Microsoft’s Test Base combines Azure’s power with the company’s dedication to development. Developers can use Test Base to test their programs against numerous versions of Windows 11 and Windows 10, including pre-release versions, all from a single client. Furthermore, Compatibility testing for monthly security updates and annual feature updates can be performed using Test Base as well.
How does Test Base help developers?
Test Base development started in 2018, but it has now evolved into a solution that enables developers to work from home. As Test Base is hosted in the cloud, developers may access their applications from any computer with an internet connection. Previously, this type of software testing would have necessitated a physical office with multiple workstations running different versions of Windows.
“We’ve been working on this since [2018], so enter 2020, and as we all know, there is a global pandemic … and we started seeing how a remote testing service can make the process of testing [through] the cloud be very effective for this moment in time,” explained Raji Rajagopalan, Director of Engineering in Windows+Devices at Microsoft.
The Test Base team, which is made up of people from all around the world, is an example of remote work. It has members in Lagos, Nigeria, Shanghai, China, Redmond, Washington, and other parts of the world. Another advantage of using the cloud for Test Base users is that they don’t have to have large offices full of expensive setups. Offices could feature dozens of PCs and servers for testing, depending on the scale of an app.
“I started my career at Microsoft as a tester … so I’m very familiar with writing huge test matrices where if I have to test my applications, I have to figure out what are the other dependencies and draw that matrix, which is quite tedious and expensive. Every time I had to do this, whether it was with automation or manual testing, it was a time-consuming process,” Rajagopalan said.
How does the Test Base work?
Microsoft’s Test Base offering lets developers onboard apps for testing through the Azure portal. It gives performance data, crash reports, and other test results to help developers assess whether an app operates as intended on various Windows 11 and Windows 10 versions. If users are having trouble with compatibility, Test Base can assist you to figure out what’s wrong.
Since Test Base is a Microsoft product, it gives users access to pre-release Windows and Windows Server versions. Developers can be proactive rather than reactive as a result of this. Developers would have long days every time a new version of Windows was released if they didn’t have the benefit of testing against pre-release versions of Windows. Of course, problems can still arise even after testing against pre-release versions of Windows, but Test Base’s early access relieves some of the pressure off developers.
A free trial of Test Base is available, which includes 100 hours of free test validation. Test Base costs $8 per hour of actual use after the trial ends. Interested users can find more details about Test Base here.
Rama Shastri shared a real-world example from a security software company, “They’ve been using Test Base to validate their apps, but in this case, they brought their latest app version, which was under development for them, and tested it against Windows updates. As they analyzed the test results and the performance insights that we provided, they observed that their new app version was consuming much higher CPU cycles than their previous version. Then, as they root caused it, they quickly found out that it was an issue because of buffer encryption that they had put in place. They were able to quickly fix the issue, and this prevented them from shipping a damaging issue to millions of their customers.”
While Test Base wasn’t developed with the pandemic in mind, its Azure architecture enables remote development from teams all over the world. Developers may use Azure to build applications now that hybrid and remote work are here to stay. Even for businesses with a physical location, Test Base enables them to move away from cumbersome and costly onboarding tools.
