Microsoft recently launched some new form-factor devices that will come with a rather strange operating system called Windows 10X. The company brought to life its legendary dual-screen Courier concept as the Surface Neo, then it surprised the world by announcing a dual-screen Android phone called the Surface Duo.
This has made many puzzled a they try to understand the future of Windows. The announcement of a new streamlined version of Windows — dubbed Windows 10X — will mainly be for dual-screen devices like the Surface Neo and with Intel processors inside instead of ARM. This means you cannot upgrade your PC to Windows 10X, and most of Microsoft’s just-announced devices won’t support it either.
In 2015, Microsoft called Windows 10 the last version of Windows because Windows is becoming a more nebulous concept than versions like “Windows 8” and “Windows 10” really let on.
The upcoming Surface Duo phone also doesn’t run Windows 10X, even though its dual-screen hardware looks almost exactly like a miniature Surface Neo. (See below.) It’s using Android instead. But in a nutshell, Windows 10X isn’t actually a new operating system at all.
This is what we know about Window 10X so far;
- Early build of Windows 10X works on the Surface Neo, with its intriguing WonderBar that can act as a tiny secondary monitor on demand.
- It’ll ship in late 2020 on similar Intel-powered devices from Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo.
- It’ll run “legacy” Win32 desktop apps, not just web apps and Windows Store ones, in a mysterious container tech that preserves battery life.
- The Start Menu is a smartphone-esque launcher now, and Live Tiles appear to be gone.
With that said, Windows 10X is likely just a modular shell that gives the core Windows operating system a new user interface to do the tricks you see in these videos above. And this brings out a question for the ages. So What is Windows” really is now?
Microsoft has been building a new Windows Core OS (WCOS) that will serve as the new modular backbone of Windows. It can be paired with a different user interface for different types of displays by adapting what Microsoft’s calling a Compostable Shell, or CShell (say it out loud), to each new interface.
For dual-screen devices, “Santorini,” the codename for Windows 10X is aimed to allow users to work with devices that can flip and fold and slide into an array of configurations while intelligently repositioning your apps.
So why would Microsoft revealing the Surface Neo and Windows 10X a full year ahead of their planned debut? The company needs to stir up enough interest in the product to prove there’s a market, it may even put the device in developers’ hands in a few short months.
