Why did Microsoft cancel Windows 10X for Windows 11 when they ended up almost the same?

[Andreytop1gg]

I don't get it, is this like a marketing choice so Windows 11 will be more popular then Windows 10X\Windows Lite?

[AlphaBeta]

The joke is that they didn't really end up the same at all, since they are pretty much two distinct products that just happen to look similar. Aside from the common NT foundation, Windows 10X doesn't have much in common with Windows 11.

Windows 10X is based on Windows Core OS, a modular version of Windows that doesn't include most of the legacy junk present in desktop Windows. Explorer, User/GDI/ComCtl and co. are all gone. There is a new UI stack using DirectX and UWP/WinUI. Legacy Win32 apps run in ContainerOS, a special build of desktop Windows running in a container.

Windows 11 is just desktop Windows with the Windows 10X user interface slapped on top of it.

To answer your question, Microsoft claims to have canceled Windows 10X because they concluded that the technology shouldn't be confined to a subset of customers, so they instead opted to integrate some key features to other products. Now there is only so much they can port, since the whole point of the OS was being legacy free and they can't really port that aspect to desktop Windows.

[jpavatargirl]

So in the end, the real benefit of 10X is lost with 11. All we get out of it is the interface

[DiaoSlime]

So in the end, the real benefit of 10X is lost with 11. All we get out of it is the interface

In fact, some features in Windows 10X inspired the design of Windows 11. Mostly is related to separating the UI and the backbone functions, which is Windows Feature Experience Pack as we know nowadays.

[cream22]

A thing I could I see with Windows 10X is that people will mistake it as another update for Windows 10, plus the outreach wouldn't be huge, because it can't even run Win32 apps natively.

This limitation of running Win32 apps only via some form of virtualization/container form can hinder IO/file access that advanced apps and games need.

So that's why they probably switched to a normal NT base and developed Windows 11.

[KTRMAmbiance]

I've heard somewhere that Windows 10X was intended to support two-screen setups better,

and counting on the lack of Windows Explorer and native Win32 apps support, maybe Windows 10X was intended for mobile devices? Not so sure about that

[LetsLeakOurHardWork2.0]

Yeah, and Windows 11 has nothing to do with the subject. Maybe the two-screen tablet thing was just another one of Microsoft's ideas that never saw the light.

[AlphaBeta]

A thing I could I see with Windows 10X is that people will mistake it as another update for Windows 10, plus the outreach wouldn't be huge, because it can't even run Win32 apps natively.

This limitation of running Win32 apps only via some form of virtualization/container form can hinder IO/file access that advanced apps and games need.

So that's why they probably switched to a normal NT base and developed Windows 11.

Modern virtualization technologies blur this line considerably. See WSL2, which is in many aspects just a Linux VM, although it also has full filesystem access to the host, and in Windows 11 it has been extended with DirectX passthrough and GUI apps support. When you also consider that Windows 10X was supposed to compete with Chrome OS, the whole design makes much more sense.

Rather than the lack of bare metal legacy support I think the elephant in the room would have been the confusion caused by two very different operating systems having almost the same name, except for a single letter in the version number. Imagine if Apple called Mac OS X "Mac OS 9.5". In this regard I think MS's statement about not wanting to limit the tech to a subset of users is very much believable. In fact it also hints subtly that future desktop versions might end up adopting the WCOS core.

[Whistler2419]

Win10X was replaced with Windows 11 School Edition (SE SKU)

[Atae]

I thnk that why Windows 10X was canceled is because the target of Windows 10X was low-power computers. But by doing this, they think that if they would push Windows 11 into market, the low-end computers CAN'T upgrade to Windows 11 due to the requierments. And by doing this, Windows 11 couldn't get has much market share. So maybe why they scrapped up.

That's a theory.

[D3ADP001]

I really don't like it. Microsoft butchered the ui and the new hardware requirements will limit it's adoption for now.

also it's in the bad luck spot like windows vista and 8 before it.