TECHnalysis Research Blog Extra

July 1, 2016
Microsoft Announces Windows 10 Anniversary Update

By Bob O'Donnell

Microsoft announced the official launch date and availability of its next version of Windows 10 this week. On August 2, the company will release the Anniversary Update, a free update to all 350 million existing Windows 10 users that brings a host of new capabilities approximately one year after the first release of the OS.

Notable additions include extended support for inking and pen support across the OS and applications; more capabilities for Cortana, its voice-driven digital assistant (including access on the Windows 10 Home screen); and the ability to use its Windows Hello identity and authentication services across websites and supported applications (such as VPNs).

The Cortana additions should help make the service more useful, including the ability to ask questions when you aren’t logged into the PC (theoretically, a la Amazon Echo), as well as further integrating with Outlook and other personal information for more “assistant-like” capabilities.

The part I’m most excited about, however, are the extensions of Windows Hello identity management into the Edge browser. Leveraging extensions to the FIDO Alliance spec (previously dubbed FIDO 2.0, but now called Web Authentication), this is a major step towards a password-less world…finally. Essentially, the credentials from Windows Hello can be passed from the Edge browser to websites that require them, including online banking and commerce, and many, many more.

Everyone in the tech world acknowledges how horrendously broken passwords are and yet there has been little real progress to solve the problem. While this development won’t fix everything, it does bring together biometric authentication and password management in an important way. In addition, the advanced FIDO 2.0 support in Windows 10 will enable the use of third-party devices, such as wearables to pass authentication credentials over Bluetooth to a PC (or smartphone) in order to log in securely and automatically. (Apple announced some similar capabilities for Apple Watch and iOS devices in the forthcoming version of iOS10, so it looks like all the major players are finally moving in the direction of a less password-dependent world.)

The bottom line is the Anniversary Update for Windows 10 looks to be a useful one that should make the process of using a PC, both on its own and with other devices, a better one.

Here's a link to the original column: https://techpinions.com/unpacked-for-friday-june-30th-2016/46453(Subscription required)

Bob O’Donnell is the president and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, LLC a market research firm that provides strategic consulting and market research services to the technology industry and professional financial community. You can follow him on Twitter @bobodtech.