New Windows to introduce real-time telemetry system

ZD Net's Mary Jo Foley writes Microsoft's new Windows release is expected to feature a real-time telemetry system codenamed "Asimov". This will allow the OS team to see in near real-time what's happening on users' machines, allowing them to measure how successful new feature rollouts and other updates are. The data is reportedly "obscured and aggregated" to avoid privacy issues and will allow the Windows team to react much faster, not only to release new features but also to fix issues. More details about the new Windows release are expected later today as Microsoft is hosting a big press event.

Those Threshold testers enrolled in the Windows Insider program that Neowin wrote about recently will have those features and fixes pushed automatically to them after they download the Enterprise Technical Preview, which is expected by early October. These users will be getting the code that Microsoft is releasing from the main Windows development codebase almost as soon as it's ready. This means those willing to play along will be running code that is only weeks old.

To pull this off, Microsoft has had to reimagine Windows engineering so that it treats Windows as a service, as I blogged recently. And that's a huge and much-needed change if Microsoft really is going cloud first/mobile first.

I've heard Microsoft built a new real-time telemetry system codenamed "Asimov" (yes, another Halo-influenced codename) that lets the OS team see in near real-time what's happening on users' machines. This is how Microsoft may be able to measure how successful the features it "flights" with different user groups are. One of my contacts said Asimov is a system that the Xbox team originally built and used during its development process.