The Windows 10X Workflow Question (Premium)

Modern PC-based operating systems—Windows, macOS, and Chome OS—are all inherently similar in that they provide a desktop, icons for launching apps and opening documents, inter-app communications capabilities, and some form of integration with cloud-based services, especially storage. But it’s the little differences that can really catch you up. And if you followed along with my Living with Chromebook series last Fall, you may remember that the single biggest issue I had using a Chromebook was workflow related.

This isn’t a trivial matter: Each time one trips up using a new system, or encounters something different or more limited than what they were previously used to, the possibility that the new thing can replace the old is diminished. Face enough blockers and it’s over.

But we don’t even really need to include non-Microsoft platforms in this discussion to understand how these problems are so debilitating. Windows RT, Windows 10 S (S mode), and Windows 10 on ARM all failed, or are in the process of failing, specifically because they didn’t (or don’t) so the single most important thing that any product called Windows has to do: Run Windows applications. Not some of them. Not most of them. All of them.

You can argue that that’s a compatibility problem, because it is. But it’s also a workflow problem. When I get a new PC or reset an existing PC, some of the first things I do is configure it to my liking—which should be unnecessary, but Windows 10 only syncs some settings, still—install the applications I need, and get my cloud storage—I use OneDrive—synced up. Over time, however, I begin adding to the PC. I may not have “needed” Visual Studio, or whatever, on day one, for example, but over time I realize that I do need it, and I install it when that happens. Over longer periods of time, my PC is stuffed with things I only need occasionally. And eventually, the cycle repeats.

But the point is, the cycle can repeat. With those previous Windows derivatives, I always ran into problems—blockers—that prevented me from happily using the PC day-to-day. For example, Windows 10 on ARM can’t run Photoshop Elements, which is among the handful of applications I always install immediately on a new or reset PC. So I’ve had to spend time researching alternatives that can work on this limited system, and then be unhappy using them because none are the same. And the performance on ARM is terrible regardless.

Ultimately, Microsoft’s strategy for moving Windows and its user base forward failed because it didn’t respect the past, and the facts of that past: Users need those legacy desktop applications because they rely on them every day. And it insisting that UWP and the Microsoft Store weren’t just the way forward, but the only way forward, explains why these Windows derivatives all failed too.

And now Microsoft is trying again, with Windows 10X. But this thing, things are different. This time, crucially, Microsoft is allowing you to run the desktop applications you need and rely on, and to do so in a way that is safe and secure, and respects modern power management and battery life needs. No, it isn’t quite “all” applications—yet—but it will get there, or close enough. The point is, it can get there, where Microsoft’s previous limitations in RT, S mode, and ARM, prevented that, usually for technical reasons. (I still feel that S mode could have succeeded if Microsoft simply allowed users to whitelist certain apps and drivers that they needed so that they could continue using the platform. But that’s Microsoft for you.)

In addition to providing a new container-based architecture, Windows 10X also provides a simpler new user interface. For now, we’re all overly-fixation on its dual-display support, but this user interface works fine right now in a traditional single landscape display mode like that used on virtually all PCs. And there is absolutely no reason that it couldn’t come to the more mainstream Windows 10 versions. In fact, I feel very strongly that it should. (And that, yes, the user should be able to control which UI they get, much as they do now with Tablet mode.)

But that begs the question. What’s the workflow like with Windows 10X? Is it similar enough to Windows 10 that any user could easily make the transition? Is its simpler new UI more limiting in some way, and do those limits get in the way?

I can’t know for sure until I can really use this system on physical hardware. But the recently released Windows 10X emulator, even with its performance problems and other virtualization-based limits, should give us a pretty good idea.

From a user experience standpoint, Windows 10X is just Windows 10 with a new look and feel, so let’s just assume for now that the applications I want to use are available and work normally. We know there will be issues with applications that install a system tray icon or extend File Explorer, but those are minor concerns and won’t prevent the applications from working otherwise.

The broader workflow-related issue is whether the habits I’ve established on Windows will come forward to Windows 10X. And here I can already see some concessions in the name of simplicity, and they very much resemble the limitations we see in mobile platforms like Android, iOS, and Chome OS. For example, there’s a “desktop” in Windows 10X, but it’s really just a backdrop, and it can’t be used as a scratch space for documents and other files.

In fact, the UWP version of File Explore actually hides the Desktop folder from you.

This is by design, of course, and while I can use applications like Notepad to save and open files to/from the desktop, not being able to see them there as I work makes that less desirable.

And so I’ll need to adapt to a system like that seen on mobile, where you can use a file management app in a window instead. It’s worth noting, too, that those (like me) who buy into the Microsoft productivity world via Office 365 and OneDrive can simply use applications, or even a browser plug-in, to access their recent documents via an interface that is both simple and different from what I’m used to. I will need to adapt. (Not everyone works like I do, so your own need to change may be less dramatic.)

Windows 10X does integrate natively with OneDrive, unlike Chrome OS, so that’s one hurdle I won’t need to face: The inability to easily access my file storage from a Chromebook was a real issue. Microsoft Edge gives me access to the web apps and sites I use each day, but if I were a Firefox, Chrome, or whatever user, I’d be good to go too.

It’s early. But I feel like I could make the transition to this new user interface, and that the compatibility promises outweigh any of the downsides. So far, that’s mostly theory. But I feel good about it, and I’m curious to see how this works on a real PC.