Windows 10 Anniversary Update SDK Now Available! Windows Store Open for Submissions

Today I’m pleased to announce that following the Windows 10 Anniversary Update we have released the Windows 10 Anniversary Update SDK, build 14393 along with Visual Studio 2015 Update 3. The new SDK contains more than 2700 enhancements to the Universal Windows Platform allowing you to take advantage of our fastest growing OS ever and gives you access to the latest innovations in Windows 10 which are now available in the Anniversary Update. These updated APIs make it easier than ever for you to create more natural ways of interaction, like vision, writing, and speech into your apps and experiences. The Windows 10 Anniversary Update SDK delivers improvements to:

• Windows Ink: A pen is a natural choice for apps that depend on analog input, such as sketching, animation and even signature capture. Now, with just two lines of code you can bring Windows Ink into your apps through the news InkCanvas and InkToolbar controls.
• Cortana APIs: There is no easier way to interact with your computer than to talk to it, and Cortana brings you powerful features that you can use in your own apps. With the Windows 10 Anniversary SDK you can go further than simply adding voice controls to your apps, now with Cortana Actions you can drive increased user engagement by registering actions with Cortana that she will use to connect users to your apps at just the right time.
• Windows Hello: Biometric authentication brings the magic of vision to apps and now with the Windows 10 Anniversary SDK, web developers can use Windows Hello in Edge to authenticate users with just a glance.
• To find out more about these APIs and other enhancements in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update SDK visit Dev Center.

And we’re just getting started. With today’s launch we continue our goal to make Windows more open for all developers by providing you the tools you need to make Windows home no matter what platform you build for. Since //build my team and I have travelled the globe and met with thousands of developers and we have heard firsthand what is important to you. Among them, the promise of the Desktop Bridge to help you quickly and easily modernize your existing Win32/.NET apps, excitement to see real, native Bash running on Windows and Xamarin as a cross-platform development solution. We’re continuing to act on your feedback and offer more for cross-device developers, including these technologies:

• Desktop Bridge (Project Centennial): The millions of developers using Win32 and .NET to build desktop apps can now get access to the benefits of the Universal Windows Platform and the Windows Store. Using the modern deployment technology of UWP, desktop apps can cleanly install, uninstall and update, as well as get full access to UWP APIs including Live Tiles, roaming storage, push notifications and more.
• Bash Shell on Windows: We are pleased to deliver a top-requested feature for users of popular command-line tools: You can now install & run native, unmodified GNU/Linux Bash & command-line tools, directly on Windows by enabling the Windows Subsystem for Linux optional feature, and installing a genuine Ubuntu Linux distro from our partners at Canonical.
• Improved Tools and Bridges for iOS and Android Developers: Visual Studio now includes Xamarin tools built-in, ready to create apps for Windows and iOS and Android. In addition, our open source Windows Bridge for iOS enables iOS developers to bring Objective-C code into Visual Studio and compile it into a UWP app.

Windows Store Open for Submissions; Including Process for Submitting Desktop Bridge Apps

Starting today we are opening Dev Center and the Windows Store for submissions of apps built for PCs, phones and HoloLens, targeting the Windows 10 Anniversary Update SDK.

In addition, we will begin the process of accepting apps using the Desktop Bridge. While we build the pipeline into the Windows Store to publish these apps, our team will work directly with developers to get their converted apps and games into the Windows Store. Contact our team here if you are interested in submitting an app using the Desktop Bridge to the Windows Store.

Later this month, we’ll have a post on new Dev Center features and will share more detail on getting Xbox apps targeting the Windows 10 Anniversary Update SDK into the Windows Store.

Ready, Set, Build!

With the improvements in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update SDK there just isn’t a reason to wait. The Windows ecosystem is thriving – offering you an active and engaged audience of more than 350 million monthly active users. The Store is open for business and new innovations with Inking, Cortana and Edge will enable new experiences that simply aren’t possible on other platforms.

If you are not already building for Windows, download the Anniversary Update SDK today and get busy!

Thank you to our Windows developer community for your passion and creativity – we can’t wait to see what you come up with next! My team and I love to hear your feedback, and we use it to guide platform investments. Please keep the feedback coming using our Windows Developer Feedback UserVoice site.

[editor: corrected an incorrect statement about where to get Bash on Windows]