Tag: Windows 10X

Windows 10X is arriving next year: What we know so far

In 2019, Microsoft announced Windows 10X, a new version of Windows for dual-screen foldable devices. Microsoft promised that Windows 10X would be simple, sleek and faster than the current generation of Windows.

Windows 10 was originally supposed to work with dual-screen devices, such as the Surface Neo, Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold, and Intel prototypes. The plans, however, changed after the pandemic, and Microsoft’s new priority is to get Windows 10X work on the single-screen devices.

According to reliable sources, Windows 10X is now expected to launch on single-screen devices in the Spring of 2021.

The operating system has now been updated to meet the growing needs of flexibility on low-end hardware and it’s likely to debut on mid-range devices.

Windows 10X latest news

According to a new report, Microsoft has already finalized the RTM candidate for Windows 10X. This will now allow OEM and Microsoft vendors to start the work on devices with Windows 10X.

The OS is still on track to launch in Spring 2021 to enable unique experiences on PCs from various hardware manufacturers.

Reports have also suggested that Windows 10X won’t ship with Win32 apps (desktop application) due to compatibility issues.

According to sources, Windows 10X compatibility levels with Win32 apps were not great and Microsoft decided to focus on Windows 10X without native support for Win32.

This means consumers can only download and install the apps available via the Microsoft Store or Microsoft Edge (Progressive Web Apps). However, Microsoft is believed to be working on a premium service called ‘Cloud PC’ that will allow business users to stream their desktop apps to Windows 10X.

It’s also worth noting that Windows 10X won’t be released for beta testing and it is not something that you can install on your current hardware. Like ChromeOS, Windows 10X will ship with new devices only.

Windows 10X features

As we reported last year, Windows 10X comes with a new Start Menu experience and attractive set of colored icons “to fuel a new era of productivity.” In addition, Windows 10X will ditch the flat and aesthetic live tiles to offer simple experience with fewer customization options.

“Flat, monochrome icons look great in the context of colorful tiles, but as more icon styles enter the ecosystem, this approach needs to evolve,” Microsoft said.

Action Center

Windows 10X comes with a new Action Center that puts more emphasises on quick actions. The new Action Center also comes with new volume controls, power options, and also battery percentage.

Windows Updates to get faster

Last year, Microsoft claimed that Windows 10X would be technically separated from the OS components such as the drivers and apps, which allows Windows 10X to handle updates better than the traditional version of Windows 10.

According to Microsoft, Windows 10X has been designed to download and apply updates in less than 90 seconds by saving the update package in a different partition. Once done, update data is moved to another partition and it is used for system update during the reboot.

Microsoft may ship the Surface Hub 2X with a version of Windows 10X

Microsoft hasn’t said much about the Surface Hub 2X, a product initially announced in May 2018 to much fanfare, since the announcement of the Surface Hub 2S in April earlier this year. Initially announced as a single product, the Surface Hub 2 was supposed to launch in 2019 with a brand new version of Windows 10 built on Windows Core OS, and ship with modern features and capabilities such as tiling, dynamic rotation, faster Windows Updates, and much more.

But later in 2018, Microsoft announced that this version of the Surface Hub 2 would now be coming in 2020 and that it was splitting the Surface Hub 2 into two product SKUs known as the Hub 2S and Hub 2X. The Surface Hub 2S has since launched and is a “lesser” version of the Surface Hub 2X without dynamic rotation, tiling, or any other OS enhancements enabled by Windows Core OS. This is because the Hub 2S ships with the same OS that the original Surface Hub is running today.

Microsoft’s official reasoning for doing this is that customers wanted a version of the Surface Hub 2 running the old OS. While that may be true, the real reason this happened is because the OS being built for the Surface Hub 2X wasn’t going to be ready in time for a 2019 launch. Codenamed Aruba, this is Microsoft’s unique expression of Windows Core OS for collaborative displays like the Surface Hub 2.

I was fully expecting to hear more about the Surface Hub 2X at Ignite 2019, but there was nothing but radio silence on the subject. I mention this because at Ignite 2018, Microsoft gave us the chance to go hands-on with the Surface Hub 2X and its version of Windows Core OS, but that’s the only time anyone outside of Microsoft was able to play with it. In every Surface Hub 2 related event since, the Hub 2X has not been present.

A change in OS experience

So, what exactly is going on here? Has Microsoft silently killed off the Surface Hub 2X? I’ve asked multiple contacts to see if I could get some insider knowledge on the whereabouts of the Surface Hub 2X, and here’s what I found. According to sources, Microsoft has killed off the version of Windows Core OS it was building specifically for the Surface Hub 2. Aruba now joins Andromeda OS and Polaris as another deprecated version of Windows Core OS.

This is interesting, as what makes the Surface Hub 2X the X is the software additions enabled by Aruba and Windows Core OS. So what does this mean for the Surface Hub 2X? I’m told that the Surface Hub 2X itself hasn’t been canceled, and will still be launching at some point in the future. But now, instead of launching with Aruba, the Surface Hub 2X will ship with Windows 10X instead. Windows 10X is another variant of Windows Core OS, codenamed Santorini.

