they won't do that. They stopped doing desktop gadgets for Windows 7 because some people were putting viruses in them
  • If they kill it right away, most of the apps for WP will stop working. Don't be stupid.
  • W10 = kill - Kill - KILL !!
    WP8.x = Keep it
    but that's just me :-( Developers have ½ year time to add support or leave
    I say leave!
    Why?
    You are not a serious developer
    if you don't regularly update your product anyway
    You can do it easily in three months (or three weeks)
    BUT
    I have to admit that there's no replacement right now :-(
  • Windows phone 8.1 did a good job in bringing new features that's avaiable in competition platform, but it does a poor job having a universal UI for the OS itself. It's not consistent enough for a user like me in having differen UI for different apps when it's not needed. 
  • Whatever it is... I jus want windows 10 for phone to b feature rich and classy..
  • And it must be battery efficient.
  • or use very daringly 50% bigger batteries!
  • It's decent on battery on my Lumia 635
  • That is a VERY good sign.
  • Outlook apps are the main reason I purchased a 635 and installed this in the first place only to find out they weren't included in the preview. I'm anxious to experience the new email and calendar apps specifically...
  • Nice
  • Me too
  • Same here. Hopefully soon, but judging by the article context, maybe not the next build. Patience is all I've got.
  • Yup. So far though the Calendar app looks like its going to look like slice of the PC view... Hopefully not all of the elegance of the current calendar gets sacrificed.
  • Are the new office apps available?
  • Windows 10 for Lumia 1320
  • O thanks for telling that you own a 1320.
  • lol
  • "roughly" /s
  • What about other Lumias? My 1520 :(
  • It'll come. Be patient.
  • Another piece of information from Gabe is that apps like Music and Podcasts will get UX changes in future builds which may bring them closer to the design of the OneDrive and Pictures apps: https://mobile.twitter.com/GabeAul/status/567705321536106498
  • More Hamburger menus? Ugh!
  • In other words, my HTC one m8 won't get the preview until June
  • Now we need some killer hardware to get this moving. Microsoft should have done an 8.1.1 flagship for holiday '14.
  • It was called McLaren but it was cancelled. You cannot just cancel a flagship phone and make another in 2 months.
  • So in other words, they didn't do what I think they should have done. They sank their teeth into something they couldn't handle and blew it as far as promotion was concerned. Enter holding pattern for about a year.
  • When Microsoft bought Nokia mobile, they had to realign their hardware roadmaps. Things got axed for various reasons. Unfortunate? Certainly. But also probably a good decision if the ambitious hardware was just not there yet.
  • Microsoft needs a flag ship phone with a name and a number. For instance Icon. We know iPhone is in 6, Samsung Galaxy is in 5, etc. Then you can have other models of course. Excuse me for my english.
  • My guess:
    MacLaren with re-emerge in June at the Windows 10 launch !!
    Wise & daring decision to push the Flagship until the W10 introduction!
  • They didn't need to reinvent the wheel. They could have chucked the 930 internals into a 1020 body, add in a micro-SD card, and given us all a reason to stick with the platform.
    It is risible that Microsoft have focussed so heavily on the budget end of things, entirely at the expense of the high end...
    It isn't the 520 users that sell this platform. It's those of us with top end phones who can wow our friends with particular features.
    A company as big as Microsoft shouldn't have to axe a flagship. They could have adapted it...
    But anyway, I hope the next flagship is worth the weight. No silly compromises...just a great phone.
  • If they did that to the 1020, the whole of the wp community would have complained that they released the same phone nearly 4 times. Lumia 1520, icon, 930 and now 1030? With the same internals? Na. If anything I think it was a wise choice to hold back until w10. Rumour has it that the next flagship launching this year is supposed to have snapdragon 810.
    Looking forward
  • I think the industry is changing the definition of 'flagship.'  A flagship phone should be a high-end, mainstream featured phone.  The unfortunate thing here is that Microsoft/Nokia put all their chips on McClaren, which should have never been billed, internally or externally, as a flagship device.  It should have been an experimental phone with a cool feature for a niche market, much like the 1020.  I can't believe Microsoft did not have a highest-end spec phone that did normal phone-like things in the works... but I guess I better believe it.  It's just a shame.  It created a large stumbling block for a platform that, when Nokia was Nokia, had new hardware coming out in what seemed like an endless stream.
