- On this episode of #AskDan,
I'm wearing a Windows ugly sweater.
Thank you Windows Insider Team as well as for this scarf.
But I also take your questions.
So this week we'll be talking about Windows Core OS.
Can you expect it on a phone?
When should you expect Windows 10 updates
to stop coming to your older hardware?
And Surface Headphones, are they actually good for work?
All that and more.
Stay tuned.
(loud techno music)
(chimes ringing)
My whole family has Haswell generation i5 or i7 PC's,
will we stop receiving spring and fall feature updates
when the hardware is no longer compatible?
Alright, so this is a really good question.
It's regarding Windows 10 as a service,
so this idea that Windows 10 is never finished,
and for some people that sounds really bad,
like when are they ever going to finish it,
but that's just the way it is now.
And no, there's no finish point here,
Windows 10 is always improving,
we're on 19h1 now for the spring,
if you're on the Insiders Fast Ring.
And the question is when does this stop
for people that have older PC's,
that's a really good question because,
we don't really know.
At some point Microsoft will announce
that it doesn't support older processors
but right now they're going back quite a few years
for older hardware, so yeah,
you can have a PC from five, even 10, years ago maybe
and still be putting on Windows 10 Fast Ring builds on there
or regular Windows 10 releases,
and still be getting updates.
That's sort of the challenge that Microsoft has
versus say Apple, who doesn't have as many laptops.
Microsoft has to contend with and test
all these different devices, along with Windows 10.
You can make a strong argument here
that as Windows 10 has progressed
while the hardware requirements
have never actually increased.
This is a very vastly different experience
from say, Windows Vista where you needed
some really good hardware to get that full Aero experience.
You don't need that with Windows 10.
So, to answer your question,
there's really no end date here for Windows 10
and when you'll stop getting updates.
It's gonna go on for a long time
and that's really good news because Microsoft
is forcing no one to buy a new computer.
What they are doing is introducing new experiences
for people, with certain new hardware.
For instance Windows Hello, or Windows Inking
if your PC doesn't have that well, you can't get it.
If that's something you like well
you will need to buy new hardware,
but you'll never be required to do so.
I know Microsoft has no plans to release a smartphone again,
but what are the chances that a partner such as Wiley Fox,
Nokia, or Dell producing one based on Windows Core OS
since not all of us need a large foldable device?
We haven't seen a lot on Windows Core OS,
at least publicly yet.
Sources tell us and according to Zac Bowden,
our Senior Writer at Windows Central,
that 2019 may be the year we actually get to see
Windows Core OS in action, specifically Windows Lite
what's it being called now for desktop and laptop devices,
so we may get our first glimpse on that.
If you don't know what Windows Core OS is,
we've done some other videos on it.
It's basically the next iteration of Windows,
with some 132 components stripped out.
Think of it as a combo between Windows and Chrome OS.
Could a manufacturer take that
and say, put it into a phone,
since they will have telephony support,
at least for something like Andromeda?
It's a really good question.
I'm not really sure that manufacturers could do that,
or actually would do that.
It's a lot of investment to making a phone,
even if there's no market for it
for Microsoft and it's partners.
I think while technically it's feasible,
I just don't see that as happening.
I think Microsoft is really gonna to drive this idea
of a foldable device that you can either
carry with you all the time,
and I think the OEM partners will follow suit.
I really see a lot of companies moving beyond
the traditional smartphone, what we've seen.
We're already starting to see just now
with Android there's rumors too of Apple
working on a devices like this,
so it seems like the whole industry
is moving towards dual screen devices.
It's gonna start to seem weird
to come out with an old screen device
but yeah, you never know,
we may see some Kickstarter stuff.
I really do like the sort of new economy
where smaller companies can produce
new and limited niche hardware
for users who want it.
There may be that possibility, I just wouldn't bet on it.
For the Surface Headphones, when they're connected
to the PC and phone at the same time,
are there any problems?
Is it easy to connect them with the PC and mobile?
Would you recommend them for work?
Alright, if you haven't already seen it,
go check out my Surface Headphone review.
I don't like to pat myself on the back,
but I thought it was a pretty good review.
I answer actually a lot of these questions in there.
To get more specific, one of the main selling points
of the Surface Headphones is this idea
that it works with multiple devices at the same time.
So yeah, you can have it paired
to your PC and your phone at the same time.
If a phone call comes in, well,
it'll go through to headphones.
Meanwhile, if you're listening to music on the PC,
it dynamically switches between them.
Besides my experience, a lot of others have been
reporting online that this works very well for them,
they haven't had any issues.
In fact, like I said, it's sort of the main selling point.
Regarding your question for work,
yeah I think these are really ideal for you.
This is sort of how Microsoft has positioning them,
that you're sitting behind a PC all day wearing headphones,
and you're going to be switching between your devices.
This is the problem I have with the Sony headphones,
which are otherwise basically perfect.
I really do like those Sony headphones,
but they have the limitation of being able to only
actively pair with a single device at a time.
Which is really annoying because then
you have to choose between your PC and your phone.
If you're using your PC and a phone call comes in,
well you have to take your headphones off
and answer the phone.
That's just a no go for a lot of people
who are looking for a multi-user, multi-device system.
So yeah, Surface Headphones,
they've been working out very well so far.
I still think Sony still excels overall
in audio and noise cancellation.
But in terms of just ease of use and functionality
Surface Headphones have done a really good job
and they'll be perfect for you.
With the recent news of Microsoft Edge
shifting to the Chromium engine,
how will this affect Windows Sets in the future?
Alright, just for the record, I'm saying Windows Sets,
S-E-T-S, I know people hear other things.
So this was a feature that was previewed last year,
or early 2018 I should say, going into 2019,
but it was this idea of tabbed windows
all throughout Windows.
It's a really cool idea, but the execution of it
was flawed and it didn't really look that great either.
Microsoft took it offline,
they're going back to the drawing board.
Part of the reason we're not seeing it
is because yes, they are shifting to Chromium.
We have a full article on this if you want to know about it,
including an FAQ answering a lot of these questions.
So regarding Sets, we did ask Microsoft
specifically about that and Sets is not canceled.
It is basically on hold
while they do shift to this new engine.
Because yeah, they can't do both at the same time.
The Chromium shift with Edge
is gonna be an ongoing project.
We'll start to see preview release for it
in early 2019 for developers who want to download.
It'll be pretty rough, but it'll work.
I don't expect a consumer facing version of this
until probably late 2019.
And probably around that point, we'll start to hear
a little bit more about Sets.
Which I also expect to have, a more refined UI,
some more improvements going on,
and it'll work better with Chromium.
There's a lot of questions here regarding Chromium,
and how deep it's gonna go into the OS.
Right now, it's only affecting
the Edge engine specifically, which does affect Sets.
It doesn't go down into the OS level
for affecting for web view and apps itself,
at least not yet.
Long term Microsoft probably will do that,
but right now it's just gonna affect the browser.
For regular users, they're not going to notice anything,
of course, they're just going to launch Edge,
and it'll just suddenly work better.
But all of you will know why that is,
but Sets is still on the table.
I think it's still a really good idea,
and I'm glad Microsoft is sort of taking their time here,
to make sure they get it right, listen to user feedback.
Well, with Chromium powering things,
it should be a pretty interesting thing,
but don't expect it till sometime in mid to late 2019.
Alright that does it for the final episode
of #AskDanWindows for 2018.
Don't worry we'll be back next year as always.
In fact, you can use #AskDanWindows on Twitter
or shoot me an email at AskDan@WindowsCentral.com.
You can also leave me a comment below.
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Thanks for watching.
Take care everyone.