Microsoft Offers Windows 10 Edge Testing on Downloadable VMs

The jury still appears to be out on whether the use of Microsoft's new Edge browser with Windows 10 is going to be as successful as the company originally thought. As reported in a Computerworld article, only between one-sixth and one-third of customers using the newest operating system have also embraced Edge.

In fact, the article also stated that in the first 16 days of August, the global average daily usage share was 0.7 percent for the browser, compared to Windows 10 at 4.4 percent. In an effort to boost confidence in the compatibility and ease-of-use between the two, Microsoft has made downloadable virtual machines (VMs) available for use by anyone wanting to test various scenarios for Windows 10 and Microsoft Edge, according to our sister site Windows IT Pro.

The VMs expire after 90 days and are available thus far for Hyper-V 2012, VirtualBox, and VMware, but Microsoft promises more formats are forthcoming. The company hopes that individualized testing will convince potential customers to use the new OS with its latest internet browser.

That's not the only promise coming from its Redmond, Washington headquarters. Since the release of Windows 10 back on July, IT administrators have been asking for a Remote Server Administration Tool (RSAT) that’s compatible with Windows 10. The current version only works with Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, but Gabe Aul, the company's corporate vice president, says the updated RSAT should be available by the end of August.

In other Microsoft news, Windows Insiders are in the process of previewing a new build of Windows 10, as reported by The Verge; and have thus far given feedback regarding default color options as well as memory enhancements that would reduce the amount of memory used per process so that the OS can keep more applications in physical memory at a time.

To read the original post and to find out the bug you should be aware of in the Windows 10 VM, visit http://windowsitpro.com/windows-10/download-vms-test-microsoft-edge-and-windows-10