  • Yup, they didn't do what they didn't do, and that has consequences. Unfortunately it's set the ecosystem back another year.
  • Yes, this could be a good sign of things to come.
  • Sure ya can, its fuckin Microsoft. You don't have to start from scratch....
  • Not sure, but I think Samsung can do that. Have you ever heard about "Plan B"? If I was a manufacturer with the amount of money MS has, I could be working on more than 1 potential flasgship device at the sametime.
  • They can cancel a plan, but it doesn't mean there isn't any  pieces left from the investment.
  • I want it to work efficiently even in landscape orientation... I like the concept of exploding tiles, it feels cool ;) right?
  • Absolutely!  I have fat sausage fingers that don't do anything but the wide format keybaord well, so I und up using both hands to interact with my L920 anyways, and it is annoying to switch between portorate and landscape all the time.  I would love to see the phone OS have a native landscape option! Not sure how well exploding tiles will work.  Neat in concept, but I accidently hit my screen (and those silly capacitive buttons) all of the time.  Seems like I would do a button press when I mean to hover and explode a tile quite often; especially when in a vehicle.
  • High Sensitivity [  ►] OFF
    Flyout Tiles        [  ►] OFF
  • I need landscape typing available on everything. Hate portrait, single finger stuff. I fly in landscape.
  • I can't wait to get Windows 10 on my 822.
  • You and I both
  • Good comment, unlike the people whining about why it hasn't rolled out for their high-ends.
  • Lol, "I can't wait..." is just as much an expression of impatiance :)  The model number they "can't wait" for it to be available on is irrelevant. 822, 930, 1520. Makes no difference. Everybody who does not have it currently is wishing (quietly or otherwise) that it were on their device. I think most people's gripe is not that they haven't got it yet, but that Microsoft did a piss-poor job of communicating the plan beforehand, at the same time hyping everybody up with cryptic tweets, and "soon" comments... all the while knowing all too well that the majority of phones wouldn't be able to get it and that many many people would be left disappointed.
  • Tile resize (and transparency) are awesome distinct Windows Phone features. It would be a mistake to do away with these. Plus, people love customization.
  • Transparency wasn't even a feature until 8.1.
    And I think that it does not make any sense until all apps have a transparent tile (which is live). It looks bad when a non-transparent tile interferes with the background.
  • But that's like...your opinon. I personally like the mix of transparent and non-transparent tiles. But what I think needs to happen is to have all apps require the option to have a transparent tile.
  • I agree, tile resize should have more options like the ones in the header image.
  • I've been retweeting people who have been bricking thier phones. I don't think people realize how serious bricking is. I think I'll use a new hashtag #wppaperweight...
  • How are they bricking their phones? I mean is it an install issue or due to recovery tool used.
  • Some people have broken their phones by doing the hack that they were specifically told not to do
  • ^This xD
  • ^Understand X[  What I wanted to know was say I already installed windows 10 on unsupported device successfully, but if I was to go back using nokia recovery, will that brick the phone? It was a question that might have come stupid to you, If you don't mind, I would like to know the answer.
  • Bricked means the phone is dead. No OS can be installed because the hardware wont respond to anything.
  • I know what brick means, what is exactly causing the issue?
  • Corrupt Bootloader?
  • People hacking their phones so they install the Tech Preview on phones not currently supported. Do you not read Windows Central? They have a whole article dedicated to this discussion. Lack of self help and searching these days amazes me.
  • If your bootloader (bootloader is the firmware that runs before an operating system starts up) hasn't been corrupted, then your hardware should be able to reflash a new ROM (which is what the Lumia Recovery tool does). The people who have bricked devices probably have corrupted their bootloader.
  • No, we don't. I haven't seen one comment about a bricked phone. I've posted on a few sites asking about bricked phones and no one has responded. Since you're the first person I've come across that has some numbers: how many people have you retweeted that had bricked phones?
