Windows 10 news recap: Edge extensions, “freak out” features, app updates

Welcome back to our weekly Windows 10 news recap, in which we recap the top news stories regarding Windows 10 for the week. Let’s dive straight in.

New Windows 10 features to be announced at Build will have you freaking out

This week, a few Microsoft Employees on Twitter started teasing upcoming features in Windows 10 Redstone that will have us “freaking out”. Not much else was said about these mysterious features, however it is expected that said features will be shown off at Microsoft’s upcoming BUILD developer conference at the end of the month.

Rich Turner is a Senior Program Manager on Microsoft’s Windows team and works on command line tools, and Scott Hanselman is the Principal Program Manager and Community Architect on the Azure Application Platform and Tools team, so the “freak out” features might be developer-related.

Windows 10 build 14291 with Edge Extensions now available for Insiders

Microsoft finally released a new Insider build with Edge extension support this week, after unveiling the feature over a year ago. Extension support for Edge is still in its early stages right now, so the only way Insiders can test them is via sideloading them manually. There are 3 “official” extensions to try out; Mouse Gestures, Microsoft Translate and Reddit Enhancement Suite.

Although Microsoft is yet to release any documentation on how porting an Edge extension works, developers have already started attempting to do it themselves, with popular apps such as “Tweeten” and “Turn Off The Lights” releasing early extension previews that Insiders can download and install on Edge.

Windows 10 Redstone: Microsoft to introduce intelligent photo search in Photos app

Also this week, WinBeta revealed that the Photos app in Windows 10 is set to receive a number of new features during the Redstone development cycle. Mainly, the Photos app will gain the same intelligent photo search functionality found on OneDrive, which allows users to search photos by the people in them, where they were taken and more.

The idea here is that the Photos app will automatically scan photos for faces, as well as metadata for locations, then categorize them automatically for easy viewing. You will be able to teach the Photos app who a specific person is so it can automatically categorize them into a folder/album that is dedicated to them.

Microsoft extends Skylake support for Windows 7 and 8.x devices until 2018

Finally, this week Microsoft announced that Skylake support for older versions of Windows such as Windows 7 and Windows 8.x would be extended until 2018. Microsoft has responded once again to a customer backlash by “clarifying” their position on just how they will be supporting Windows 7 and 8.1 on the Skylake platform:

As we approached Intel’s Business Launch for Skylake in mid-January, we shared more details on our recommendations for enterprise customers on Windows 10, Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, including clarifications to our support policy for new silicon. A key part of this update was our commitment to continuing to lead with a customer-first approach. Since then we’ve received feedback from customers at various stages of planning and deployment of Windows 10. Led by their feedback, today we are sharing a few updates to our Skylake support policy*:

1. To help provide greater flexibility for customers who have longer deployment timeframes to Windows 10, the support period for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 devices on Skylake systems will be extended by one year: from July 17, 2017 to July 17, 2018.

2. Also, after July 2018, all critical Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 security updates will be addressed for Skylake systems until extended support ends for Windows 7, January 14, 2020 and Windows 8.1 on January 10, 2023.

So there you have it. Another week of Windows 10 news. What was your favorite story? Let us know below.