Microsoft has released another Windows 10 version this week with support for the Rasberry Pi2 and MinnowBoard MAX devices. Dubbed IoT Core, it’s designed for embedded devices which may or may not include a screen. This version doesn’t include the usual user shell experience and so you have to write a Universal Windows App as the interface if any. The final version includes a number of key enhancements such as:
- Improved support for Python and Node.js, including a new Express Node.js project template
- GPIO performance on the Raspberry Pi 2 has improved by 8X to 10X
- Analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and pulse-width modulation (PWM) are now supported via breakout boards and ICs
- New Universal Windows Platform (UWP) APIs give apps easy control over system management features like time zone and network connections
- Full support for the standard UWP languages like C++, C#, JS and VB
- Support – including full tools, debugging, and project systems – for Node.js and Python.
- Project templates for the standard UWP languages create projects that look like standard UWP projects
The final version does have some breaking changes so if you’ve been working with the Preview version you’ll need to make some changes to get your code working again.
There were a variety of breaking changes in the VS project system between the //build/ and RC and RTM. For the most part, application code will remain functional, but the project itself will need to be rebuilt. The recommendation from the Visual Studio team is to build a new project and move the code over into the new project shell. — Microsoft Windows 10 Blog
Microsoft and the maker community have published numerous samples to show how to read from sensors, control a robot, home automation, and more. This version is free and you can download it here. For more information about what’s included in this release, check out the Release notes.