  • Go to @gabeaul's twitter and scroll down to his replies to the people asking him for help after bricking. (and these are just the people who know who Gabe is).
  • No we don't. I've asked about bricked phones on a number of sites. So far, I've gotten no replies. Seen hundreds of people saying the used the hack succesuccessfully. Can you please share your numbers with us? I have a ATT1520 and a ATT830. I upgraded my 830 to the preview.
  • I've seen people saying they "bricked" their phone so badly that they had to use the Software Recovery Tool to recover it.  So, not everyone seems to understand what "brick" really means.
  • I was going to roll back to 8.1 yesterday, but decided to continue in the preview and give feedback as needed, so I won't feel guilty when the final product is released. Uggghhh!! Is my new mantra when dealing with the bugs in preview, but overall it's nice.
    This program is great for those of us that use WP a secondary, still able to be productive on our daily drivers, but contribute to a better WP experience. I'm not understanding all the people upset because their device didn't receive the preview, be happy it didn't.
  • Why would people be happy it didn't xD that doesn't make any sense, especially considering there is a way to rollback. I didn't get it (920) and I haven't complained about that, but I'm not happy about it neither.
  • Only 1 updated per month is not good, just give the update to all Lumia
  • If they keep releasing frequent updates people will complaint about less features from previous update.
    Monthly is better imo
  • Exactly, especially since many who carry the low end devices live in areas where data is expensive or WiFi is not great. Just imagine having to update every few weeks under those conditions. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
  • Good point Kumar!
  • Why would Microsoft flood the market or have all its supporters walking around with a half done OS?? Please think about the overall experience of everyone and not just your individual needs. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
  • 1 month for an OS update is fine. I expect that they will update certain apps via the store in between.
  • Otg is much needed thing!
  • Why?
  • Some phones don't have a micro SD card slot, like the Icon, 920/925/928/1020, etc.
  • Bcoz its to much helpful without it we have to connect our Lumia to PC . For transferring a files to pd.
  • To take advantage of playing Xbox One games from "any Windows 10 device"? Also, gaming in general is better with a controller and you would think they would want their own product to natively be able to hook up to any of their devices. Maybe they'll let it with bluetooth, but OTG would still be nice.
  • Guys, is it right that final version of windows 10 for phones is planned for later this summer ?
  • Most likely attentive RTM date to ensure they get the back-to-school sales. In all honesty, that is just over 5 months and MS has alot to do. I just wish people were not insulting them on twitter as it doesn't really help and I can imagine how unbearable it must become. Never the less credit where it is due - those guys (from MS) have patience rivalling saints lol.
  • I hope they don't remove the new tile sizes!
  • Those bigger tile sizes would be awesome for #tileart, if they ever update that app to support it.
  • Oh they'll... The TileArt start screen gave the big square tile away before the Preview went live
  • Bigger would be better for apps like weather, email and especially if they ever add exploding tiles feature.
  • Can't wait to have windows 10 on my L930. I gave up on denim, the wait is too long.
  • I would even go a step further to encourage MS to have optional shapes for tiles.
  • Daring triple width (or 150% if you will)
    The same upwards
    HUGE = 3x3
    then 2x3 and 3x2
    If you want smaller then you use Live Folders...at least they look tiny
  • What? That's doesn't make any sense. You mean stars and triangles or some crazy shit?
  • Please 4 htc s8
  • Zzzzzzzzzz
  • I would love for them to make the music app a large tile and make it interactive so you can change songs by touching it. But on the other hand all you have to do is touch the volume button then change the song so idk but sounds cool.
  • Great idea.
  • They are called interactive tiles they are coming later
  • Almsot like Jolla Sailfish with "MiniApps"
  • Gonna buy Lumia 630 just to test windows 10 out :P Cannot emphasize this enough:  All those who have Windows 10 and are testing it PLEASE provide feedback to Microsoft!!!!!!!!!! Now is our chance to shape Windows 10's final outcome. Thank you :)
  • One thing I learned after buying a Windows phone is to wait patiently without any complaints forever...! Now I am so good at that! ;) So take ur time MS.
