This page provides details for the version history of the Microsoft's Windows Phone branded mobile operating systems, from the release of Windows Phone 7 in October 2010, which was preceded by Windows Mobile version 6.x.
Windows Phone 7 was the first release of the Windows Phone mobile client operating system, released worldwide on October 21, 2010, and in the United States on November 8, 2010.
Table of versions: Windows Phone 7 | ||
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Version | Release date | Changes |
7.0.7004 | October 29, 2010 |
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7.0.7008 | 2010 |
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7.0.7390 (NoDo) | March 22, 2011 [1] |
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7.0.7392 | 2011 |
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7.0.7403 | 2011 |
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Version | Release date | Changes |
At the 2011 Mobile World Congress, Steve Ballmer announced a major update to Windows Phone 7 due toward the end of the year, Windows Phone 7.5, codenamed Mango. [2] The new OS would address many of the platform's shortcomings, including a mobile version of Internet Explorer 9 that supports the same web standards and graphical capability as the desktop version, multi-tasking of third-party apps, [3] [4] Twitter integration for the People Hub, [5] [6] [7] and Windows Live SkyDrive access. [8] Although the OS internally identifies itself as version 7.1, it is marketed as version 7.5 in all published materials intended for end-users. [9] [10]
Microsoft started rolling out Windows Phone 7.5 to both the United States [11] and International [12] markets on September 27, 2011. The first phones that came pre-loaded with Windows Phone 7.5 were released in the last quarter of 2011.
A minor update released in 2012 known as Tango, along with other bug fixes, would also lower the hardware requirements to allow for devices with 800 MHz CPUs and 256 MB of RAM to run Windows Phone. Certain resource-intensive features are also disabled on these phones, and the Windows Phone Store will also prevent the installation of apps that are considered to be too intensive for use on weaker hardware. [13] The lower requirements were adopted in order to allow the development of lower-cost devices, particularly to target emerging markets such as China. [14]
Table of versions: Windows Phone 7.5 | ||
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Version | Release date | Changes |
7.10.7720 (Mango) | September 27, 2011 |
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7.10.7740 | 2011 |
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7.10.8107 (Refresh) | 2011 |
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7.10.8112 | 2012 |
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7.10.8773.98 (Tango) | June 28, 2012 |
Also confirmed are 23 additional markets [35] including; Bahrain, Bulgaria, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Estonia, Iceland, Iraq, Israel, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, Ukraine, Venezuela and Vietnam. This update will also include a Skype application. The Nokia Lumia 610 and ZTE Orbit, [36] introduced at Mobile World Congress in 2012, are the first phones to run the Tango update. |
7.10.8779.8 |
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7.10.8783.12 |
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Version | Release date | Changes |
Windows Phone 7.8 is the final major release of Windows Phone 7. It consists exclusively of user interface improvements backported from Windows Phone 8, as existing Windows Phone 7 devices can not be upgraded to due to changes to its architecture and hardware requirements. These include a home screen with the ability to resize live tiles, new accent color options, and an updated lock screen with support for Bing wallpapers. Unlike Windows Phone 8, the lock screen does not allow third-party apps to display notifications on it. [37] [38]
Table of versions: Windows Phone 7.8 | ||
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Version | Release date | Changes |
7.10.8858.136 | February 1–2, 2013 |
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7.10.8860.142 | March 14, 2013 |
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7.10.8862.144 | March 14, 2013 |
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Version | Release date | Changes |
General Distribution Release 1, a minor update known as Portico was rolled out in December 2012 that brought some improvements and bugfixes, including enhancements in Messaging, more efficient Bluetooth connectivity, and an "always-on" setting for WiFi connections, among other additional platform updates
Microsoft rolled out a package of minor updates called General Distribution Release 2, beginning in July 2013 and spanning the following months, depending on the manufacturer and carrier. Along with this update Nokia released its own update which updated the firmware of the user, namely Lumia Amber, which was available for only Lumia phones. The update brought many camera improvements and fixed some bugs in the cameras of existing Lumia phones.
On October 14, 2013, Microsoft released the third General Distribution Release update for Windows Phone 8, which would roll out to phones over the following months. Windows Phone Developers were among the first to receive the update under a new Developer Preview Program.
