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CHAPTER 7
Windows 10 networking
One of the key design goals of modern Microsoft Windows versions is to help people be more
productive on mobile devices. So it should come as no surprise that many features described in
this chapter are especially useful on portable devices, including small tablets and phones.
Some of the features I discuss in this chapter represent extensions of capabilities introduced
in Windows 8 and 8.1. Some require complementary capabilities on a remote server. Others are
hardware-dependent, and their impact won’t be truly visible until devices that include the required
hardware are available to “light up” the corresponding Windows 10 features.
Wireless networking enhancements
The single biggest change under the hood in Windows 10 is a new Wireless Driver Interface (WDI)
driver model. This feature allows for a universal WLAN driver package that supports native functionality
in both desktop and mobile versions of Windows 10.
One benefit of the WDI driver model is that cellular and Wi-Fi connections can be managed using
the same networking stack. That allows for easy configuration of metered connections, where you want
to avoid large data transfers when possible, and monitoring data usage on a per-connection basis. It
also offers greater reliability, with the capability to recover quickly when a device hangs for firmwarerelated
reasons. The new driver model also supports MAC address randomization to increase security
and privacy.
There are also enhancements for Bluetooth devices, both classic and low-energy (LE), with improved
audio through support for wideband speech and the aptX audio codec. The latter provides audio
quality equivalent to a wired connection over Bluetooth. And on devices that require higher security
it’s possible to use management software to force Simple Secure Pairing (SSP). That option limits the
class of Bluetooth devices that can connect to a device (keyboards and mice only, for example) to
reduce the attack surface.
Three emerging wireless standards are supported with features that were introduced in Windows 8.1
and are enhanced for Windows 10:
■ ■ Near-field communication (NFC) Windows 8.1 introduced tap-to-pair printing support, which
allows laptops and mobile devices that include NFC support to connect to an NFC-enabled enterprise
printer with a simple tap. Existing printers can be NFC enabled with NFC tags. Windows 10
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