Microsoft on Wednesday announced new features in Windows 10, unveiled a set of software development kits (SDKs) to help developers bring their code for the Web, .NET, Win32, Android and iOS to Windows 10. The company also unveiled the new "Edge" web browser for Windows 10. The announcements were made at the company’s annual Build developer conference, where Microsoft also announced new Microsoft Azure data services for intelligent applications; Visual Studio and .NET tools and runtimes for Windows, Mac and Linux; and APIs that enable developers to build rich apps with Office 365.

"Microsoft has bold ambitions for platforms that empower developers across Windows, Azure and Office," said Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. "Together, we will create more personal and more intelligent experiences that empower billions of people to achieve more."

Microsoft showcased several new features in Windows 10, from new capabilities to scale applications across devices to new ways for developers to build code for Windows 10. The company expects to have 1 billion active Windows 10 devices by FY18. It hopes to accomplish this by delivering Windows 10 with a free upgrade offer.

Microsoft further detailed ways in which developers can create a single app that scales across all Windows 10 devices, automatically adapting to different screen sizes. With the Universal Windows Platform, developers can tailor their apps to the unique capabilities of each device, integrate Cortana and Xbox Live into their apps, offer commerce, create holograms, and publish their apps into the Windows Store. Also as part of the Universal Windows Platform, the company shared how apps can scale using Continuum for phones, enabling people to use their phones like PCs.

Microsoft welcomed all developers to the Universal Windows Platform by announcing four new software development toolkits that will make it easy to bring their code for the Web, .NET, Win32, iOS and Android to the Windows Store with "minimal code modifications", according to Microsoft. This will enable developers to start with an existing code base such as Android or iOS, integrate with the Universal Windows Platform capabilities, and then distribute their new application through the Windows Store.

The code bases enabled by these SDKs are:

• Web sites
• .NET and Win32
• Android Java/C++
• iOS Objective C

Adobe plans to will bring their Photoshop Elements and Premier Elements apps to the Windows Store, leveraging the new SDK for Win32 applications.

The Universal Windows Platform platform enables developers to integrate Cortana and Xbox Live into their applications, offer commerce, embrace natural user input, create holograms, and more. The platform also enables Continuum. Previously, Microsoft had demonstrated how Universal Windows apps and the Windows shell transition between tablet and PC modes. Today, the company showed how Universal Windows apps and Continuum for phones enables a screen to become like a PC.

The Universal Windows Platform enables applications to become holograms. Today Microsoft shared the progress over the last 100 days since announcing Microsoft HoloLens - the world’s first, fully untethered holographic computer powered by Windows 10. Microsoft shared how HoloLens is helping Trimble and its customers visualize building designs in the context of real world objects and landscapes, giving them the ability to walk around designs while clients view them remotely and see street side how a building is going to look. And how medical students at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic learn procedures without ever picking up a scalpe!

Microsoft said the new Windows Store will also offer a single unified experience for Windows 10 customers across devices. Transactions will take advantage of a range of popular payment options, including the largest carrier billing footprint of any ecosystem supporting 90 mobile operators. USA Today, WeChat, Disney and Netflix Inc. are a few of the partners referenced in the keynote already building apps for the Windows Store.

Microsoft also announced the name of a new browser, Microsoft Edge - previoudly known as "Project Spartan". "We chose the name Microsoft Edge as it reflects our commitment to developers to deliver a browser that lives at the edge of modern web standards and security," said Moicrosoft. Microsoft Edge is a browser built for doing, with built-in note taking and sharing; a reading pane for no distractions; and integration with Cortana. Microsoft showcased how Microsoft Edge will offer developers better discoverability of their apps and its plans for future extensibility with JavaScript and HTML.

Edge will be the only browser supported on Windows 10 Mobile devices. Microsoft will make both IE and Edge available on devices running Windows 10 Desktop on PCs, desktops, laptops and larger tablets, for backwards-compatibility reasons.=

Microsoft also previewed Azure SQL Database elastic database, which allow ISVs and software-as-a-service developers to pool capacity across thousands of databases. To help developers manage massive datasets, Microsoft introduced Azure SQL Data Warehouse, an enterprise-class cloud data warehouse as a service that can grow, shrink and pause in seconds. Microsoft also announced Azure Data Lake, an open and massively scalable data repository that supports petabyte-size files and provides high-speed integration with Azure HDInsight, Azure Machine Learning, Cloudera and Hortonworks to derive insights from vast amounts of data.

Microsoft announced new tools and runtimes for multiple platforms and devices. In preview on Windows, Mac and Linux, Visual Studio Code is a free code-focused editor optimized for Web and cloud applications. Furthering its work with open source and .NET communities, Microsoft released a preview of the .NET Core for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Microsoft also released Visual Studio 2015 Release Candidate, which makes it easier for developers to build and deploy applications to Windows, Linux, iOS and Android platforms.

Microsoft also introduced more ways for developers to reach 1.2 billion Office users, including the new Office Graph API, expanded add-in capabilities for the iPad and Outlook, and unified APIs. The Office Graph API allows Microsoft's customers and developers to access, add to and build with the Office Graph, an intelligent store of Office 365 user, service and relationship data. Unified APIs across OneNote, Outlook and OneDrive, combined with the Office Graph, will enable developers to help consumers and organizations take advantage of their useful data.

No Word On availability

Microsoft spent much of a keynote address at its Build developer conference Wednesday talking up Windows 10, but it did not answer when the new version of the new operating system will arrive.

Microsoft said in March that Windows 10 would launch this summer in 190 countries and 111 languages. AMD recently spilled the details earlier when its chief executive, Lisa Su, said in a call with investors that the release date was pegged for late July.

Many anticipated some clarification on the release date during Wednesday morning's presentation. But the company remained mum.