Windows 10 Cloud Spotted; Said to Be Simpler, Cheaper Option to Rival Chrome OS

Chromebooks are fast becoming a popular choice for many users, now more so, with the integration of Android apps and the Google Play store to the platform. Microsoft's Windows 10 platform is a popular choice among many, but education-related buying appears to be inclining more towards Chromebooks because of their simplicity. Another sign of the popularity of the platform came last year, when Chromebook shipments overtook Mac for the first time in the US. Microsoft is now reportedly working on a simplified version of the Windows 10 for fighting the rising competition from Chromebooks.

According to ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, a long-time Microsoft watcher, the Redmond-based company is working on a simpler, cheaper, and safer OS called Windows 10 Cloud that will only be able to run only Unified Windows Platform (UWP) apps installed from the Windows Store. The report further states that it could be more like Windows RT version or the Windows 8.1 with Bing SKU, but Microsoft will not position it that way when it releases the OS.

Just to recap, the Windows 8.1 with Bing Edition was made available to OEMs at a very cheap price and it came with Bing as the default search engine. Windows RT worked on Surface RT, Surface 2, and other ARM-based laptops and tablets, and could only run few apps from the Windows Store that were specifically built for the RT platform.

"Windows 10 Cloud is meant to help Microsoft in its ongoing campaign to attempt to thwart Chromebooks with a simpler, safer, cheaper version of Windows 10, my contacts say, though Microsoft is unlikely to position it that way (publicly)," Foley notes. She adds that the new version should debut in April this year, alongside the roll out of the Creators Update.

In the meanwhile, Petri.com and Thurrot.com editor Brad Sams shared a screenshot of the Windows 10 Cloud SKU showing up in the Windows 10 Creators Update latest test build, further testifying to its imminent release. Sams adds that two versions were visible - Cloud and CloudN - with the latter said to ship without Windows Media Player pre-installed.