The future of Microsoft’s Windows is now tied to hardware

If you’ve been following Microsoft’s Windows changes over the past few years, this week’s reorganization at the company won’t have come as a surprise. Product Manager, Panos Panay, is now taking on a larger role that involves him leading a single group that combines the Windows Experience team and the Microsoft hardware teams. It will be known as Windows + Devices, and that ultimately means that the future of Windows is now tightly tied to hardware.

It’s a big change for Microsoft, but one it’s been working towards for years. The company’s Surface RT tablet was originally developed in secret to launch alongside Windows 8, as a showcase for the new operating system in 2012. It kicked off Microsoft’s Surface hardware business, but the tablet d It originally launched with a Windows RT operating system that wasn’t really tightly tied to hardware. The Surface RT was slow, lacked apps, and the operating system didn’t take advantage of the hardware in ways we often see Apple capitalize on with its tight iOS integration on the iPad.

Panay led the team that created the original Surface RT, but the secrecy surrounding the product meant most people working on Windows had no idea Microsoft was building a tablet. Since then, he has made it his mission to improve this software and hardware integration. The first signs of Surface hardware and Windows software aligning were evident in the Surface Pro 3 Pen almost six years ago. You could click a pen button to launch OneNote and immediately take notes, but it was still a fairly basic integration. Microsoft’s Surface Hub followed a year after the Surface Pro 3, and it featured a custom variant of Windows 10 designed specifically for a giant 84-inch 4K display.

Microsoft then launched its Surface Book with a removable screen. When I reviewed the original Surface Book, I was surprised at how limited the note-taking experience was, especially since the hardware was designed so you could remove the screen and use it as a digital clipboard. There was an obvious and awkward disconnect between the Windows side and the Surface hardware side, perhaps partly due to the secrecy or separation of teams trying to integrate these features. Microsoft later improved support for inking in Windows 10 with Windows Ink, but so far inking feels like it’s not fully integrated into the operating system, so it can be freely used anywhere.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales/The Verge

We’ve also seen Microsoft make mistakes with its Surface hardware to push Windows initiatives in the past. Windows 10 S debuted on the Surface Laptop, and Microsoft later admitted the variant, which locked the laptop to Windows Store apps, was a mistake. Microsoft then shook up Windows massively with a reorganization two years ago that separated the core Windows engineering team from the “Experiences and Devices” group responsible for delivering the Windows client you use every day to the Office 365 hardware. and Area.

Panay will now assume control of the Windows client side, which essentially means the shell and experience that sits above the core part of the Windows operating system. Microsoft designed Windows to run on a variety of hardware, and the operating system core is now aligned with Azure and Microsoft’s artificial intelligence teams.

Over the past few years, Microsoft has shown it has the vision to deliver a combination of seamlessly integrated hardware and software. “We always think of hardware as a stage for software,” said Ralf Groene, head of hardware design at Microsoft, in an interview with The edge Last year. “Sometimes the scene can also influence software performance, so there’s a back-and-forth between those two things.” Microsoft has also opened up internally, to allow designers across the company to contribute to what it calls open design. The hope is that this will lead to a better combination of hardware and software that looks like it comes from one company and is better for it too.

Now that Panay controls Surface hardware and the Windows client that powers Microsoft’s devices, the next few years will be interesting for Windows. PC partners will understandably be a little wary of Microsoft’s tighter integration of hardware and software within the company, especially as Surface revenue continues to grow. But Panay revealed in an internal memo this week that Microsoft still believes Surface and tight Windows integration will benefit all PCs.

“We believe this will improve the Windows client experience for the entire PC ecosystem,” Panay said in its internal memo. “Designing hardware and software together will allow us to do a better job of our long-term Windows bets (dual screens, silicon diversity, connectivity, application platform, etc.) and have a single point of Windows customer experience leadership for consistent priorities and resources. across the Windows client will help us all accelerate innovation and improve execution.

Artwork by Alex Castro/The Verge

Panay also concedes “it won’t be easy” to align Windows and hardware more closely. We’ve already seen that Microsoft’s ambitions to combine hardware and software don’t always work as expected. Microsoft revealed earlier this week that the company has canceled the launch of its Surface Hub 2X hardware cartridge this year and will instead provide a software update to existing Surface Hub 2S devices. Surface Hub 2X was supposed to feature Microsoft’s modern Windows Core OS platform, but it looks like the work of simplifying Windows isn’t done yet.

Windows is certainly at a crossroads right now, as Microsoft increasingly shifts its focus to the web and the cloud, it feels like its operating system isn’t as important to the business anymore. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella reflected on the Windows brand as Azure Edge and said during the launch of the Surface Duo (running Android) that “the operating system is no longer the most important layer for we”. It certainly points in a logical direction for Microsoft’s future growth, but as Windows 10 nears one billion users, it’s still hugely important to those who depend on it every day.

Panay could be the boost Windows desperately needs, at a time when Windows 10X is being developed for dual-screen devices, feature updates are starting to look like Service Packs, and we’ve heard very little about it. Windows leadership for the past two years. years. If Microsoft really wants to learn from the past to redesign its future, we’re about to find out if it’s really capable of doing so.