This page provides details for the version history of the Microsoft's

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design lan ...

branded mobile operating systems, from the release of

Windows Phone 7 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. It received multiple large upda ...

in October 2010, which was preceded by

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants. Its origin dated back to Windows CE in 1996, though Windows Mobile itself first appeared in 2000 as Pock ...

version 6.x.

Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 7 was the first release of the

mobile client operating system, released worldwide on October 21, 2010, and in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

on November 8, 2010.

Table of versions

Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango)

At the 2011 Mobile World Congress,

Steve Ballmer Steven Anthony Ballmer (; March 24, 1956) is an American business magnate and investor who served as the chief executive officer of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014. He is the current owner of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball As ...

announced a major update to Windows Phone 7 due toward the end of the year, Windows Phone 7.5, codenamed ''Mango''. The new OS would address many of the platform's shortcomings, including a mobile version of

Internet Explorer 9 Internet Explorer 9 or IE9 (officially Windows Internet Explorer 9) is a web browser for Windows. It was released by Microsoft on March 14, 2011, as the ninth version of Internet Explorer and the successor to Internet Explorer 8, and can replace p ...

that supports the same web standards and graphical capability as the desktop version, multi-tasking of third-party apps, Twitter integration for the People Hub, and

Windows Live SkyDrive Microsoft OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive) is a file hosting service operated by Microsoft. First launched in August 2007, it enables registered users to share and synchronize their files. OneDrive also works as the storage backend of the web vers ...

access. 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. Microsoft started rolling out Windows Phone 7.5 to both the United States and International 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. The lower requirements were adopted in order to allow the development of lower-cost devices, particularly to target

emerging markets An emerging market (or an emerging country or an emerging economy) is a market that has some characteristics of a developed market, but does not fully meet its standards. This includes markets that may become developed markets in the future or wer ...

such as

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

Table of versions

Windows Phone 7.8

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 Windows Phone 8 is the second generation of the Windows Phone mobile operating system from Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft. It was released on October 29, 2012, and, like its predecessor, it features a flat design, flat user interface based on t ...

, 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.

Table of versions

Windows Phone 8

GDR1

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

GDR2

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.

GDR3

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 8.1

GDR1

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 Groove Music (formerly Xbox Music or Zune Music Pass) is a discontinued audio player software application included with Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. The app is also associated with a now-discontinued music streaming service, Gro ...

, 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. Microsoft has made several changes to Internet Explorer Mobile that brings the browser experience closer in line with the experiences on

Safari A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an impor ...

( 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.

GDR2

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.

Table of versions

Windows 10 Mobile

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. It is the successor to Windows Phone 8.1 and replaced the Windows Phone brand, while Microsoft has since ceased active development of Windows 10 Mobile. Windows Phone 8.1 devices are eligible for upgrade to Windows 10, pursuant of manufacturer and carrier support. Some features may vary depending on hardware compatibility.

References

{{Windows Phone Lists of operating systems Mobile phones introduced in 2011 Smartphones Windows Phone Software version histories

Windows Phone 7

Table of versions

Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango)

Table of versions

Windows Phone 7.8

Table of versions

Windows Phone 8

GDR1

GDR2

GDR3

Table of versions

Windows Phone 8.1

GDR1

GDR2

Table of versions

Windows 10 Mobile

See also

References