Microsoft Going Big With The Cloud

Through Microsoft Corp.’s Azure’s RemoteApp, developers are now able to run the latest version of Internet Explorer without having to install the preview version of Windows 10. Speaking on the development Anton Molleda, Microsoft program manager, said in a blog post that this will preclude developers from needing to run a new OS or a heavyweight virtual machine on your device, adding that, “Going forward, this will be the recommended way for developers who are not running Windows 10 to test the latest IE preview versions.”

If already signed up for a Microsoft account, developers are required to register on the RemoteIE website and then select a client application for Android, iOS, OS X or Windows. One of the drawbacks is that each session has an hour cut-off point, or ten minutes in the event that the session is idle. Referring to session time constraints, Microsoft stated that users are not limited to the number of sessions they can have on any given day, providing that there are resources available and not too many users are connected at the same time. If this should occur, developers will be asked to try again in a few minutes, stated Microsoft.

Another drawback Microsoft has stated is that a remote session will be slower than a local session; it may hang or crash. And because it doesn’t have GPU support, some graphics won’t appear as they should, while pages blocked by firewalls and internal URLs will not be available on the remote session of IE. Regardless of the negatives, the move shows that Microsoft wants to show off to devs not using their platforms what the company is calling an evolutionary leap in its operating systems.

It’s also free, which isn’t a bad incentive.

At the moment the versions available are IE11 and IE11 in Enterprise mode, it was stated in a RemoteIE FAQ, which means no IE6. For anyone with ideas on how to improve the service Microsoft asks you to go to its IEDevChat Twitter page and make a comment.

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