Windows Developer Day - Creators Update Summary

This week Microsoft hosted their Windows Developer Day - Creators Update online event to share news about the next major release for Windows 10 and the options that are available to Windows Developers for this update for the OS.

The first big news of the event was that the Windows 10 Creators Update is now feature complete which means the focus will now shift to dealing with bugs and performance issues in the public testing builds. In addition, and of great importance to developers, it means the APIs for accessing these new features are also locked in and will not change before the Creators Update release.

If you missed the live event or just want to watch and read the materials again then this page will contain all of the links to the information and videos from the event.

Let's start with a summary of all the news:

Windows Developer Day – Creators Update

Windows 10 Creators Update SDK Download

Universal Windows Platform (UWP) docs are now on Docs.Microsoft.com

Next is the line up of videos from the days sessions that cover some of these new features in-depth:

Keynote - Kevin Gallo takes us on a tour of what's new in Windows 10 Creators Update. He'll apply a developer's lens as he shows off new Windows capabilities and tooling and will share some news along the way.

High DPI Improvements for Desktop App Developers in the Windows 10 Creators Update - Display technology and usage scenarios have changed significantly since the time when many desktop app technologies were first introduced. Many desktop UI frameworks on Windows have, historically, struggled to keep up with modern usage scenarios such as handling multiple displays with different DPI values or handling dynamic DPI changes (docking/undocking, RDP, mixed-DPI). This has resulted in desktop applications that can render blurry or be sized incorrectly. In this session we'll discuss what Microsoft is doing to address these challenges, including new APIs and technologies targeted at high-DPI usage scenarios for desktop apps.

Getting started with Facebook App Install Ads - Facebook App Install Ads is a great way to do user acquisition for your Windows Store apps. You will get broad reach, great targeting, and a great dashboard for creating and managing your ads. This video will walk you through creating a Facebook App Install Ad and adding code to your app for proper install attribution.

Getting started with the Windows SDK for Google Analytics - To optimize your app and provide the best value to your users,  you need to have great analytics. In this video, you will get quick, step-by-step, guidance on how to connect to Google Analytics from within your Windows 10 Universal apps, and .NET desktop apps. This video uses the just announced Windows SDK for Google Analytics.

Developer tools and updates - Windows is built for developers, and the Windows 10 Creators Update is no exception. In this session, we'll focus on how Visual Studio 2017 and the Windows 10 Creators Update make you more productive. We'll discuss updates to the Windows Device Portal, improvements to Windows Developer Mode, Bash and Console, and many other cool advances.

Using the Windows Store to enhance your app - The Windows Store and Windows Dev Center are constantly improving to meet the evolving needs of developers and the market. In this session, we'll explore new Windows Store capabilities that make it easier for customers to find and acquire your apps and games, and Dev Center improvements that optimize your app submissions and management workflows.

Building personal and productive apps with Composition and XAML updates - First impressions are important, so one of our goals with the Windows 10 Creators Update is to make it easier to deliver beautiful, engaging Windows app experiences. In this session, we'll discuss how the Creators Update will help simplify building apps that feel more natural (using Ink and Dial) and more beautiful (using Composition advances). We'll not only walk through the big new improvements, but also highlight some of the smaller tweaks that can be just as important, like menus, dialogs, scrollbars and keyboards.

Improving user engagement with Windows and Cortana Skills - Engaging with your users has always been a challenge, especially now that each user wants their app experience to flow seamlessly between their many devices. In this session, we'll explore how you can meet this need regardless of platform and form factor—whether the devices use small screens, big screens, or no screens at all. We'll also discuss improvements with the Windows Desktop Bridge.

Panel Discussion / Live Q&A - After a few hours of telling you what's new, Kevin Gallo and the Windows engineering team will take the stage and answer your questions. The team loves hearing straight from our developers, and talking straight with our developers. Join us and submit your questions live.

There is a lot of information to take in but if you want get your apps updated and ready for the release of the Windows 10 Creators Update, which is expected in April, then the time to start is now.

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