26 PCWorld MARCH 2020NEWS MICROSOFT’S WINDOWS 10X
kernel, drivers, and registry.
The Win32 Container is essentially a
virtual machine, though with higher
integration, much lower latency, and with
access to more resources on the host
Windows 10X than a VM has. Together, it all
offers greater overall performance, according
to Peter Torr, a principal program manager at
Microsoft. Oh, and if there are no Win32 apps
running? The whole thing shuts down. Even
inactive Win32 apps are “tombstoned,”
essentially left in a very low-power state to
preserve battery.
But opening the Win32 app within
Windows 10X doesn’t actually launch it
directly. Instead, what Windows 10X does is
create “proxy” apps within the Windows 10X
host operating system—essentially, using a
Remote Desktop-like interface to access the
secured Win32 app within the Win32
Container. Microsoft promises you’ll have
near-native performance of these apps, but
some sort of slowdown would seem likely.PRIVACY WITHIN
WIN32 APPS
There will be a few bumps along the way.
While all “typical” PC hardware—mice,
keyboards, pens, touchscreen, printers,
networking devices—should work as
expected within Windows 10X, there will be
limitations on “non-standard hardware” and
“app-installed drivers,” Microsoft says.
Microsoft’s also putting some broad
limitations on what it’s calling “privacy-
sensitive hardware,” such as the camera
and microphone. In this case, all Win32
apps will have access to the mic, or none
will; there are no per-app permissions,
Torr explained.
Torr listed other limitations to Win32
apps in Windows 10X: No system tray
applets will be allowed, and you won’t be
able to use File Explorer add-ins or
namespace extensions, for example. If
there’s an app or utility that you interact with
via the system tray, it’ll have to move
elsewhere within
Windows 10.
There’s a lot here
already, and it’s still early
in the year. Expect to hear
more about Windows 10X
as 2020 progresses,
including at Microsoft’s
Build 2020 conference in
late May (go.pcworld.
Some of the limitations of Win32 apps within Windows 10X. com/mb20).