  • I think what makes people impatient is that MS allows ppo to try out unfinished products in form of DPs and Windows Insider builds. So it looks quite a long time from the trials to the final release and rollout. But if we count from the time of final release to getting the update on the phone it's quite reasonable. I have an Android tablet which took close to a year to get Kit-Kat, and there's no hint of Lollipop even after months of release
  • Mm...but to compete with droid.. I think Windows 10 won't be enough..
  • Haha for sure
  • Installing on non supported devices?
  • Heads or Tails: 
    Brick now or ...
    only when the Next Build is released with Partition Stiching to the wrong device
    do it, Do It, DO IT! - I dare you to do it! ...
    or better wait just one month...
    or until June (or July or August)
  • I'm still unhappy about the departure from modern design to hamburger implementation, especially in the universal apps. I wish the final release will revert to the things that got me attracted to the WP in the 1st place.
  • I agree. Hamburger was not what i expected from MS, i dont know where they are going from that awesome modern design. Hope something better comes out of it.
  • Agree totally. The uniqueness that was WP is eroding by the update. What is left is the start screen with live tiles. Now looks like everything inside that will be hamburger menus. The loss of the hubs, panorama, pivot etc needs to be returned or something of the same design genius appear, to make WP unique and not androidesque, as it seems so far!
  • "Instead drop $50 on a Lumia 635". Please don't assume prices are the same everywhere. A Lumia 635 is about 120€ (about $140) here!
  • Oh, but you forget, betas are only certified for U.S. citizens. :) /s
  • Solid info. Looks like MSFT learned a bit of a lesson from last week and is starting to communicate a bit more transparent. All that is missing now is rough roadmap on when different devices are planned to be able to install the TP. Having that might prevent some folks from hacking and potentially bricking their phones...
  • Will existing apps work on windows10?
  • On the preview there are many apps burning and crashing, but I think that's where app developers have to step in and prepare their apps. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
  • There's no way of knowing the answer to this. That's the point of the insider so developers can test and update if necessary.
  • Yes!
  • More tile options = nothing wrong with freedom of choice? I can see the calendar app tile as the biggest use scenarios, for me, if I got to have the choice. But there is probably other users with other preferences, so plz just add it. Don't over think it.
  • Microsoft needs to get a lot more strict and consistent with their app support. Silverlight apps should be dead by now and we should have one uniform platform or language to use for making apps. If they still choose to use multiple ones then at least make their experiences consistent!
  • Yes!
    Kill SIlverlight right now
    Then step by step, API by API
    expand the OS functionality above Windows Mobile 6 / Windows Phone 7
     
  • Where are the interactive live tiles and the rotating start screen?
  • Next Build (or the Next)
    OS Basic functionality before UI enhancements, right?
  • A good way of making sales for 635
  • He has also said that the inconsistencies in the black & white themes will be fixed (meaning those horrible white backgrounds inside settings despite opting for the "black" theme).   Which is good as I would never update any phone to Windows Phone 10 if I was to be forced into white backgrounds on the OS, after opting for the Dark Theme. I've enough horrible whites on Android, thanks.
  • It's pre-Alpha...wait until June to see the Final
  • I don't think I'll need to wait until then when he  already said that they'd iron out those design inconsistencies. Still, I will wait until they iron that particular one out to install it on the 930. Which isn't even illegible yet. I have plenty of time ;)
  • Your 930 is not illegible? :O
  • Do w central get incentives when they mention buy Lumia for every w10 articles??
  • What a stupid question.
  • No word on when the big boys will get to play with W10. And about the hack it very simple I installed it on my 1520 no problems installing, I even installed without erasing storage.
  • Having a 1520 doesn't make you any bigger of a boy than someone with a 635.
  • When I wrote big boys I was referring to the phones (920,925,928,930,icon,1020 and 1520). Sorry for not clarifying.
  • I for one will be glad for the monthly updates. My backup 635 with Windows 10 is currently unstable with several apps not working, it's very slow, and it reboots a lot. My main driver 1520 won't go near Windows 10 until it's much more stable.
  • You were told to expect these type of problems before installing.
