Following on from their statement that a version of Windows 10 will be available to run on the RPi 2, Microsoft have announced a partnership with Arduino that will see an ‘Arduino certified’ Windows 10 running on its development platform also. Microsoft announced that a wireless access application called ‘Windows Remote Arduino’ and ‘Windows Virtual Shields for Arduino’ have been released as open source libraries.

The Windows Virtual Shield for Arduino gives developers access to sensors within Windows 10 devices, such as the relatively low cost Windows-based Lumia 530 mobile phone which may work out cheaper than integrating equivalent sensors directly to the Arduino platform. According to Steve Teixeira, the Windows IoT team director of program management “A Lumia 530 contains well over $200 worth of Arduino shield sensors and capabilities, and we've made it easy to access all of those sensors and capabilities from an Arduino as if they were standard hardware shields”

The Windows Remote Arduino, which again lends capabilities in Windows 10 devices to Arduino devices, including a Windows 10 device's image processing, speech recognition, website parsing, cameras, and audio. This will allow developers to extend their Universal Windows Application with Arduino commands that execute on a wirelessly-connected Arduino device.

The ‘Windows 10 IoT Core Insider Preview’ is the anticipated version which supports the Raspberry Pi 2 and Intel’s Minnowboard Max, bringing direct access to hardware capabilities, remote debugging, and management features for Raspberry Pi 2 devices. This is still a work in progress so Pi 2 developers will notice some missing drivers and "rough edges" according to Teixeira. Microsoft will be using developer feedback to refine the product, providing regular software updates along with additional drivers, bug fixes and new features. This will lead to a more stable version for the Pi 2 which we can expect later this summer.