Windows 10X — A 'Lite' version for Windows 10 for dual-screen devices sans live tiles

Microsoft has been talking about plans of creating new modern OS experiences for quite sometime now and today, at the Surface event, Microsoft showed a sneak peak of what to expect from the latest Windows 10 version — Windows 10X. With Windows 10X, Microsoft seems to have finally found a solution that corrects some of the deficiencies of Windows RT and Windows 10 S while aspiring to be more mobile, productive, and dual-screen friendly.

Windows 10X is not a new Windows version that was built from scratch. It is the regular Windows 10 built on the familiar OneCore foundation we've known all this while but with an UI that is tailored for dual-screen devices. The most obvious change is in the Start menu that now shows app icons instead of live tiles along with a list of recent documents. If you've used Microsoft Launcher on Android, you know where the inspiration is coming from.

Unlike Windows RT and Windows 10 S, Windows 10X supports regular Win32 apps out-of-the-box. It runs Win32 apps in a container of sorts to prevent them from eating into battery life. Details about this are scarce as of now, we should be hearing more during Build 2020. Windows 10X is affirmation that the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) is not dead and with developers getting close to a year to play with device prototypes, expect to see a fairly good collection of apps that take advantage of dual-screen displays in the Microsoft Store soon.

Windows 10X is not something you'd be able to install directly on any PC (although it could be technically possible) or upgrade from your current desktop Windows 10 version. The new OS will be available in fall 2020 exclusively for dual-screen devices that can fold out to offer a decent laptop experience. OEMs such as Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo will also be offering dual-screen devices powered by Windows 10X, similar to the Surface Neo, next year.