Microsoft’s Build conference for developers that took place yesterday showcased several important additions to the US tech giant’s PC software that will soon be released to the public.
During the presentation, which was live-streamed for audiences all around the world, the company revealed their plans for various programs such as Teams.
Microsoft will soon be adding a function to the popular web-chatting service that will allow users to collaborate on projects online while they talk to each other at the same time through Live Share. To make this more feasible, Microsoft are relying heavily on their Fluid Framework, which is an effort to atomise components of traditional documents. Some companies, such as Accenture and hexagon, have already adopted this new Teams function and their internal departments have begun working with it.
Microsoft also announced the arrival of third-party widgets on Windows 11 sometime this year. Developers will be able to create them for all Win32 applications via Microsoft’s Adaptive Cards platform. Right now, the only widgets available are those that Windows 11 have pre-installed internally, such as Outlook, offering a very limited selection. All others are powered by the web. Widgets were originally introduced in Windows 7 but they were removed due to fears of exploitation.
“We’re energized by the customer feedback on widgets to date. People are enjoying the quick access to content most important to them in a way that is seamless without breaking their flow,” said Panos Panay, Microsoft’s chief product officer for Windows and devices.
Additionally, the company announced its plans to begin testing a feature that will allow users to automatically restore all their pre-downloaded applications. This function can be quite useful, especially to those whose PC has malfunctioned and were forced to purchase a new one, or for people who tend to change around a lot. Previously, PC users had to downloaded all their apps on their own whenever they changed PCs, a highly time-consuming exercise.
Among other announcements made by Microsoft during the conference was a native arm version of Visual Studio 2022 and an arm-powered stackable PC called Project Volterra, the launch of Dev Box, a cloud-based service that features apps designed for developers who want easy access to their workstation and a design overhaul to OneNote, which make it blend it a lot smoother with the Windows 11 environment.
