After what seemed like an eternity in February and early March, the news surrounding Windows 10 has been fast and furious these past two weeks. Today’s announcement, the availability of the Windows 10 SDK (Software Development Kit) continues that and is a signal to developers to start preparing their apps for Windows 10. Now.
The new Windows 10 SDK can be found at this link and like Windows 10 itself, this SDK is in preview mode (i.e. beta). Still, if you are a developer or are thinking of doing some development in this new Universal app world of Windows 10, the SDK should be something to download and review. To do so you will need to be a part of the Windows Insider program which is also free.
For those who are not familiar with SDKs, these are the bits and pieces that developers need to use to design and build applications to run. They give access to things like frameworks for the OS and access to parts of the OS for their apps to run. The Windows 10 SDK has all of the components required to do application development and will be the same SDK that is used to develop across all Windows 10 powered devices. This is a big change from where things are today where a separate SDK is required for Windows Phone and Windows 8.1 (although there are some common elements).
If you are not a developer then what does this really mean for you? Honestly, not much on the surface but should be interpreted as a positive step in the evolution of Windows 10. Clearly Microsoft is wanting to get tools into the hands of developers early and with the BUILD conference coming up next month in Chicago, I suspect they want to get an early beta out now with a more substantial Windows 10 SDK at that event.
