What is "Polaris" rumored to be the next generation of Windows 10: Junya Suzuki's "Windows Frontline" (page 1/2)

　The Windows 10 major update "Fall Creators Update (1709)" was released to the general public in October 2017. According to the latest report released by mobile advertising platform AdDuplex on January 26, 2018, the global market share of Windows 10 has reached 74.3%, accounting for three quarters of the total.

Considering that the release of the Fall Creators Update for businesses (previously called "Current Branch for Business") started in January 2018, this version will soon occupy the majority of the market share. It will be It is also proof that the "Windows as a Service" strategy advocated by Microsoft is spreading.

"Polaris" emerging as a "new" Windows 10 under development

Windows 10 For the past year or two, there have been rumors on the Internet that a "next version" is under development, which is not a function update like the so-called "Redstone 4 (RS4)", but a work on the mechanism itself.

　The most recent related articles in this series are listed below, but originally there was a rumor in the form of "a new form of provision of a mobile OS to replace Windows 10 Mobile", and the development code name was " Andromeda".

On the other hand, there is also a rumor that this Andromeda is "a new category of Microsoft mobile products equipped with the same OS", and rather than an OS development code name, it is a "two-screen folding type mobile device". It is positioned like "the name of the new platform that refers to

　This matter has been reported by several people who are familiar with the latest information about Microsoft and Windows, but Zack Borden of Windows Central in the United States has been reporting continuously recently.

According to an article reported by Mr. Boden on January 25, 2018 (US time), citing a person concerned, Microsoft is currently developing a "new It is said that "Windows 10" is under development and this development code name is called "Polaris".

　Polaris means "α Star Ursa Minor", and (in modern times) it is commonly called "Polar Star" in Japanese. This time, I will explain Mr. Boden's report and consider this movement, including the points that I have doubts about.

The framework of Polaris is "Windows Core OS" and "modular structure"

　The keywords that form the framework of Polaris this time are "Windows Core OS" and "modular structure".

Over the past few years, Microsoft has been working to unify the OS kernels that had been disjointed for each platform, and one of the results is "Windows 10."

　On the other hand, Windows itself It is inseparable from the user interface called "shell", and further functions are added according to the elements required by the environment, and finally it is like "Windows 10", "Windows 10 Mobile" and "Xbox One". While sharing the same kernel and components in a similar form, they are released as different final products, creating a situation where they are not completely compatible with each other.

　Therefore, in the new OS, we aim for a more lightweight and general-purpose mechanism by cutting out this real core part and making it a form that can be used by cutting out the functional components as and when required. It is said that

　The Windows Core OS consists of a kernel part called "OneCore" and a next-generation user interface called "CShell (Composable Shell)", which is the basis for common operation on all platforms.

　The keyword CShell has appeared in various situations over the past two years, but as mentioned above, the current Windows has not been able to absorb the different UIs for each platform, and development is underway to resolve this. It is said to be the next universal UI that is advancing.

　However, since the Windows Core OS itself aims to be lightweight without any legacy components such as Win32 installed, it can only run "UWP (Universal Windows Platform) apps" in the original sense.

This means that you cannot run Win32 applications, including those converted from Windows 7 or earlier desktop applications to Windows 10 or later UWP apps using the Desktop Bridge (Project Centennial) tool.

　However, this has the problem of not being able to use the past application assets, which is the strength of Windows, and using the Remote Desktop mechanism to run these legacy applications on a local virtual machine "RAIL (Remote Applications Integrated Locally )” will be utilized.

As previously explained, the new edition of Windows 10 "Windows 10 S" launched in May 2017 is essentially a "restricted version of Windows 10 Pro", but this Polaris is a new OS that changed the structure of Windows 10 itself. It combines Windows Core OS with functional components with a modular structure, and can be used with conventional PCs.

　The aforementioned Andromeda is different from Polaris in that it was mainly mobile, but the fact that both development code names are related to "celestial bodies" is one way to show that they are related.

Currently, Microsoft is continuing to work to convert all standard Windows apps, including the settings menu, into UWP, and Mr. Boden points out that they are in the stage of laying the groundwork for this new OS.