Vole said that Windows 11 would be given to the great unwashed by the holidays, so we can probably expect it sometime around late November. Before that, we’ll likely see a slew of public betas, starting next week. It’ll be a free update to Windows 10 users.
The interface has a simpler redesigned Start menu and looks the spit of the abandoned Windows 10X, which Microsoft suddenly could not give an XXXX about.
As Microsoft Chief Product Officer Panos Panay noted, the overall idea behind the design is to make you feel “an incredible sense of calm”. Still, at the same time, the Windows team has worked to make it a lot faster. Windows Updates, for example, are supposed to be 40 percent faster, but Panay also noted that starting up your machine and even browsing should feel much faster.
One surprise feature here is that you can run Android apps on Windows. So these apps will seem like native apps that can be integrated into the taskbar, for example. In addition, these apps will be in the redesigned Microsoft Store via — you want to sit down for this — the Amazon Appstore.
Besides the new user interface, which has all the translucency, shadows and new features touch screen users can poke a stick at. One of the core new UI features is what Microsoft calls Snap Layouts. These pop up a small widget when you hover over the icon that maximises your window to allow you to move the window to any corner, something that previously involved dragging your window to the corner of your screen - which was often challenging when you used multiple screens.
Another significant new feature is that Windows 11 will come with Teams built-in from the outset. It’s no secret that Microsoft is bullish when it comes to Teams. It recently launched the consumer version of Teams, so it makes sense to now bring it to Windows 11, too. It’s worth noting that Microsoft never got Skype to Windows, so this is quite a change, but it makes Teams Microsoft’s Facetime.
But the move could tempt the wrath of competition regulators in the EU, who are already investigating claims by the workplace chat service Slack that Microsoft has abused its market position.
Slack, which was bought in December by the US software firm Salesforce for $27.7bn (£19.9bn), has accused Microsoft of building a “weak, copycat product” and imposing it on customers by bundling it with Microsoft Office. Microsoft denies this.
Windows 11 also has Web widgets as one of the more visible new features. “Windows widgets is a new, personalised feed, powered by AI, serving you curated content.”
Widgets aren’t a new thing, of course, and in many ways, they make up for the removal of Live Tiles in the Start Menu. They’ll also give developers a new canvas to surface information from their applications.
Vole argues that Windows 11 will “deliver the best PC gaming experience yet”. It promises better graphics thanks to Auto HDR, a feature that’s already available on Xbox. Thousands of games,
Microsoft says, will be automatically enhanced with Auto HDR on Windows 11. In addition, the company argues that thanks to a new storage API in Windows 11, games can quickly load game assets without bogging down the CPU - but it’ll take a compatible PC to do so. Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription will be hard-baked into Windows 11, too.
There will be a new Microsoft Store and Microsoft wants to help developers bring more of their applications to the store. Unlike Apple, Vole will allow developers to use their own commerce engine in their apps and that Microsoft will not take any cut from that.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that he wants developers to have the opportunity to build their platforms on Windows 11.
“Windows is the stage for the world’s creation. With this new version of Windows, we are unleashing the innovation and ingenuity inherent in each of us. Today, the world needs a more open platform – one that allows apps to become platforms in their own rights. Windows is the platform where things that are bigger than Windows can be born — like the web. That’s our aspiration with Windows 11.”