  • Awesome article, all the handy links & sources in one spot - bookmarked. Great to know the pfd programme will remain active, thought they would be solely focusing on the insider programme and shutting pfd down. I guess the pfd programme is the ultra-slow-ring for Windows 10 as apart from the Update 2 I don't see any more updates coming down the pipe line for Wp 8.1. I imagine, MS will package update 2 with the public release of windows 10 as it would be much simpler that way. Edit: And I hope the large tile sizes stay, as it opens up another avenue for customisability. It would be perfect for emails too :P.
  • "Tiles resizes options not definite" then don't introduce something you are going to remove
  • This part of the cycle is normally conducted behind closed doors, we are fortunate that users have been included this  early and have a greater say on their (MS's) design implementations.
  • The whole point of letting you in on the preview is to try things out on you. You think Microsoft should only try things that are guaranteed to stay permanently?
  • Options, Options, Options seem to be the thing in Windows 10. So, please keep the resize tile options.
  • Needs more theme colours
  • I surely hope there's already a thread to ask for an accent colour wheel to be made available. That's being requested since Windows Phone 7!
  • I like the double long tiles, but not the extra large one's.
  • I agree. I wouldn't want a Cortana tile that takes up most of my display.
  • I see having the option as the answer. Like it, use that size. Don't like it, change to a size you so like. ....... The option part of the OS functions seems to be seriously growing with Windows 10 and this is awesome. More options FTW
  • Well I haven't bricked my 1520 yet, but it seems like a lot of 520s have been getting bricked, possibly less OS partition space.
  • The more tile sizes are welcomed, please please and please keep the windows Phone 8.1 startscreen background, I prefer the present one then the background behind the tiles in windows 10
  • I Quit, I have supported Microsoft for over 25 years and now its over, tired of all the stupid games and lies!! Someone tell me what top of the world computer/software company supports other platforms before there own? MICROSOFT! Basicly Microsoft is telling us if we want there new phone apps go to Google or Apple, WTF!!! Today my Nokia 1520 is being listed on CL and I will never buy or use another Windows Phone
  • *their
  • Bye bye
  • How much you want for it?
  • Eat a snickers.You get cranky when your hungry
  • One less impatient, ignorant user.... the windows central community is getting better every day :)
  • For me .. That's very sad! .. I think you're leaving Microsoft in the best moments! ... I'm being using Microsoft products for more than 25 years also! ... If I had read this comments 2 years ago , I have been agreed with you!
  • they should just tested for selected people. Not releasing it to public and telling us SELECTED UNITS can avail. Then now PER MONTH UPDATE? wow.. things went crappy. they cant even release Denim in some areas yet. Thanks for hanging us up, again. whenever they release something new about the OS, always look for the COMES IN BATCHES,PER REGION, PER CARRIER.
  • Talk to your carrier.
  • Denim is carrier problem, windows 10 is early tech preview.... Talk to the carrier for release issues, learn the basics of app development and testing before complaining about not getting an early preview.
  • thank heavens you're smart. :D
  • And thank heavens you know how to complain about pre-release software that no other platform would even think of giving you access to before release or close to it.
  • aint complaining, just expressing :P
  • Waiting for the preview for the L930 *_*
  • Does that mean more sizes are coming, perhaps Tetris-shaped tiles? ;)
  • Hmm... I hope in the future they make a rectangle tile, for a weather + clock / date app. Always want to see the weather and date at the top.
  • Well...one can opt for three columns instead of two
    => 3x2, 2x3, 1x3, 3x1, 3x3
    Perhaps?
  • I do miss the full width tiles when show more tiles is enabled. I think it could be useful to have those options with more tiles enabled
  • I gonna get a 630 to test out Windows 10 and feedback. Can't use my only phone for it. Am excited :D
  • The biggest issue I have with Windows phone live tiles is that the live tile catalog for developers is SOOOO limited. Look at any good live tile that you have on your phone.. 99% chance is that it is custom made by the developer and rendered from XAML when the background task runs. This sucks b/c momory limitations for background tasks force developers to use C++ for this... Lots of developers suck at C++ and if done in C# it will probably run out of memory and fail to render a tile at all! Ok my rant is done.. A solution now! MS please put some effort into the windows 10 for phone live tile catalog so that there are MANY more available options for smaller text and different layouts.. Think something like "pic stich" app how there are different column and row options and allow for variation of font sizes in each of these cell areas. Sorry if none of this makes sense but I feel like this is very very important to greatly increasing developer productivity and giving users a wonderful experence on windows phone. I'm interested to see what they do with the real-time live tile stuff. Like they tested with "Battery Saver" (which has a real-time update from the battery level percentage).
