NOVEMBER 2019 PCWorld 31you leave the email app on a single screen,
clicking on links will open your browser on the
other display. Groovy. Surface Neo isn’t
launching until holiday 2020, and part of the
reason Microsoft’s showing Windows 10X and
Neo off now is to entice developers to support
its new paradigms as well.
While reliable leaker Evan Blass broke
news of Windows 10X with a claim that it will
“run desktop applications in containers,”
Microsoft’s formal early reveal didn’t get into
nitty-gritty technical details. There’s no official
word whether Windows 10X will rely on
virtualized containers, a stripped-back version
of Windows 10 similar to Windows 10 S, or
the full-blown version of the operating system.
We’ll no doubt hear more as Microsoft dishes
out more details to developers ahead of
Surface Neo’s holiday 2020 launch.display ready to multitask. Clicking a button on
the edge of the app can shift it to the other
screen when you need to rejigger things. If you
need to dedicate your focus on a single task,
you can “Span” an app across both screens by
dragging it halfway between them. It will
expand to fill both displays.
Windows 10X reacts to the accessories
you use with your dual-screen device as well
as the way you’re holding it, a behavior
Microsoft called “Postures.” The Surface Neo,
for example, supports a magnetic Bluetooth
keyboard that covers about two-thirds of one
display. Windows 10X recognizes the
hardware when you flip it into place, shrinking
the display into a supplementary “Wonder
Bar” with “rich expressive input” (like
selectable emoji) and a touchscreen
experience designed to mimic a trackpad.
You can still move apps to
the Wonder Bar as well:
Zlateff moved a Netflix
stream from the main
display to the Wonder Bar
as part of her presentation.
Microsoft apps (if not
also third-party programs)
will be optimized to give
you the best possible
dual-screen experience.
Outlook will show your
inbox on the left screen and
messages on the right if you
“Span” it, for example. Or, if