All the biggest news from Microsoft Build 2018

There were some interesting keynotes, demos and glimpses of future features coming to Windows 10 and more at Microsoft Build 2018. Here are some of our picks for the top announcements from the event.

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[smileyd]

Windows Phone was mentioned during build....by accident. The lady said excuse me right after. I am quite disappointed as a Windows phone user. I know they abandoned us. But I really do enjoy Windows Phone. I tried switching to android but I couldn't. I went straight back to my 950 XL not even a week after. It sucks. Andromeda, Surface Phone, whatever! I just want them to release something already! :(

[CravenCoetzee]

I'm really fond of the Microsoft Launcher - certainly one of the more stable ones.

[aL_]

I think the msix stujff and the desktop uwp will also impact end users actually, especially with msix coming all the way down to windows 7. It was also really nice to see them acknowledge desktop more with the dense layout and also supporting bringing uwp ux to winforms and wpf. I agree build was a little light on pure consumer stuff this time around but there were certainly good stuff for devs. it is a developer event after all

[Raggepagge]

Dan and Zac in the same room... What sorcery is this?!

[unkitjc]

Great to see you two in the same room!

[BenjaminWagener]

Will be Your Phone a feature-complete replacement for Pushbullet?

[XDLugia]

Interesting to hear of the Kinect and the fact that Microsoft are using it in the next Hololens (which is nice to know that Hololens 2/retail is 100% confirmed).

[jmkyarrow]

I've been using MS launcher for some time now and I love it. The problem is that most android apps don't look UWP which reduces consistency.

[vicroy]

I just installed the windows launcher and I'm a little peeved I didn't do that sooner. The experience is much more bearable. Still want a surface phones or whatever from MSFT because I enjoyed that UI much more than android or apple.

[mortal]

Seems like Dan ages 5 years for every month after Microsoft announced they were killing the phone. I feel your pain

[kornkernel]

I think the Build 2018 is fine, not really the most exciting for end-users but the technology they showcase is good. Though gotta give Google I/O 2018 showcasing more exciting stuff that is more relevant for end-users, at least for Android users.

Back to Microsoft, I am actually but excited with the push of AI, Machine Learning and the upcoming improvements to Fluent Design. Sadly on AI, Cortana seems only getting few imorovements and no word about conversation interaction that it needs, though the new UI looks promising.

The video talking about the projects in Microsoft were actually really interesting to know the story behind that mostly are not shared. Highly recommend to watch it.

[ksquared]

What's that HP Tablet their using in this video?

[rohith]

Would love to see bloopers for this one. Anyone here too?

[spartan]

That tiny Kinect senior needs be rebranded and released as Windows Hello on the One. Fix Cortana on Xbox and add better voice commands and use the preexisting sign in stuff already on the One

[ojibwayinca]

Why wasn't there a larger emphasis on PWAs during one of the keynotes, especially Joe's?

[robinthek]

I want to have things in the cloud. Makes things more easy and synced!

[GregoriusMagnus]

Okay who else is on with me that the whole Jon Friedman presentation was a teaser? I mean it was all out-of-context from the conference. Unless they were to retain themselves from announcing hardware as they have their separate event for that. And I just can't see any better reason to hold a lecture about why the Courier device was canceled listing all kinds of reasons that does not make sense anymore. It was just like saying, we had to postpone it until now.

[AnxiouPanda]

I hope Microsoft eventually combines Skype with this Your Phone feature and then name it something new and fresh.

[LanDiEvil]

People thought Kinect was dead bc it's eyes were shut and it wasn't breathing. Some poked it with a stick. Mothers wailed by it's inanimate corpse for days as local holy men adorned it with precious relics of frankensense and murs. Roman foot soldiers threw the Kinect in a cave and built a bolder over the entrance. But when the Kinect's decipelopers hacked the roman's bolder and accessed the cave, the Kinect had metamorphized into an ethereal being known as AzureKinect who then instantiated an army of virtual machines that dematerialized the loyal decipelopers and killed every inhabitant of the ancient world. Apart from one guy... Bill Gates! Billy would go on to repopulate the Earth and later built the Kinect 2.0 in the image of Alex Kipman. He gave the Kinect 2.0 away free with every Xbox but the haters were like " Derrr...no it can see me wanking" and "...I Don't like that". Thanks to the haters, many people suffered needlessly until Steve Job's ghost appeared in the form of Ashton Kutcher, forcing every decipeloper to their knees in fearful prayer.
Chanting the word "Steve", they lit candles and stuck ToF laser arrays on their iDroids and played Pokémon go until their fingers were worn to the bone and they all bled out. True story.

[newtonfb]

I want to like Microsoft Launcher on Android, I really do but I just cant. Ive tried it twice now and it just doesnt give you the options/features Nova does.