The Microsoft Holographic shell will be part of a major Windows 10 update in 2017, allowing mainstream PCs with the OS to run 2D and 3D apps at the same time on head-mounted displays.
Microsoft's Windows and Devices head Terry Myerson made this announcement today as part of the keynote for Intel's IGF conference. He stated that Microsoft Holographic will be able to be used even on small and low-power PCs running Windows 10 when the update is released. Myerson showed a video demo showing Holographic during the keynote, and later said that same demo ran on an small Intel NUC PC with Skylake processor and Iris integrated graphics. Hardware specs for Windows 10 PCs running Microsoft Holographic will be announced in December 2016 as part of the company's WinHEC conference in China.
Microsoft and Intel also announced that Holographic will also be supported by "Project Alloy", Intel's upcoming virtual reality headset. The wire-free all-in-one device does away with typical game controllers and uses your head to interact with the VR environment instead. The headset is currently in development and Intel plans to release Project Alloy as an open source project in the second half of 2017. This will allow any hardware company to create their own VR device based on Alloy, while also using Microsoft Holographic as its software.
