Microsoft’s Windows 10X that was scheduled to arrive in 2021 as a new OS has now been scrapped altogether. Microsoft confirmed the same through a blog post saying that the Windows 10X can be useful in more ways that it had imagined and it shouldn’t be limited to only a small set of customers.
To recall, Windows 10X was first announced in October of 2019 as a new operating system that was created specifically for dual-screen foldable devices. At the time, Microsoft planned to release it in 2020. In April last year, Microsoft delayed the launch of Windows 10X and in May 2020, Microsoft announced that it will be changing what it had decided for the OS and will now release it for single-screen devices first.
And now, it seems like the plans have been completely dropped. Instead, Microsoft will employ some of the features of Windows 10X in the upcoming versions of Windows 10 so that those features can reach a wider user base.
“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,” the blog post said.
Microsoft also notes that some of the features such as the new App container technology it is 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 have already been implemented in the core of Windows in Windows Insider preview builds.