Table of versions: Windows Phone 8 | ||
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Version | Release date | Highlights |
8.0.9903.10 (Apollo) | October 29, 2012 |
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8.0.10211.204 (GDR1) | December 11, 2012 |
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8.0.10327.77 8.0.10328.78 | July 12, 2013 |
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8.0.10512.142 8.0.10501.127 8.0.10517.150 8.0.10521.155 (GDR3) [41] [42] | October 14, 2013 [43] |
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8.0.10532.166 | April 14, 2014 |
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Version | Release date | Highlights |
General Distribution Release 1 (GDR1; also referred to as Update 1) adds new language and region support for Cortana, the option to organize apps into folders on the Start Screen, SMS forwarding of multiple messages, improvements to Xbox Music, a live tile for the Windows Phone Store and an option for sandboxing applications. In addition, Update 1/GDR1 also includes new VPN and Bluetooth features for enterprise users, as well as support for interactive cases such as HTC's "Dot View" case, larger "phablet" screen resolutions such as 1280x800, 540x960 qHD and 1280x768 and the Qualcomm QuickCharge 2.0 standard. [44] [45]
Microsoft has made several changes to Internet Explorer Mobile that brings the browser experience closer in line with the experiences on Safari (iOS) and Chrome (Android). To accomplish this, Microsoft moved away from open standards and adopted non-standard features used in Safari and Chrome, implemented browser detection, improved page rendering by detecting legacy WebKit features, brought support for HTML5, and fixed interoperability issues with bad HTML code. [46]
An example for the comparison of the changes made to the user-agent string in Update 1/GDR1 in order to overcome erroneous methods of browser detection and correctly deliver mobile content to Internet Explorer Mobile. [47] [48]
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Information regarding GDR2 (also referred to as Update 2) was released in February 2015 it was revealed that Microsoft was working on a 2nd update for Windows Phone 8.1 that would provide increased security for OEM's, add extra languages and additional technology support and is also reported to bring an anti-theft mode. [49]
Table of versions: Windows Phone 8.1 | ||
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Version | Release date | Highlights |
8.10.12359.845 (Blue) | April 14, 2014 | User Interface
General user experience changes
New technology support
Internet Explorer 11
Apps
System
Enterprise
Developer features
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8.10.12382.878 | May 14, 2014 |
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8.10.12393.890 | June 2, 2014 |
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8.10.12397.895 | June 12, 2014 |
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8.10.12400.899 | July 16, 2014 | |
8.10.14141.167 | ||
8.10.14147.180 (GDR1) [54] [55] | August 4, 2014 | Apps
General user experience changes
New technology support
Enterprise
OEM
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8.10.14157.200 | August 19, 2014 |
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8.10.14176.243 | September 24, 2014 |
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8.10.14192.280 | October 24, 2014 |
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8.10.14203.306 | November 13, 2014 |
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8.10.14219.341 | December 5, 2014 |
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8.10.14226.359 | December 24, 2014 |
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8.10.14234.375 | February 24, 2015 |
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8.10.15116.125 (GDR2) [57] | March 2, 2015 | General user experience changes
New technology support [61]
Security features |
8.10.15127.138 | March 2015 |
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8.10.15135.146 | March 2015 | |
8.10.15137.148 | March 2015 | |
8.10.15143.154 | April 2015 | |
8.10.15145.156 | April 2015 | |
8.10.15148.160 | May 2015 |
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8.10.15153.165 | June 2015 | |
8.10.15155.167 | July 2015 | |
8.10.15156.168 | January 2016 | |
8.10.15165.177 | August 2016 | |
8.10.15172.184 | March 2017 |
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8.10.15176.188 | December 2017 |
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8.10.15185.197 | November 2018 |
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8.10.15191.203 | June 2019 |
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Version | Release date | Highlights |
Windows 10 Mobile was announced on January 21, 2015, as a mobile operating system for smartphones and tablets with screens smaller than 8 inches, with the first build released on February 12, 2015. [66] It is the successor to Windows Phone 8.1 [67] and replaced the Windows Phone brand, while Microsoft has since ceased active development of Windows 10 Mobile. Windows Phone 8.1 devices were eligible for upgrade to Windows 10, pursuant of manufacturer and carrier support. [68] Some features may have varied depending on hardware compatibility. [69]
Microsoft Office, MS Office, or simply Office, is a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketing term for an office suite, the first version of Office contained Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Over the years, Office applications have grown substantially closer with shared features such as a common spell checker, Object Linking and Embedding data integration and Visual Basic for Applications scripting language. Microsoft also positions Office as a development platform for line-of-business software under the Office Business Applications brand.
Microsoft XNA is a freeware set of tools with a managed runtime environment that Microsoft Gaming developed to facilitate video game development. XNA is based on .NET Framework, with versions that run on Windows and Xbox 360. XNA Game Studio can help develop XNA games. The XNA toolset was announced on March 24, 2004, at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California. A first Community Technology Preview of XNA Build was released on March 14, 2006.
Internet Explorer Mobile was a mobile version of Internet Explorer developed by Microsoft, based on versions of the MSHTML (Trident) layout engine. IE Mobile comes loaded by default with Windows Phone and Windows CE. Later versions of Internet Explorer Mobile are based on the desktop version of Internet Explorer. Older versions however, called Pocket Internet Explorer, are not based on the same layout engine.
Bing for mobile is a search tool for handheld mobile devices from Microsoft as part of their Bing search engine. It is designed for mobile device displays. Bing Mobile is built into Windows Mobile and Windows Phone as proprietary software, accessed via the Search key on Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8 devices. It is also available on Windows Phone 8.1, and can be downloaded for other platforms, including and Android.
Microsoft Software Updater is a Windows and OS X based application launched in 2006, that enables customers to update and recover their mobile device firmware of a S40 or S60 or Lumia device from any Internet enabled access point. To avoid data loss users are prompted with on-screen advice on how to safely update their device.