  • Just give me a tile that stretches the full width of the screen. You know, like we used to ba able to do before you took that away. Is it so damn hard to give more tile size options especially when 1 of them was possible and available 2 years ago. Everything with MS is always so freakin difficult. This is why they never get anything done right, because something as simple as deciding on tile sizes takes them forever.
  • @Daniel: I'm really glad you and all the other Windows Central guys give us all the most recent news about W10 (for phones). I find it very interesting to see W10 grow and it's a great opportunity for us, to be able to help with feedback.
    However I don't understand all those readers who won't stop complaining. I mean it's easy: Wait till September and you will get your W10. The FINISHED and stable W10, not a preview that you actually don't want. So stop complaining please.
    And Daniel, keep doing what you're doing!
  • Yeah... Thanks to all Windows Central for all the updates and recommendations :)
  • Why wait for September? Microsoft has already put the new Windows Phone 10 Apps on Android and iPhone , Outlook email, office and more. But want even give them to their own phone customers AGAIN WTF!!!
  • @iChampion I thought you were done with windows phone? Still here....damn.
  • L520 support needed! I have a 520 only for this.. I like it and don't want to change it to 635! Please unlock insider program in 520.
  • I swear if one more person whines about their phone not on the preview in going to punch someone
  • why my 920 is not supported??
  • When for 930?
  • We need some action in the tiles, not only display info! We need interactive tiles! (suggestion)
  • Running Win10 Preview on my L920. There are bugs, nothing major so far. But had to wipe my device clean to avoid any partition stitching issues. I had only 1G left
  • One ting: "waiting for SD card". Solution: "the app you try to access is not on this SD card. Would you like to install it on this card too?".
  • Gsmarena has finally written something good about windows 10 for phones... Cool
  • There are features that I had wished and hoped for. haven't seen it yet. could care less about tile sizes.
  • Please give 3g lock option in data connection settings for windows 10. It's very important in country like India
  • Also include otg support, and multi window operation for true multi tasking, these are must needed functions.
  • double size tiles should be interactive. otherwise it looks very bad. get interactive double tile.
  • Agree.
  • New tile sizes epic choice! Vertical or even a small rectangle would be good
  • Lets say MS should have concentrated on win 10 for Pc and not even mention wp10 at their last conference coz its clear they rushed to announce and even demo wp10 on (L1520 - which some actually went running to buy thinking definitely it will be part of the preview) only to SHOCK us later!!!! Really?????
    It's a lesson learnt I hop for MS.... don't demo unready software/pdcts while at the same time promising a release of the same if you r not ready. With all due respect MS it's not fair. L1520 should be the first phone to preview wp10 coz u did demo with it. Just be clear. Remove the anxiety and say preview for other phones will come in Dec 2015, we will understand, we will wait. But next month, in the summer etc not good. Reason some result to insults which I condon but really u can empathise with them sometimes. Hey no insults at MS people. Forget Wp10 for now until whenever, be happy with denim if you got it, that's is....
  • Because they knew it was crap
  • Microsoft, pls keep it up on technical preview and once you feel that the official preview mode is released, more feedbacks will come back to you because you already roundup all users wanted and unwanted.
    More users may need you to combined the good stuff first, then we may provide more for you to polish.
  • How many wanna bet the next MS flagship will be mediocre? I'm goin with the M9 screw that
  • I'm using the M8 and already made my decision to go with the M9 if/when it's released. I don't miss the Lumia apps at all and they haven't built a Lumia that I didn't feel that I was settling. I'm sticking with HTC for a little while.
  • Uninstalling wp10 TP from my lumia 730, i like the OS very much but its lill laggy for obvious reasons, but wp10 TP not ready for daily use currently. I'll wait for some more updates.
