Microsoft on One Windows, the future of Windows RT, and more

Terry Myerson, Microsoft's Executive Vice President of Operating Systems, has provided more details of the idea behind 'One Windows'. He also shared updates on the 'Windows Embedded' platform as well as the future of Windows RT.

In an interview with ZDNet, Myerson said the One Windows concept may have been misunderstood. According to him it "is the one developer platform across the Internet of things, phone, tablet, PC, Xbox, PPI (Perceptive Pixel touch displays), the cloud." He adds that through this concept, the developers can target the whole Windows ecosystem at a time, and not keep themselves limited to specific OS versions or devices.

When the future of Windows RT was brought up, Myerson seemed to give further credence to the rumours that a future version of Windows may run on x86 and ARM systems, instead of being a separate fork like Windows RT. "We want to take advantage of the innovations in ARM, he said. "I think ARM chipsets have a bright, vibrant future, and Windows will run on those chipsets."

Furthermore, Myerson was quite bullish about the future of desktop. "We actually value using the desktop. I feel highly productive using it. It's very familiar to me. We plan - (as) we talked about at the Build conference - to bring modern apps to the desktop. We are going to have machines that have a great desktop experience. The desktop is part of our future. It's absolutely core to Windows."

While Microsoft showcased a glimpse of Metro-styled apps along with a Start menu button at the recent Build conference, Myerson said that the company was not ready to deliver it to users anytime soon, refusing to even put a timeline for its release.