What you need to know
- Windows 10X is not launching this year.
- Microsoft will bring the best of 10X to Windows Desktop instead.
Microsoft has today confirmed that Windows 10X will not be launching this year, citing a decision to instead deliver certain parts of Windows 10X on other Windows products instead. Microsoft will be bringing a number of Windows 10X innovations to the full version of Windows this fall.
The blog post doesn't specifically state that Windows 10X is never coming, but it's likely that it never will. If Microsoft is bringing the best of Windows 10X over to the full version of Windows, the need for Windows 10X becomes significantly less obvious.
Microsoft's blog post details the following:
Following a year-long exploration and engaging in conversations with customers, we realized that the technology of Windows 10X could be useful in more ways and serve more customers than we originally imagined. We concluded that the 10X technology shouldn't just be confined to a subset of customers.Instead of bringing a product called Windows 10X to market in 2021 like we originally intended, we are leveraging learnings from our journey thus far and accelerating the integration of key foundational 10X technology into other parts of Windows and products at the company. In fact, some of this is already reflected in the core of Windows in Windows Insider preview builds, for example the new app container technology we're integrating into products like Microsoft Defender Application Guard, an enhanced Voice Typing experience, and a modernized touch keyboard with optimized key sizing, sounds, colors and animations.Our teams continue to invest in areas where the 10X technology will help meet our customer needs as well as evaluate technology experiences both in software and hardware that will be useful to our customers in the future.
Microsoft says Windows 10X features like app container technology in Microsoft Defender Application Guard, a new Voice Typing experience, and a modernized touch keyboard will be coming to Windows users this fall, and are already in testing with Insiders.
We also know that Microsoft is currently working on a major user experience (UX) rejuvenation effort for Windows internally, which is codenamed Sun Valley and is expected to include UI changes such as a centered taskbar and new Start menu UI, among many other UX changes.
Much of this new UX will be inspired by some of the UI changes that Microsoft was exploring on Windows 10X. So, although Windows 10X itself isn't launching, the best parts of the Windows 10X UX still will.
In the meantime, what are your thoughts on Windows 10X? Let us know in the comments.
