Everything Microsoft announced at WinHEC 2016 — Windows 10 on ARM, mixed reality PCs, and more!

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Microsoft has revealed to the world tonight its plans for making mixed reality mainstream in 2017 and how it managed to get Windows 10 – the full OS – to run phone hardware (Windows 10 on ARM). That's a lot of info to digest with a ton of implications for where technology is going in next year.

Luckily for you, the Windows Central staff has been thinking about these topics and putting them into perspective. If you missed all the news coming out of WinHEC, don't worry as we have all the news and analysis you need right here in this roundup!

Mixed Reality

Mixed Reality is Microsoft's big theme for 2017. Being enabled through the Creator's Update early next year mixed reality (e.g. virtual reality, augmented reality, holographic computing) will soon be at everyone's fingertips.

Project Evo

Far-field communication, AI, Cortana, and more are all part of Microsoft and Intel's latest joint effort: Project Evo. The goal is to define the minimum standards for next-generation computing in 2017 and beyond.

Windows 10 on ARM

Did Microsoft jus announce that the full Windows 10 desktop OS can run on a Snapdragon ARM processor? You bet they did. Get ready for cellular PCs.

This news has huge implications across the computing industry. While the first Windows 10 ARM devices will be tablets, ultrabooks, and the like, it also lays the groundwork for a tremendous shift in what it means to be a smartphone — and the possibility of a do-it-all Surface phone from Microsoft.

Head-mounted display speccing

Microsoft is working closely with OEM partners to bring mixed reality to the consumer market. Your PC will need to handle the workload, so check out these requirements for head-mounted displays (HMDs).

Stay tuned for more as we do a deeper dive into all the WinHEC news over the coming days!

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Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.