Microsoft is working on a full cloud-based Windows OS

“The cloud” was a big tech buzzword about a decade ago. Everything would be accessible everywhere. And that more or less happened — with a little prep work and a decent connection, you can access pretty much anything from anywhere, from your resume .doc file to a collection of movies to full streaming PC games. But, according to recently revealed information, Microsoft is looking into streaming all of Windows to client PCs from cloud-based servers.

Said info was revealed as part of the ongoing Federal Trade Commission hearing into Microsoft’s attempted acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, which has already been a treasure trove of behind-the-curtain corporate info. As The Verge reports, one long-term goal of the company (at least according to internal documentation dated 2022) was to “Move Windows 11 increasingly to the Cloud.” This would, according to the document, mean “a full Windows operating system streamed from the cloud to any device.”

The idea isn’t a new one. Mainframe-client systems are practically ancient history in computing terms and it’s certainly possible to do with something as robust as Windows, but that requires a fairly antiquated local network. More modern implementations include running virtual machines on powerful servers (yes, including Windows) and allowing remote workers to log into them. Companies like VMWare and V2 Cloud already offer these on a corporate level and there are even services like Shadow that offer a full remote Windows machine directly to consumers.

Shadow

Windows 365, launched two years ago (before this internal document), is a sort of baby step towards this reality. (It’s where the header image for this article comes from.) For one, it’s only available to corporate customers, so it isn’t really relevant to the kind of everyday users Microsoft needs in order to make a major market shift. Two, it’s part of the Azure platform, which means management is centralized with an IT department in mind. It’s also missing a lot of consumer-focused features like media tools or the more hand-holding type of support that entry-level users rely on.

But the idea of Windows as a full cloud system is in line with Microsoft’s broader market pushes in the last few years. After all, you can’t get much more “software as a service” than a full operating system you pay for monthly, streamed to “dumb” screens that need incredibly inexpensive hardware. (Or, for that matter, the phones, tablets, and TVs that users have already purchased.) Microsoft certainly has the infrastructure to pull this off, as evidenced by Xbox Game Pass’s cloud gaming push, though that’s only part of getting the experience smooth enough to sell it to regular consumers.

There’s also an element to this plan that’s far beyond Microsoft’s control. While a corporate customer moving to the cloud can be relied upon to supply a high-quality connection, that’s by no means guaranteed for consumers, even in ostensibly wealthy nations like the United States. The idea of losing your computer’s full capability the moment you move away from a robust broadband connection will be a hard sell.

Whether Microsoft is still interested in this cloud-based push a year later, as it tries to shove “AI” into every press release, isn’t known. But it seems like a safe bet that the company is still working on this idea.