Now, I don’t know if Microsoft will actually call it Windows 10X on the Surface Hub 2X, but it is using the Santorini shell experience. Microsoft, for some reason, is hell-bent on selling Windows 10X as a version of Windows 10 for dual-screen devices only. This isn’t true, of course, as Santorini was built from the ground up for traditional form-factors too, whether they be laptops or large displays. So Microsoft may decide to call it something else, who knows.

Either way, I’m hearing the Surface Hub 2X will be launching with Santorini instead of Aruba now. I don’t know what this means for any of the unique Surface Hub 2X features that were announced back in 2018. I suspect those features will remain intact, as Santorini is still Windows Core OS under the hood. It’s also worth noting that Aruba and Santorini were pretty similar to begin with.

I have a feeling we’ll hear more about the Surface Hub 2X and Microsoft’s plans in this area in early 2020. I don’t know if Microsoft will go on record as acknowledging the fact that the OS has changed, as I don’t think they need to. But I do wonder if this OS change means the Surface Hub 2X will be delayed slightly. In theory, this won’t be necessary as Windows 10X itself is expected to be finalized in June 2020. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Windows 10X: Everything we know so far

Windows 10X is launching next year on a new wave of foldable PCs. Here’s what we know so far.

On October 2, Microsoft announced Windows 10X alongside the Surface Neo at a hardware event in New York City. Not much was shared around the OS itself, outside of a planned release window of “Holiday 2020” alongside the Surface Neo and a brief demo of the new user experience you can expect to see when it starts shipping. But just what is Windows 10X and what does it mean to you? Here’s everything we know.

Windows 10X is a new version of Windows 10 that Microsoft says has been built from the ground up for foldable PC experiences in both dual-screen and single-screen configurations. It’s built on top of a new modern version of Windows 10 that guts legacy components and features in favor of contemporary user experiences and enhanced security. This means everything from the Windows Shell to the underlying OS has been re-done with modern technologies, while still maintaining legacy app support for those who need it.

Legacy and modern app support

Win32 programs, which Microsoft considers to be a legacy app platform, now run in a containerized mode on Windows 10X. This means the components required to run Win32 apps are only active when the user is actively running a Win32 program. This reduces system load when not running a Win32 application, which improves battery life and system performance overall. Containerizing the Win32 layer also makes the OS much more secure, as Win32 programs are now sandboxed and can’t negatively affect system files.

Unlike the containerized Win32 programs, UWP and web apps run “natively” on Windows 10X. Users shouldn’t notice a difference in performance between UWP and Win32 programs, even though the Win32 programs are being containerized on top of the OS. It’s great to see that Microsoft is supporting legacy apps on Windows 10X, as many Windows apps today are still Win32.

Microsoft is hoping developers start to update their apps to support the new dual-screen and foldable screen designs that they expect to start shipping at the end of next year. A new feature called “spanning” is being introduced as an API that lets developers take advantage of the extended display capabilities from using a foldable PC. Microsoft will begin talking more about the developer story in the coming weeks.

A new user experience

Regarding the design, Windows 10X features a new shell — the user interface — built with modern technologies, that’s adaptive and can change on the fly depending on the “posture” your device is being used in. For example, with a foldable PC, the user might want to use it in several different ways; as a laptop, or tablet, or in tent mode for movies. Because of this, the software must be flexible and adapt on the fly to provide the best user experience no matter what posture you’re using.

The shell has been designed from the ground up with Microsoft’s Fluent Design System in mind, meaning it’s much cleaner and more consistent than the experience found on Windows 10 today. It has a new adaptive taskbar that minimizes when using touch, which can be swiped up to access pinned and running programs. There’s also a new Control Center that also houses system notifications, similar to an Android smartphone.

Pinned and running apps on the taskbar are now centered instead of positioned off to the left. Apps run in full-screen, as most foldable PCs will be used as tablets first and foremost. However, there will also be a mode that allows apps to run in a more traditional windowed environment, which will be handy when using a foldable PC as a laptop.

The Start menu itself has been redesigned with productivity in mind. It features a system-wide search bar along the top, with a grid of apps below that in place of live tiles. It also has a “recommended” area that suggests things the user might want to jump straight into, such as recent Office documents and websites.

Microsoft also improved Windows Update in a way that makes it much faster with Windows 10X. Feature updates will not take as long to install as they do on Windows 10, because those feature updates are now installed in the background without requiring a reboot until the update is done. So, just like Android and Chrome OS, when the update is ready to restart your PC, it’ll just restart like normal, and won’t take 15 minutes to finish installing the update before you’re back up and running.

Exclusive to foldables at launch

Windows 10X will only be available on devices that ship with it, and those devices will begin shipping in the second half of 2020. This means if you want to use Windows 10X, you will have to buy a new PC that comes with Windows 10X preinstalled. The OS will not be made available to purchase or download to install on existing hardware, and won’t be pushed as an update for Windows 10 users either.

In the future, we anticipate Microsoft will make Windows 10X available for more than just foldable PCs. While the OS will launch exclusivesly for foldables at the end of 2020, in the months after OEMs will be able to ship Windows 10X on traditional form factors such as laptops and 2-in-1’s, as the OS is capable of running on those form factors as well.