Welcome, Windows 10 IoT
It gives us great pleasure to welcome the public release of Windows 10 IoT Core for Raspberry Pi 2 and the MinnowBoard Max. It’s a bit different to its big brother the standard Windows 10 package; it’s a new edition of Windows for embedded systems in the “Internet of Things”.
Introduction to Windows 10 IoT Core
Embedded devices may or may not have screens, and in Windows 10 IoT Core there is no Windows shell experience; users will write their own Universal Windows apps that function as the interface of the device – you can give these as much character as you like!
Specially designed for ease of use, Windows 10 IoT Core makes it easy to pick up and learn - this is not an OS purely for the experts, though they will find little limit to what they can achieve.
Windows 10 IoT Core has come a long way since the first preview release in May of this year; the implementation of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth compatibility is perhaps the most notable example and will work to keep devices connected both to each other and the Web.
Projects!
Embedded devices running Windows 10 IoT Core are only limited by your imagination; just look at this Rover Robot using Windows 10 IoT and a Raspberry Pi 2!
[View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx0OnTLxvWU:0:0]
What do I need to run Windows 10 IoT?
On top of the obvious – a Raspberry Pi 2 or MinnowBoard Max – you will need a development machine running the latest release of Windows 10 (Build 10240) and the latest version of Visual Studio 2015.
How do I get it?
Visit the Windows IoT Dev Centre to choose your board and follow the easy step-by-step instructions.
Further reading
Looking for more information on Windows 10 IoT? Check out external contributor Paul Winstanley’s blog series
For a better understanding of what the IoT actually is, why not have a look at Microsoft Cloud Evangelist Ewan Dalton’s article, “What is the ‘Internet of Things’ and where does Microsoft sit?”