Microsoft needs to amp up its vision if it wants to dazzle

Jon Honeyball delivers his early verdict on Windows 11 and what Microsoft is up to

S o Microsoft has finally shown its future direction for Windows 10 – and, if I’m allowed to use the well-worn line from Nigel Tufnel in Spinal Tap, “these go to 11!”

Indeed, Microsoft seemed to tap into its inner Nigel for the online presentation where it announced Windows 11. If you have a few minutes to spare, rush to YouTube and watch Microsoft senior staff get extremely emotional about family, pets and how Windows is the glue that brings everything together. Bring a hanky.

Before I go any further, a little background. Microsoft clearly viewed Windows 10 as being an end point in its development work. It even announced that it would not go further, but that there would be bug fixes and features coming down the line, usually at a six-monthly interval. This has worked well: Windows 10 has become a reliable platform for most users, especially the all-important corporates who pay by subscription. These users have non-negotiable demands for management, deployment, replacement and updating, along with app install and configuration control. Microsoft has to deliver on this, otherwise these customers will walk.

In the meantime, Microsoft has been working on significantly more radical solutions. For its two folding devices, it worked on a structurally very different system based around a new Windows core. The desktop was much simpler, cleaner and more efficient. There would be support for legacy apps through a container technology.

But, as development progressed, the plan fell apart. Microsoft couldn’t get the performance and battery life out of the container tech. The smaller

Surface Duo shipped with Android 10. The larger Surface Neo hasn’t shipped, but may do so in the future, possibly in a revamped hardware design.

This brings us to Windows 10X, an OS that faltered, failed and was laid to rest a few months ago. Clearly a lot of work had gone into 10X, but fear not paradigm-shifting-lovers: Microsoft claimed, in its wonderfully fluffy PR manner, that the lessons learned and technologies created for 10X would carry forward. We can now understand what this means in practice, because this is the heart of Windows 11; the new ideas for UI are there, front and centre.

Unlike 10X, however, there was no shift. This a new look and feel, a new UI in several areas, but sits atop of the Windows 10 structure.

Corporates will cope with this as a slow well-managed transition – they have until 2025 until Windows 10 support ends. End users will just get it with new hardware. If you really want to, you can turn off the new central taskbar and make it look like Windows 10 with a glitzy refinish.

Which begs the question: has anything really changed? There are dozens of small but important improvements, from the way you can organise window layouts, to the inclusion of Microsoft Teams. The previous six pages have gone into the detail of what we know so far, but this isn’t the end; over the next few months we’ll see how the final product plays out. Nothing is final until the shrink-wrapping machine sings.

Outside of the OS, there are interesting shifts. I look forward to seeing how well the Android graphical app support works, and to look deeply at the significantly revamped Microsoft Store. Its claims for offering app delivery with a zeropercentage fee may be the key decision that turns it from ghost town into busy shopping mall.

In one subtle yet meaningful shift, Windows 11 Home will require a Microsoft account, a move that ties you in further to the Microsoft cloud platform compared to Windows 10. There’s the promise of greater security due to the demand for a TPM 2 chip. This, along with CPU requirements, rules out a small but important set of older hardware, including some Microsoft Surface devices.

But that won’t matter to the corporates, while home/small business users will upgrade if they get the free offer and won’t hear a peep if their hardware isn’t up to the task.

Am I pleased? Yes and no. This is a pragmatic upgrade to Windows 10 that will fit the needs of the majority of existing Windows 10 users. From that perspective, it is a wise and perspicacious move. However, I wanted something more – something more radical, with real “take the next leap” vision. Something to make me gasp with delight. I wanted something like that first unveil of Windows NT 3.1 on 4 July 1992 at Moscone Center, where the legendary Dave Cutler stood up and said: “This… is a proper operating system.”

I will have to wait. Clearly Cloud Windows is not ready yet. Maybe the revamped app store is a path to that future. Only time will tell. Does it deserve the “11” moniker? Yes, but only if you say it with the conviction of Nigel.