Windows Phone build 10069 using mouse and keyboard

During Build 2015 and last week's Ignite 2015 conference Microsoft's Joe Belfiore provided a demo of the Windows 10 Mobile Continuum experience during the main keynotes.

The Continuum feature, which we had only previously seen demoed with the Windows 10 tablet mode, allows a Windows 10 Mobile user to use apps from their phone on a secondary screen along with a mouse and keyboard.

And yes, before you ask, it does require new hardware as confirmed by the Ring Master Gabe Aul.

Still it is a pretty neat feature to be able to use Windows 10 Mobile on a phone at what appears to be a high level of productivity using a larger secondary monitor and a paired Bluetooth mouse and keyboard.

While many believe this could be the future of computing with dockable phones I still want to see this in real world use to truly understand its capability and how well it runs.

Of course, that means waiting for new hardware.

In the meantime one of the folks over at McAkins Online, a tech enthusiast site, has discovered that when you create a universal app in Visual Studio 2015 RC and deploy it to the Windows Phone 10 emulator that it creates a VHD of Windows 10 Mobile build 10069 to run that app in.  That VHD can then be accessed separately using Hyper-V.

Hyper-V does not support touch but, as the below video from McAkins Online shows, Windows 10 Mobile is being built to support a mouse and keyboard across the board.

If you choose to try this out be aware that some limitations exists such as being unable to trigger the Notification Center with a mouse/keyboard or perform swipe gestures. Finally, there is no sound support either but again, it is pre-release software so some limits are to be expected.

Check out the video below where they demo all the keyboard shortcuts and mouse maneuvering in build 10069 of Windows 10 Mobile across several apps and system areas:

 But, wait...there's probably more so be sure to follow me on Twitter and Google+.