Windows 10 - Exclusive never seen before builds - 2008-2014


  1. Posts : 1
    Windows Alpha
       #1

    Windows 10 - Exclusive never seen before builds - 2008-2014


    Hi there,

    I spent 15 years as a dev for MS on the Windows dev team. A lot of people don't realise how long W10 took to appear. Having left the company, I am no longer permitted to keep this secret. So here I am. Did you know that W10 development started as far back as 2008? I'm going to do a brief run through the history

    Phase one: March 2008 - December 2011

    2007 had seen Windows Vista, and as we know, it was largely an embarassment for Microsoft. So they just released W7 two years later, right? Nope. W7 development had started as far back as 2002/2003, but that story's for another day. MS realised they had to win the public's trust back. W10 was born. Originally known as Windows Alpha, it was planned to be a major overhaul which would revolutionise the way we use Windows. The build started off With no other than the W7 build. New features to be implemented included:

    USB 3.0 support
    CMD GUI
    UEFI support
    SSD/eMMc support

    By December 2008, the build started to look something like the picture attatched. Notice it was called Windows 2020. Yes. This build was intended to be released five years later than Windows 10 and I'll get onto that in a minuet.

    By October 2009, Windows 7 was avaliable to the masses, after 6 years of development. Little did they know what was around the corner. MS knew that Windows could only get better from here. 1st January 2020 was the release date for W2020. 11 years away. To keep the public in suspense, some clever 20 year old something decided to start developing Windows 8, based on W7 Phone. The development saw the UI largely ported over mixed with Intel/AMD64 support and BIOS/UEFI support. The W2020 project was suspended on the 9th December 2011.

    Phase 2: W9/W8.2

    Windows 8 was intended to be a failiure. People soon began to stick with W7 or move to alternative platforms. W 8.1 was quickly released to make the experience at least somewhat berable.

    MS dev teams knew that had they waited out to 2020 a large client base could have already moved on. The date was moved to 2014. It was now renamed Windows 9, also known in early builds as Windows 8.2. However, a large amount of the dev teams felt like that 9 and 8.2 would feel somewhat insignificant for the upgrade the new OS was. So it was renamed W10.

    Phase 3: W10, 2014 release date suspended

    September 14th, 2013. We have a problem. W19 development is significantly behind. A major bug with a special new GPU driver (aptly named vista.sys) crashed on any AMD system. Vista.sys was dumped but it would take a while to work with AMD devs and drivers to make sure the system would not crash. The 23rd August release date of 2014 was suspended, and put on hold til August 2015.

    Phase 4: The W10 we all know and love

    The 2014-2015 period saw a major scale back in the OS. The GUI based CMD had been dropped. An idea implemented to stop DVD support had been overturned due to possible public backlash. And an idea to implement the Control Panel within Action Centre had also been dropped. (maybe that wasn't such a bad thing). In August, 2015, MS released W10 to the public. It would be another three years before the truth was revealed in its making. Lies, scandal, problems, the journey had not been easy. Was it worth it? Let's wait til Windows 10.1.....and yes, that is a thing. Another story for another day.

    I hoped you enjoyed this educational content. Comment your disbelief and opinions below!

    A MS dev
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Windows 10 - Exclusive never seen before builds - 2008-2014-w2020.png  
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 17,838
    Windows 10
       #2

    With the rate at which Windows 10 is being developed, by re-instating features which they should never have removed, we should all be back on Windows 7 by 2020!!!
      My Computer


 

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