  • Could everyone please suggest password protected apps.
  • 1520 ???
  • Please give us a call recorder in windows phones....
  • No, that's bad its illegal to that in many countries.
  • Please release for the 930. The best model never gets anything. When I got the 920 on release it never got anything good.
  • So glad Preview for Developers is to continue. That's the point at which I will join Windows 10 on my phone.
  • It's good news that some features are experimental and that nothing is concrete. If they could make the system apps look and function more like WP and not like Android from 2011 and fix some of the things that 8.1 broke (fluidity, games in app list) I would be a lot more enthusiastic about W10. The expanded action center and keyboard look really nice. Same design as before but with more options. That's how it should be done. The settings screen, dialer, pictures, etc in comparison are uninspired, clunky and out of place. The total lack of pivot controls, bizarre reliance on hamburger menus and failure to follow their own UI guidelines is baffling. I don't know what they are smoking.
  • Are exploding tiles dead
  • 925?
  • Is anyone else running the Windows 10 TP for phones running into problems downloading app updates suddenly?  I've got 6sec and the Games apps both hanging with "Attention required".  I attempted several times to retry, even rebooting, and they still hang.
  • One size of tiles that i would like to see would be the medium size tile taking the full width of the screen.
  • I am hoping for a landscape mode for the system pages (start screen, System etc.). It bugs me that I constantly have to turn my phone back and forth. :(
  • Please give us a home screen....thats all I ask please
  • I kind of thought that a 1x4 tile would be perfect for text/messaging apps or a stock ticker (bing money leaves a lot to be desired). But just a small knit pick. I really like the current size options, personally I don't think I will use the newest size on phone.
  • Microsoft is doing a great job, how cool is it to be able to contribute to the evolution of an os, what other operating systems company give you an opportunity to communicate directly with their top people through twitter etc, absolutely amazing. To all those moaners out there.......calm down and enjoy 8.1 or 10 TP whatever your on. Just realize if you want something good or great you have to be prepared to wait
  • It's great to see that Microsoft is keeping communication open and it's neat to see Windows 10 for phones as it is getting developed.    
  • i welcome those New tiles I think they will look great on my 1520
  • As much I love about Windows 10 for phones, this update doesn't have any major changes in the overall UI, even for a beta perspective. I will like to see Microsoft do a overhaul in term of UX/UI experience for Windows as they go forward with universal apps and IOT. They have a potential, but don't have the guts to take things up a notch.
  • If win10 don't bring phone vibration along with the ring, I will throw my phone.
  • Yes, actually we definitely need ring with vibration
  • What about WiFi direct? For sharing files. Don't say easy transfer!
  • USB-on-the-go was awesome on my Nokia N8, I really wish this killer feature would be included in Win10's future.
  • Guys I think password system should change.....e.g..bring picture password or other advance system.......and also would be happy change style of lock screen........necessary thing....do u agree with me???
  • Yep
  • When is it coming for Lumia 520
  • SO OTG support OTW ? "Regarding USB On The Go support: "Nothing to share about OTG at this point, we know it's a popular request."   They are keeping it a secret
  • SO OTG support OTW ? "Regarding USB On The Go support: "Nothing to share about OTG at this point, we know it's a popular request."   They are keeping it a secret
  • Please provide call recording option.....n provide video calling option...in windows 10 preview in Lumia 730 navigation bar is not working...pls that option also....pls provide t9 search in dailpad for all phones ....
  • Quick question.... Can i be on both the Developers Preview and the 'windows insider program at the same time?????? I noticed that when i turn developers preview off on my lumia 925 my phone shows that i am on denim - i got the update last week- but with the DP on it says cyan,. Do i stil need the DP, or should i just remain on the windows insider program?   thanks
  • @Daniel Rubino can I get the Lumia 635 $50 outside the US... Say Africa
  • I wouldn't buy Windows Phone until they add grid view for menu. I don't like list view in big screens. Rather than Windows 10 is pretty interesting and cool.
  • New flagship with high resolution rear and front camera, more intelligent keyboard in English and Chinese especially sentence and word prediction even auto correction.