Microsoft Silverlight is a discontinued application framework designed for writing and running rich internet applications, similar to Adobe's runtime, Adobe Flash. While early versions of Silverlight focused on streaming media, later versions supported multimedia, graphics, and animation, and gave support to developers for CLI languages and development tools. Silverlight was one of the two application development platforms for Windows Phone, but web pages using Silverlight did not run on the Windows Phone or Windows Mobile versions of Internet Explorer, as there was no Silverlight plugin for Internet Explorer on those platforms.
Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft Mobile for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design language. Unlike Windows Mobile, it was primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market.
Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995.
The Nokia Lumia 800, which was codenamed 'Sea Ray', is a smartphone that was launched by Nokia on October 26, 2011, at the Nokia World 2011 event. Initially, it operated on Snapdragon S2 processor and Windows Phone 7.5 "Mango" and was the first device manufactured by Nokia to run on the Windows Phone operating system. This marked a significant shift for the company from using Symbian for their smartphones. Upon its original release in November 2011 in Europe, it was Nokia's flagship product and was hence a crucial product for their mobile phone business.
The Nokia Lumia 900 is a Windows Phone-powered smartphone, first unveiled on January 9, 2012, by Nokia at Consumer Electronics Show 2012, where it won the Best Smartphone award in January 2012. The phone has 4G LTE support and was released in April 2012. The Lumia 900 was the flagship smartphone of the Lumia range until the release of its successor, the Lumia 920.
Microsoft Lumia is a discontinued line of mobile devices that was originally designed and marketed by Nokia and later by Microsoft Mobile. Introduced in November 2011, the line was the result of a long-term partnership between Nokia and Microsoft—as such, Lumia smartphones run on Microsoft software, the Windows Phone operating system; and later the newer Windows 10 Mobile. The Lumia name is derived from the partitive plural form of the Finnish word lumi, meaning "snow".
Microsoft mobile services are a set of proprietary mobile services created specifically for mobile devices; they are typically offered through mobile applications and mobile browser for Windows Phone platforms, BREW, and Java. Microsoft's mobile services are typically connected with a Microsoft account and often come preinstalled on Microsoft's own mobile operating systems while they are offered via various means for other platforms. Microsoft started to develop for mobile computing platforms with the launch of Windows CE in 1996 and later added Microsoft's Pocket Office suite to their Handheld PC line of PDAs in April 2000. From December 2014 to June 2015, Microsoft made a number of corporate acquisitions, buying several of the top applications listed in Google Play and the App Store including Acompli, Sunrise Calendar, Datazen, Wunderlist, Echo Notification Lockscreen, and MileIQ.
Windows Phone 7 is the first release of the Windows Phone mobile client operating system, released worldwide on October 21, 2010, and in the United States on November 8, 2010. It runs on the Windows CE 6.0 kernel.
The Nokia Lumia 810 is a Windows Phone smartphone made by Nokia exclusively for wireless carrier T-Mobile US. It was announced on October 8, 2012. The device runs the then-new Windows Phone 8 operating system and features a 4.3-inch AMOLED WVGA ClearBlack display, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 1.5 GHz Snapdragon processor, exchangeable shells and supports Qi inductive charging when equipped with a specific shell. It supports T-Mobile's 4G network.
The Nokia Lumia 520 is an entry-level Windows Phone 8 smartphone announced by Nokia at the 2013 Mobile World Congress.
Windows Phone 8.1 is the third generation of Microsoft Mobile's Windows Phone mobile operating system, succeeding Windows Phone 8. Rolled out at Microsoft's Build Conference in San Francisco, California on April 2, 2014, it was released in final form to Windows Phone developers on April 14, 2014 and reached general availability on August 4, 2014. All Windows Phones running Windows Phone 8 can be upgraded to Windows Phone 8.1, with release dependent on carrier rollout dates.
Cortana was a virtual assistant developed by Microsoft that used the Bing search engine to perform tasks such as setting reminders and answering questions for users.
Microsoft Mobile Oy was a Finland subsidiary of Microsoft Devices involved in the development and manufacturing of mobile phones. Based in Keilaniemi, Espoo, it was established in 2014 following the acquisition of Nokia's Devices and Services division by Microsoft in a deal valued at €5.4 billion, which was completed in April 2014. Nokia's then-CEO, Stephen Elop, joined Microsoft as president of its Devices division following the acquisition, and the acquisition was part of Steve Ballmer's strategy to turn Microsoft into a "devices and services" company. Under a 10-year licensing agreement, Microsoft Mobile held rights to sell feature phones running the S30/S30+ platform under the Nokia brand.
Windows 10 Mobile is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft Mobile. First released in 2015, it is the successor to Windows Phone 8.1, but was marketed by Microsoft as being an edition of its PC operating system Windows 10.
Windows Insider is an open software testing program by Microsoft that allows users globally who own a valid license of Windows 11, Windows 10, or Windows Server to register for pre-release builds of the operating system previously only accessible to software developers.