After Lenovo, Dell is caught self-certifying apps. This caused dismay earlier this year for a good brand like Lenovo, and will certainly do harm to Dell as well.

But I am almost certain why this happened in the first place, why Lenovo and now Dell have their own self-certificate that can be used to sign apps that they choose. It is probably because Windows 8, and probably Windows 10 even more, has tightened the screws regarding what application is allowed to run. We are not talking about applications from the new Windows store, i.e. applications that must be sent to Microsoft for an approval. We are talking about native applications that vendors make available from their websites, just like vendors do, and that Microsoft has made increasingly harder to even start which each new release of Windows.

For the record, beginning with Windows 8, a native application is blocked (BLOCKED) from running until it has earned enough reputation in order for Windows to unlock it. Users can always force the application to run, but this requires getting through obstacles and this is unlikely for most users.

In other words, Microsoft has killed their own foundation, which was the open nature of Windows and the ability to run arbitrary software.

If you ask why the historical Windows developer base out there is no more developing Windows software, perhaps this is an idea why.

Of course, if you are a small vendor, like anyone of us, you don't have the power to sue Microsoft and get them corrected for their wrongdoings and inexcusable behavior. But at least, there is some light in the horizon, Microsoft is slowly getting pushed sideways by users and the next two years will be interesting for Windows in the corporate space. Obviously, Microsoft will probably publish zero figure on this very subject, you can bet.

Incredible as it seems, Microsoft has managed to botch the Windows 10 SP1 release, which was supposed to be the start for enterprise deployment of Windows 10. Over the week-end, Microsoft simply pulled the build from their servers. According to forums, there are many issues. And most notably, corporations will not be happy to learn that Microsoft has managed to screw bitlocker, their hard drive encryption technology (which we know has both a backdoor and documented flaws for bypassing security checks).

This isn't going to bode well for Microsoft going forward. It wasn't going smoothly either in the consumer space when early adopters realize that Microsoft had planted spies in Windows 10 to record their EVERY doings, and apparently if you managed to find and turn off those settings after the install, you have to do that again after SP1 because Microsoft thinks they should force spy mode as default on your computer.

I don't understand how thousands of companies around the world are not suing Microsoft over this alone already. And even states. And let's not talk about the EU who is very wary on privacy issues in general.

In the meantime, apparently Google went ahead with at least two good news for Android developers and users out there. One is app streaming, a new deployment model which aims at lowering the bar to entry for apps (app fatigue indeed). The other is Android studio, which is the equivalent of Visual Studio for Android, which gets an instant emulator for a change, again lowering the bar to entry for apps development and debugging.