20 PCWorld MARCH 2020NEWS MICROSOFT’S WINDOWS 10X
including lightning-fast updates, a special way
of handling Win32 apps, and no apparent
need for anti-malware apps.
Some have characterized Windows 10X as
a new Windows 10 “experience,” in much the
same way a movie might be re-released in a
special director’s cut, with extras and in
additional formats. But it’s more than that, as it
will interact with files and other applications
differently than Windows 10 does. Microsoft’s
published enough separate documentation
for us to start piecing together how Windows
10X will work. Here are a dozen intriguing
features we’ve already learned about.A SIMPLIFIED, PRETTIER
WINDOWS SHELL
Windows 10X looks different. Most of what
you expect about Windows still works—
various inputs, drag and drop, the Clipboard,
and more. But in Windows 10X, there’s a small
dock that incorporates elements of thetraditional Windows taskbar, as well as the
“app drawer” on smartphones. The Windows
Start launcher moves from the bottom
lefthand corner of the screen toward the
center. The way app icons are aligned on the
screen looks more like what you’d see on a
traditional tablet or phone than the Windows
desktop. Even apps are moved from one
screen to the other via touch points on the
bottom of the window, not the top.
Windows 10’s tiled Start interface? That’s
gone, too. Everything within Windows 10X
looks simple and clean.WINDOWS 10X
UNDERSTANDS WHAT THE
HARDWARE IS DOING
Microsoft expended quite a lot of effort
hammering home why dual-screen devices
are cool, both from a developer and user
perspective. Two displays—though separated
by a physical hinge—offer a variety of ways of
communicating
information. But
there’s two
separate aspects,
including the
hardware and
the software.
Microsoft
envisions five
separate
hardware
modes: laptop,The different hardware “postures” for Microsoft’s Windows 10X, specifically the
Surface Neo.