- Not too long ago, Microsoft announced Windows 10 S
alongside their Surface laptop,
which was a beautiful device by the way.
But there was a lot of confusion.
What is Windows 10 S?
I mean, what does the S stand for?
Microsoft threw words around like speed,
security, streamlined, but never actually gave us
an exact meaning for the letter S.
But regardless, the big difference
between 10 S and Windows 10, Microsoft was basically
just telling that it is faster, it boots up a lot faster,
performs a lot faster, it has a lot more battery life,
and it's more secure.
The other thing is that it only runs Windows Store apps.
And while that might sound super bad, hear me out.
Now these store only apps are vetted and optimized.
And then also, can't effect your start up.
So in other words they can't just run when
the computer boots up.
And they're actually sandboxed as well.
Much like, let's say Mac OS.
Now this compared to regular EXE programs,
which basically can do whatever the heck
they want to your PC.
They can change things in the registry.
They actually sometimes leave things behind
when they're uninstalled, et cetera, et cetera.
And this is partially the reason why there's a lot more
virus protection needed for PCs than say for Mac.
Now because they also can't effect the system's registry,
they can only effect a virtual one,
they can't actually effect other programs
on the computer or the computer OS, itself.
They also, when they are uninstalled
are completely uninstalled without a trace.
And since Windows can handle all of these apps a lot easier,
it'll keep your computer running faster for longer
compared to ones that you have all of these
different programs and games coming in and out
and making changes, et cetera, et cetera.
And all of that is really one of the reasons why people
dislike Windows.
Over time, things start to slow down, glitches,
all of this other stuff.
But us as techies know to try to avoid these
types of things.
We're very careful about what we install.
We even do resets once in a while to clean Windows off.
Which, by the way, Microsoft actually put a feature
into Windows 10, and a button for you to be able to
do this further vindicating the fact that they
kind of understand that this happens to Windows as well
from all of the programs that you're installing
and uninstalling, et cetera.
Beyond that, if this actually caught on,
it would allow Microsoft to reign in this wild west
of poorly coded programs, prevent viruses, et cetera.
It might even let them streamline the OS once
all of the apps are using this new UWP program format.
In other words, the Windows Store apps.
Because they could be able to change pieces of the
legacy code and get rid of some of it, et cetera,
and have all of the apps kind of just adapt as needed.
And thanks to their Desktop Bridge program,
You can actually take your current desktop app,
package it with this new software to make it
a UWP or a Universal Windows Program,
and then it'll work in the App Store.
It'll be that sandboxed thing, and again allow it to
adjust to the OS if they decided to go down that path.
On top of that, it would also,
a lot of them depending on the code, could then run,
also run on Xbox, Windows Phone, and any other
Windows type PCs, et cetera.
Right now, if Microsoft just tried to make these changes
to the OS without having everybody's program be
in this type of a package, it would probably kill a lot.
In fact, it would kill a lot of the EXE programs
and all these legacy programs that are out there.
That is a huge portion of Windows' user base.
Essentially it's also the reason why a lot of people
are still on versions of Windows that could be
even a decade or older.
Now another benefit of all this is that there are
lower hardware requirements because everything is
a little bit more streamlined.
So, you could get laptops like this Acer Aspire One
with this cool hinge that let's you share the screen.
It's super lightweight.
It has a ton of ports including an SD card slot.
It has a battery that lasts all day.
It's got four gigs of ram.
A Quad Core Celeron processor.
1080p screen.
All for just 200 bucks.
And I even like this top cover.
It's got this cool fabric looking pattern on it,
as well as a similar pattern around the keyboard.
So it's not the worst looker either.
And because it does run Windows 10 S,
it's pretty darn smooth even given the modest specs.
Now all of this sounds great, right?
There's just, there's just one not small hurdle.
Huge brands that have popular apps, so for example
Google and Chrome Browser, would need to repackage
their programs in order for them to work
and be submitted to the Windows Store
and then be able to be installed on these devices.
And right now, since there's not a lot of 10 S
devices out there, there's not really a big incentive
for these companies to take the time to do that.
On top of that, all the other legacy apps
that we talked about that a ton of other people
still use on Windows, none of those work on 10 S right now.
Now you can always pay $50 to upgrade from Windows 10 S
to Windows 10 Pro.
So if you need any of those desktop apps, you do that,
and now you're back on normal Windows.
Now, I think the idea here for Microsoft though,
is that they're going to try to promote this to
students, workplaces, things where people don't
necessarily need a lot of those desktop apps
and the things that they do need, they can get
into the store a little bit quicker because it's
a bit more of a niche.
Then they'll have a decent userbase of those people,
and people who need to opt out, can.
Which is great, unlike old school Windows RT,
if we remember that.
But this will still give them some form
of a userbase to where they can then maybe entice developers
to at least bring it to then, and so on and so forth,
and maybe it can grow.
So it would seem that Windows 10 S is a bit of a catch-22.
On the one hand, if developers all jumped on board,
it could bring a new era for Windows,
which would be great.
But on the other hand, it needs to have enough of an
adoption without mainstay apps for developers
of those mainstay apps to want to participate in it.
Now while it might seem like a slim chance,
I personally think Windows 10 S is a brilliant idea.
And it's very difficult, you have to imagine,
for Microsoft which has this huge legacy database
of people to be able to switch them over
to something new.
And it takes something like this, I think,
and a lot of hope that people will adopt it,
to be able to finally get to the next step
where they can actually evolve Windows into
something even better.
Now, I also hope that developers just kind of,
you know, take one for the team.
Try to add their app to the Microsoft Store,
just so that maybe together we can all evolve Windows.
(upbeat music)