Short Takes Weekly: What went on in the world of Microsoft for the week of July 13-17

THIS WEEK IN NEWS: The Microsoft Worldwide Partners Conference took place in Orlando, Florida, where CEO Satya Nadella reiterated the company's commitment to a mobile-first, cloud-first computing model, and general counsel Brad Smith stole Wednesday morning's keynote by laying out the way he defends Microsoft's customer approach against assorted legal threats. Windows 10 pulled Fast Ring users into the world of Windows as a Service (WaaS). And our partners at Windows Secrets explained why you shouldn't use your disk image of a Windows 7 machine on your brand-new Windows 8 computer.

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EYE CANDY -- SEE THE VISUAL TOURS WE TOOK THIS WEEK:

Gallery -- Meet Cortana for Android -- We heard that Cortana was coming to Android earlier this year and it appears her development is moving along nicely.

Gallery - Day 1 Vision Keynote at WPC 2015 — It's the you-were-there shots from the event, featuring everything from speakers to demos to product roadmaps.

Gallery - WPC 2015 Expo Show Floor — One massive element of this weeks event is the large Expo that is being held on the main floor of the OCCC.  Microsoft, partners and sponsors are able to display/demo their products and services to everyone in attendance. It is a terrific networking opportunity.

Gallery - WPC 2015 Day 3 Vision Keynote — "The Wednesday keynote included a run-down of the ways in which Microsoft is adjusting to meet the needs of customers all over the world — and some serious shade thrown at Google — and we've got all the sights and sounds here."

Gallery - Universal Windows App Store on the Web — This new app portal allows you to browse desktop, tablet and mobile apps. You can see in the attached screenshots that although there are separate headers for Windows and Windows Phone you are actually browsing the same listings for each. The app page is labeled for PC or mobile device based on their compatibility.

Gallery -- First Look: Vitesse Messenger Bag -- The Vitesse Messenger bag looks great and has that WaterField patented worn-in look that I like. WaterField bags usually look like a prop from an Indiana Jones movie, making it easy to imagine you're headed out on a potentially dangerous adventure instead of a boring business trip.

THE WORLDWIDE PARTNER CONFERENCE:

It's like you were there: the Worldwide Partner Conference keynote as Windows Supersite and Windows IT Pro saw it — See what Windows Supersite's and Windows IT Pro's Rod Trent (@rodtrent), Richard Hay (@WinObs) and Lisa Schmeiser (@lschmeiser) took away from the Worldwide Partner Conference Keynote. Here's what mattered from the morning's announcements.

Worldwide Partner Conference: What was announced at the keynote — In this morning's keynote -- which moved briskly, for all the speakers and everything announced -- several new products and updates were announced. Here's what you need to know about right now.

Microsoft's Brad Smith breaks it down: what you need to worry about with cloud privacy -- As the company's lawyer, he has been at the forefront of several legal cases concerning access to customer data and the protection of that data no matter where it is stored.

Worldwide Partner Conference: Microsoft wants to change how you work — Microsoft has some very strong ideas about how you should work. Not how you do work. How you should work.

Microsoft Will Expand Surface Tablet Distribution But Delay Surface Hub — Pre-orders for Surface Hub started on July 1, but Microsoft is saying that it will be at least August before it can provide more information on shipping details.

WINDOWS 10:

You're going to be experiencing Windows as a Service ... now -- Windows as a Service means continually updating Windows 10. And that first proof of concept has arrived for Windows Insiders on build 10240.

Microsoft's Windows 10 EULA Re-confirms What We Already Knew About Home Edition Updating -- Home Edition users are essentially the guinea pigs for updates. And, that's made clear by Helen Harmetz, Senior Product Manager at Microsoft, in a recent partner presentation: Keeping Windows 10 Up-to-Date for Enterprises, CBB Will Have 8 Months to Update.

Amazon Confirms Windows 10 Retail Packaging, Outs Windows 10 Upgrades on a Stick -- While it appears that the Windows 10 background didn't make the final cut, Amazon has at least confirmed in product listings that the color scheme was right: Blue for Home and Purple for Pro.

Pssst - Windows 10 is done but not really — We now live in a brave new world of Windows. It is called Windows as a Service (WaaS) and while Windows Insider Program members have been getting a taste of this since its debut last fall, the real implementation begins now with the release of Windows 10 Build 10240.

HP Hardware with Windows 10 Ready to Arrive on July 29 — While a consumer won't be able to walk into a Best Buy and pick up a brand new PC with Windows 10, they will have the opportunity to order one directly from HP and have it delivered to their doorstep on July 29.

​This is it! Final Windows 10 Windows Insider Build Begins Rolling Out Today to All Rings — "Right now, Build 10240 of Windows 10 is rolling out to both Fast and Slow rings. Windows Insiders today are able to download and install what could end up as the RTM version of Windows 10. Microsoft isn't willing to put the RTM stamp on today's Build, but there's a couple pieces to this release that make it a good candidate."

Office for Windows 10 Apps Finalize Ahead of Windows 10 Release — "Microsoft has taken the wraps off the preview version of Office and stamped it ready for public consumption. Available today in the Windows 10 Store, users can download and start using Word, Excel, and PowerPoint."

Windows 10 Upgrade Help Available in Select Retail Outlets — "If you want to upgrade your own PC on July 29, there will be experts on hand in Microsoft Stores, Best Buy, Walmart, and Staples locations to offer upgrade help. Additionally, just by visiting one of these retailers you can belly-up to an "experience station" to try out Windows 10 to see if it's worth all the hubbub."

HOW-TOS AND TROUBLESHOOTING:

Coda makes the iPad even more productive -- If anyone ever wants to tell you that the iPad's not a professional tool, show them Coda. It's a full-featured development tool. Start with the code editor, which supports HTML, CSS, Perl, Go, Java, JavaScript, Lua, Markdown, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and many more.

What you should do to secure mailboxes when employees die — In an ever-connected electronic world we have to figure out how to handle the question of mailboxes belonging to deceased employees. What does your company do?

Patch Tuesday: Installation Recommendations for July 2015 — "Microsoft this month has supplied 14 updates as part of its regular Patch Tuesday event. Five of these are rated as Critical. One of the updates, MS15-070, has already been reported to have an exploit in the wild. This update resolves a vulnerability in Microsoft Office."

Q. Can I restore my saved Windows 7 disk image to my new Windows 8 PC? —  "I'm going to buy a new computer that will have Windows 8 installed. Can I restore my saved Win7 image to the new computer? Or do I have to reinstall all my programs, because it’s Windows 8?"